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We’re knocking on doors and taking a look around peoples’ homes to see where your neighbours relax, hang out with their pets, and create! It’s an invitation to snoop, but we’re staying away from their medicine cabinets. Photos: @art3fact |
Our Host: Kevin Eastwood
Who’s that? Film producer
Beverage Offered: Westend tapwater
How would you describe your place?
I would say that it’s got a lot of wood and it feel very old. It has a masterpiece theatre feeling. I like that it feels like it’s 110 years old, which it almost is.
But it also doesn’t feel musty.
The wood has probably been treated so many times over the years and it’s got a certain sheen and lustre to it, but it’s nothing I do to it. This apartment has a bit of a history; there was a fire in it before us, so it sat unoccupied for about 9 months. That’s why there’s been certain changes and I think that's why it seems clean and new; it’s because of the cleanup job that they had to do.
So is everything old about this place?
Well the kitchen and the bathrooms are both redone. If you’re going to live in an old place, the things you’d want new would be the bathroom and the kitchen. It feels like we have kind of a luxury with that.
Can you tell me about the history of this place?
I believe this was a building built primarily for people working at St. Paul’s, which is funny because there are currently a number of people who live in the building who work at the hospital. At the time it was built, it was the tallest “highrise” in the Westend. There’s this fantastic photo in the manager’s apartment taken from the Hotel Vancouver just looking out over the Westend, and this building stands out like beacon...and it’s only 6 stories tall!
Do you think there’s something special about living in a building that has history?
Definitely. As someone who was born and raised in Vancouver, I love the connection to the city. I now live 4 blocks away from the hospital I was born in, and I love the view of the city skyline in one direction and the ocean in the other. It feel like I’m a part of Vancouver. I’m aware of the pulse of the city and the proximity to nature at all times when I’m home.
How do you use your place?
I find we entertain more than I have in any other home that I’ve had. For a while it certainly felt like everybody lived in our neighbourhood and that was really cool. It’s fun to have people just dropping by (people just buzz the intercom)..I work from home sometimes.
What would you change about it?
I wish we had more wall space. Because of the fact that we have so many windows and there’s all this wood everywhere, you can’t hang things.
Is there anything else you want people to know?
The building seems to have had its share of events. A couple of years ago, some kids were sitting on the roof watching the fireworks on Canada Day and they were leaning on the old cover for the elevator shaft and it broke. They fell through the building, all 7 stories. Everyone in the building heard all this banging and crashing. Luckily, the kids survived and myself and another guy in the building were the ones to find them. We couldn’t figure out where they were, but if you go down the staircase in he middle of the building, there are places where the kids were kicking and scrambling as they fell down. They used the wood cover and rode it down…and it broke their fall to a degree.
