Sam Kee Building

The Sam Kee Building is a steel-framed, two-storey building with an unusually narrow depth. Its ground-floor depth measures . Its upper-floor depth is wider at due to its overhanging bay windows. The building also has a basement that extends under the sidewalk of Pender Street. The municipal government previously charged the building's ownerthe Sam Kee Company and later Jack Chow Insuranceannual encroachment fees for the airspace used by the protruding windows and the under-street area used by the basement. In November 1996, Vancouver City Council voted to retroactively reduce the encroachment fees, but Jack Chow Insurance responded by refusing to pay the fees and applied for them to be waived altogether. In support of their application, the company cited the building's heritage value and status as a tourist attraction and Guinness World Record holder. City council voted to waive the CA$2,500 fee for the basement in November 1998 and the CA$260 fee for the windows in December. Rod Chow, son of Jack Chow, described the latter decision as "the moral support of [city] council" being given to the building and the hopeful end of an "85-year feud". Before their final vote on the matter, city council acknowledged the main argument against the waiver, that because Jack Chow Insurance was "us[ing] the encroachment space to generate revenue", a waiver would therefore be against "the principles of equity amongst similar uses... for commercial activities on city property". == History ==

Vancouver's Chinatown was home to the largest Chinese community in Canada during the early 1900s, with 3,559 residents listed in the 1911 national census. The Vancouver Asiatic Exclusion League, an all-European lobbyist group opposed to immigration from Asia, was established in 1907 with the goal of expelling Asians from the city. In 1912, the league convinced Vancouver City Council to widen Pender Street, the main street of Chinatown at the time, in order to render Chinese-owned lots on the street unsuitable for commercial use. One such lot, located at the corner of Carrall Street and Pender Street, was owned by local businessman Chang Toy (; 1857–1921), known in the European community as "Sam Kee" (). Chang purchased the original, standard-sized lot for his primary business, the Sam Kee Company, in 1903. The original lot was a trapezoid measuring . Its southern and eastern sides were slightly longer than its northern and western sides, respectively. On March 27, 1913, a building permit was issued for a building "6.19 feet in width, 96.04 feet in length". The Sam Kee Building was completed later that year and reportedly cost CA$8,000. For half a century, the Sam Kee Building saw mixed commercial-residential use. Retail shops were located on the ground floor, while the upper floor housed units for residential and organizational use. Local businessman Jack Wing Chow (; 1930–2021) purchased the Sam Kee Building in 1985. Chow hired architect Soren Rasmussen to restore the building, and the renovations, which cost CA$250,000, were completed in 1986. At present, the ground floor is used for insurance sales by Jack Chow Insurance, while the upper floor and basement are used primarily for tourism purposes. Most of the decorations and furniture inside the building are either "skinny or mini" to match the building's self-given title of "skinniest building in the world". A glass window wicket was installed in 2016, allowing customers to be served on the sidewalk in front of the building and doubling the building's business capacity. == Recognition ==

The Sam Kee Building holds the Guinness World Record for the narrowest commercial building in the world. ''Ripley's Believe it or Not!'', meanwhile, recognizes it as the world's thinnest building. The ownership of these titles has been challenged by the owners of the Skinny Building in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The Skinny Building has a depth of on all its floors, while the depth of the Sam Kee Building varies by floor, with the lower floor's depth measuring but the upper floor's measuring . == References ==