Vanishing Vancouver

Vancouver is a city where the only constant seems to be the speed of change, and Michael Kluckner has long painted and written about what it loses. His original Vanishing Vancouver of 1990, winner of the City of Vancouver Book Award, traced the city up to the aftermath of Expo '86. Here he picks up the following quarter century: landmark buildings, the working harbour, shops, houses, urban farms and gardens, and the policies of eco-density and the greenest city that have reshaped them.

Kluckner mixes history, personal anecdote and deep local knowledge, and asks plainly whether the price is too high. More than 200 new images, his own watercolours and brush-and-ink drawings alongside archival photographs, hand-rendered maps and vintage postcards, make it a lovely volume to hold. For anyone who cares about Vancouver's streets and what stands on them.