UBC's Old Fire Hall: The 98-year-old that stopped traffic

A 98-year-old took a slow, careful drive across UBC’s Vancouver campus — on a series of flatbed trucks.

The Old Fire Hall, built in 1926, was lifted from its foundation and transported to a temporary home where it will be shrink-wrapped and parked until its permanent relocation as part of the Lower Mall Precinct Student Housing Redevelopment Project on the current St. John’s College Site.

This peculiar operation — equal parts history preservation and extreme makeover — marked the result of years of planning by UBC staff and contractors, all working to ensure the deep red building stays intact for future generations.

“The move was really exciting,” said Matthew Roddis, Co-Director of Planning and Design (Campus Design) at Campus and Community Planning. “I felt like a kid watching a very slow and aged parade go by.”

Roddis said the fact that it was built and opened just a year after the first academic and administrative buildings on the campus opened in 1925 make it a storied piece of UBC’s history.

“It’s part of the original group of buildings on the Point Grey Campus and when it was built, it really spoke to the municipal-like nature of the university — that UBC could manage the growth of its campus and community responsibly,” he said.

The fire hall — which features a unique turret-like hose drying tower, three bays for firefighting vehicles, and upstairs accommodation space — was expanded in the 1970s with additions on the west side and northeast corner. Those additions were not moved and what’s left at the site will be cleared to make room for the expansion of the UBC Sauder School of Business.

After it was made redundant as a fire hall in 1982, the building was used by the faculty in the departments of Art History and Visual Art & Theory as office and studio space. The building was painted bright red in the 1990s, partly to remind people of its existence and partly to advocate for it to be saved from the wrecking ball.

That Lower Mall Precinct Student Housing Redevelopment Project will bring 1,508 new upper year and graduate student residence beds to UBC Vancouver at a total project cost of $559.9 million, with the provincial government contributing $300 million and UBC providing the remaining $259.9 million.

The student-focused program for the re-envisioned firehall space is currently being developed, and Roddis is pleased to know that it will have a place on campus for many years to come.

“It’s important to retain and celebrate the campus’ history amidst the ongoing growth and change of the campus,” said Michael White, Associate Vice President, Campus and Community Planning. “And, it has a deep meaning for the fire crews who worked there for many years, heritage experts and historians, and the broader community interested in honouring the story of the campus.”

UBC Properties Trust and Heatherbrae Builders managed the move, which was carried out by building relocation specialists, Nickel Bros.