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Heritage Vancouver has pulled out the big guns with the release of its annual list of the city's top 10 endangered sites. The list is the group's biggest publicity tool to raise awareness about landmark sites and overlooked gems that are being targeted for demolition or dubious renovation.

At the top of the list is the iconic art deco Burrard Bridge, completed in 1932, which has earned a spot on the list for the past six years because the city is pushing to overhaul its look with outer bike lanes, known as outriggers. It's akin to placing a stainless steel hula-hoop over your grandmother's ball gown, Heritage Vancouver notes dryly.

Second on the list are about 40 to 60 of the city's historic public schools, which continue to be threatened with demolition as part of a seismic upgrading program. Downtown's Robson Square Complex, which is 30 years old and an internationally recognized architectural landmark, is third on the list because of the province's proposal to cover it over with wood laminate for use as a public meeting place.

With the exception of the faded Dal Grauer Substation on Burrard Street, an example of 1950s Modernism, the rest of the list is devoted to historic Vancouver districts, including Gastown, Chinatown, Mount Pleasant and Hastings Street.

The oddballs on the list include Commercial Drive's faded York Theatre, which today resembles a stucco box, and forgotten Victorian houses scattered among the industrial area in Mount Pleasant. Both the theatre and the houses are under direct threat from encroaching redevelopment.

But does the list get results?

Don Luxton, president of Heritage Vancouver, says the list, which is compiled by a staff of 25 heritage advocates over the course of a year, has tremendous pull all around.

"People do pay attention," he says. "We get huge comments from people and communities that are looking for our help. Talk to any number of planners — they take this all very seriously. They see it as almost a barometer reading as to what's going on in the city in terms of heritage, like where the pressure is. And it really does wake people up."

Peter Burch, a community planner with the City of Vancouver, agrees.

"I was praising Don for the list because I thought that as a tool to educate the public, planners, and others ... it was really effective," says Mr. Burch. "It's nicely contained, has a variety of different kinds of buildings which are at issue, and it highlighted some of the complexity of dealing with heritage issues.

"It's not like there's a host of people here [at city hall] going, 'Oh, heritage is an issue?' It's just the way it's articulated. And in the judgment of Heritage Vancouver, these buildings deserve special attention, so it can focus your energies a bit better."

The success rate of the list is "surprisingly good," Mr. Luxton says. "I think it has a huge impact and it does help us preserve things."

Mr. Luxton says the list has helped save buildings such as Arthur Erickson's 1980 Evergreen Building, and the Black Swan record store in Kitsilano, which was dismantled and is reportedly to be reassembled on West 10th Avenue.

If the former York Theatre in Grandview is not torn down for townhouses, it could serve as a much-needed community theatre space. A major push has long been under way by members of the community to save it, including offers of money and volunteer work to restore it. The theatre is one of the only purpose-built theatres on the East Side, built in 1913 as the Alcazar by the two architects who designed the iconic Marine Building, John McCarter and George Nairne. In the 1940s it was given a streamlined makeover and rechristened the York, but since then it has lost its original detail and now sits boarded up and unused.

"It's got a nice size to it, and would be useful to a whole bunch of groups — and it's not a lot of money [to fix]," Mr. Luxton says of the York Theatre. "We're hoping we can find some way to make sure this thing doesn't get torn down because nobody is paying attention."

The Victorian houses on the outskirts of Mount Pleasant, surrounded by light industry and a few restaurants, are threatened by the potential for rezoning and redevelopment.

"If you look at the way the city developed, Mount Pleasant is the first area outside of Strathcona and the West End that developed, so it's the only other neighbourhood in Vancouver that has Victorian buildings," says Mr. Luxton.

"Those houses give it character. … That [area] is starting to be a victim of its own success, because land value will go up and kill off those buildings."

You can find the full list of Heritage Vancouver's 2008 top 10 endangered sites online, at www.heritagevancouver.org

Special to The Globe and Mail