In 2009, I received The Gingerbread Architect as a gift. It’s a great book, and it comes with recipes and ingredients for 12 different gingerbread masterpieces. Since then I’ve made a number of gingerbread houses, including 2011’s Urban Brownstone, the Canuck Place Children’s Hospice in 2012, the Stewart Farmhouse in 2016, the Hotel Europe in 2017, the Vancouver Art Gallery in 2018, and the Woodward’s Building in 2019.

This year, for the sixth time, I decided to make my own designs for a gingerbread structure. My inspiration is Waterfront Station, located at the foot of Seymour, on West Cordova.

There were some late nights trying to get this one completed. This project took over 10 pounds of gingerbread dough to bake all of the pieces. I used isomalt (a sugar substitute) to pour all of the the windows this year. The only issue was that the windows did melt away after some time due to the humid winter rain we’ve had.

Originally the Pacific terminus for the Canadian Pacific Railway, Waterfront Station is now the last stop on Translink’s Expo Line, Canada Line, as well as the West Coast Express, and the Seabus.

The original building opened in 1914, and was designed in neoclassical style, with a distinctive red brick facade, and ionic columns. When our family moved from Port Alberni to Vancouver in 1984, my parents ran the local newsstand, Western Confectionery. Legend has it that the building is haunted by many ghosts.

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Thank you for following along with this one – this building holds a special place as I have many memories of the time spent there. It’s always fun to create something that people enjoy.