Vancouver Special

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word Vancouver Special. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word Vancouver Special, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say Vancouver Special in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word Vancouver Special you have here. The definition of the word Vancouver Special will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofVancouver Special, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.

English

Noun

A block of Vancouver Specials.

Vancouver Special (plural Vancouver Specials)

  1. (British Columbia, architecture) A style of detached two-storey residential house widely constructed in Vancouver, British Columbia from the 1960s to 1980s, characterized by its large and boxy shape (often occupying most of the width of a lot), low-pitched gabled roof, and a front balcony spanning the entire second floor.
    • 1993, Harold Kalman, Ron Phillips, Robin Ward, Exploring Vancouver: The Essential Architectural Guide, page 202:
      The 'Vancouver Specials' are unique in that they quickly achieved widespread unpopularity for their boring flat fronts, boxy shapes, and low roofs.
    • 2014, John Punter, The Vancouver Achievement: Urban Planning and Design, page 116:
      There were campaigns waged by neighbourhood groups against boxy “Vancouver Specials” in the 1980s and highly eclectic “monster houses” in the 1990s.
    • 2019, Alex Bozikovic, Cheryll Case, John Lorinc, House Divided: How the Missing Middle Will Solve Toronto's Housing Crisis, unnumbered page:
      Our design proposal is a mash-up of the Vancouver Special with Brooklyn brownstones and Chinese courtyard houses, resulting in a typology we call 'Extra Special.'
    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Vancouver Special.

Further reading