Shipyards

2004

Between 1906 and 1992, the Burrard Shipyards was the largest shipyard in British Columbia, building tugs and barges for the lumber industry, supply ships for two World Wars, ferries for coastal travel, and icebreakers for arctic development. When shifts in the global economy moved much of the industry away from North America, this North Vancouver community was irrevocably changed.

The Burrard Shipyards is now a mixed use development but, in accordance with its status as a national historic site, required interpretive signage to recall its history: the shipbuilding community and lost waterfront that now survives only in the buildings, piers, and artifacts that remain.

We were unbelievably fortunate to have a goldmine of photographs and print artifacts documenting the Shipyards history available to us from the North Vancouver Archives. The visual design direction was inspired by the workers magazines put out during WWII, when the Shipyards was at its heroic peak.