Printed in two colours throughout and richly illustrated with over 600 photographs and duotones of these architects’ most important works, Building the West tells the stories, discovers the hopes and aspirations, and celebrates the successes and accomplishments of the early architects of British Columbia as it illustrates their lives and careers, many of which extended along the North American west coast from California to Alaska. Starting before the first flood of colonists in the gold rush of 1858, it follows the lives of almost 400 individuals first drawn here by the opportunities of frontier settlement and encompasses the broad sweep of British Columbia’s history. Their individual accomplishments were remarkable, given the difficult conditions they often faced.

As most of these architects had their roots in other countries, this project required over ten years of intensive research to unravel their many mysteries. Including the work of over 57 contributors, project directors Donald Luxton and Stuart Stark were able to solicit substantial contributions from heritage researchers as far away as Scotland, England, New Zealand and the United States of America, as well as from sources all over Canada.

Building the West is intended for a general readership and is of wide interest as a definitive and biographical reference source.

Building the West has won numerous awards, including: Heritage Canada Achievement Award (2003), the 2004 City of Vancouver Heritage Award of Honour, BC Book Prize, the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize (2004), Architectural Institute of British Columbia Special Jury Prize (2004) and the Canadian Association of Professional Heritage Consultants Award of Honour (2004).