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Before Expo 86, forests of glass condos and the birth of the million dollar teardown, Vancouver was a mid-sized port city where coffee was served up in greasy diners and the word “microbrewery” didn’t exist.

Photographer Greg Girard was there, capturing haunting images of a city just on the cusp of changing forever. Recently showcased at Vancouver’s Monte Clark Gallery, they’re also featured in his book Under Vancouver 1972–1982.

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With permission from Girard, a selection of his photos are below.

Granville Street Bridge, 1975

Just underneath the Granville Street Bridge, pictured in the background of this photo, Granville Island is undergoing its metamorphosis from a polluted industrial area into a waterfront tourist destination. One of the sharpest contrasts with modern Vancouver and its industrial predecessor is the city’s changing approach to False Creek, the inlet that is now one of the city’s signature features. But it was only as recently as the 1950s that city officials were seriously tossing around a plan to completely fill in the then-filthy waterway in order to free up more industrial land.

Parked Car (Gran Torino), 1981

When this image was taken, Vancouver real estate prices were in a tailspin. Real estate prices dropped by as much as 30 per cent in the early 1980s — a sharper decline even than housing prices in Fort McMurray, Alta. following the recent oil price collapse. The average price of a Vancouver detached home in 1980 was $177,000 ($350,000 in 2017 dollars). Meanwhile, the condo — a type of apartment that you could own — was still a new and unfamiliar entrant to the city’s real estate market.