Photos: ayeeloy604@gmail.com | @art3fact

Our Host: Gina Rossi and Steve Wood

Whose that? Gina is a realtor and Steve is a communications coordinator

Beverage Offered: Chai Rooibos Tea

Where do you live?

Steve-We live by Oakridge in an old 1950s vintage penthouse, built by one of Vancouver’s first architects who did “New Formalism”. This is one of the first apartment high-rises in the city. It’s kind of a form of modernism. It’s the same guy that did the planetarium; Gerald Hamilton. He designed the planetarium and the really cool Greek Orthodox church on Arbutus Street. He also did a lot of towers and office buildings downtown.He’s like the first guy to bring the modern style into Vancouver.

 How long have you lived here?

Gina-We’ve been here about 2 and half years.

What attracted you to this place?

Steve-Architecture.

Gina-It was the architecture and the really big deck and the views. I’d seen a couple of really cool stand alone penthouses come up in the West End, and when this one came up, I decided that this kind of style was what I really wanted; a stand alone penthouse with just one little unit on top of the building, huge decks all the way around with big views.  Also there’s enough space for us to have a bedroom, and for each of us to have an office. We really like being in a space where there’s no one on the same floor as us.

What do you do?

Gina-I’m a realtor and because of that, I see lot of homes and so I’m kind of particular about what I like and it’s important for me to be in a space that I like a lot. We like to be in a space that’s a little more unique and just has a little bit more personality to it.

 Does your place help you work?

Gina-Sometimes-because I want to be home and working and seeing all the views. Other times, it’s 5pm and the sun in setting and all I want to do is jump in the hot tub and field my calls from there.

What are your favourite parts of the place?

Gina-I really like the kitchen. I like the huge island. I love the tiles. When we did the kitchen we tried to do a nice contemporary kitchen but tried to keep the same lines that are in keeping with the era of the building, so we chose the rounded fridge and the slightly rounded stove and hood fan. We went with walnut cabinetry to match the walnut wall panels in the living room and dining room. I love that I can watch the sunset over the mountains while I’m cooking dinner. Sometimes if I have somewhere to go and it’s just before sunset, I’ll be late because I don’t want to leave. You can see the Gulf Islands, you can see the water, you can see ferries coming in the south side, you can see the North Shore mountains and downtown on the North side and you get really beautiful sunrises over Mount Baker. I also really like the tiles in the bathroom. We tried to pick tiles that were not standardly used, but had a reference to the era. The ones in the bathroom are bright and colourful, they’re recycled glass tiles that we ordered from Spain. They are called “Joy” *laughs* and they do fill me with joy when I’m taking a shower.

 Now you are moving-so what will you miss the most?

Gina-The views and the deck. Sitting in the hot tub, in the winter, watching the sunset is pretty much the best thing I can think of, especially if you have an ice cream sandwich

Today on Illustrated Vancouver I present to you, A Souvenir of Vancouver, BC, on glorious printed silk. I have posted souvenir plates before, but I have to admit I’m even more captivated seeing this type of artwork printed on fabric. In fact, it’s given me a thought. I’ve only featured textile arts once in the past with this piece called Slocan Park by Culture Crawl artist Bettina Matzkuhn. Frankly, and I’d like to see more folk art on fabric dedicated to the city, so I’m throwing down a challenge.

Anyone who submits a handmade DIY fabric inspired work of art to Illustrated Vancouver by JUNE 30th, 2012 is entered to WIN this vintage silk pillowcase! Note you don’t need to surrender your handmade craft to win – just send a picture of the artwork. Whether it’s knit, needlepoint, crochet, cross stitch, or fabric collage, all are eligible as long as there is some sort of depiction of the city of Vancouver. There are no age limits for either entrant or entries. I have elected DiYVR ambassador Kim Werker and VIAwesome president and editor-in-chief Bob Kronbauer to act as the official judges (provided we have more than one entry!). Shortlisted works will be featured here on VIAwesome, and the grand prize winner gets to take the pillowcase home!

Closeup of City Hall resembles a scene from a comic book; I can totally imagine Tintin blazing onto the scene!

Back to the pillowcase itself, I’m having a hard time accurately dating this piece, but I have a hunch or two.

The Museum of Vancouver has a pillowcase of City Hall on permanent display, which I think it’s safe to say would have been from 1936, the year construction both began and was completed. The year 1936 was also the city’s Golden Jubilee, a fitting year to celebrate in spite of being at the height of the depression.

Three years later, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth came to Vancouver, but I expect any souvenirs from this time period would have made great fanfare of the 1939 Royal Visit.

City Hall Pillow Case, from the Museum of Vancouver Permanent Collection

Following the end of WWII, the next big celebration was in 1946, the year of the city’s Diamond Jubilee, but a clue in the Medical Dental image reveals 1946 is a bit too early.

Two beige trolley buses are heading up Howe Street; Vancouver’s first trolleybus service began on August 16, 1948.

There’s a chance this could have been made around 1958, the year of British Columbia’s colonial Centenary, but again I’m just guessing. It’s probably safe to say this was made some time during the 1950s, or at the very latest, early 60s. Unfortunately, I can’t really guess any more accurately than that, since there are no markings to confirm origin. I’m not even really sure where it’s made. Have I missed any clues? Someone more knowledgeable on the history of the textile industry may be able to shed more light on the subject.

The Marine Building

Whatever the age of this work, the city rendered in silk does look marvelous, and I hope these images inspire you to break out your sewing kits and get started on your very own local textile treasure. Good luck!

Traffic is light on the Lions Gate Bridge

Wow. That’s a lot of candles on a lot of cakes.

Also celebrating an anniversary in 2011 are the Pan Pacific Vancouver and Canada Place which were constructed in 1986 and opened for EXPO 86. To mark the end of this year I’m sharing with you this incredibly 80′s-feeling-and-looking-and-sounding documentary concerning the building of them.

Video sourced from Rishad Daroowala’s Room With a View blog.

I’ve been meaning to visit this mural for a long while now, so last week I made a pilgrimage to SFU Campus in Burnaby in order to see the Comfort mural in person. As you may recall I’m a big fan of large scale public art commissions (the lost Hughes/Fisher/Goranson murals of the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition being a favourite research topic of mine), and this mural is no exception. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present my longest post to date, filled with all the details I could muster on this monumental work of art.

BC Pageant, a 19 metre long mural painted by Charles Comfort.

Scottish-born Canadian artist Charles F. Comfort RCA painted the mural in 1951, assisted by muralist Orville Fisher and two of their art students: Barbara Kathryn Cook (later Barbara Kathryn Cook-Endres) and Gordon Dixon (a Vancouver School of Art student of Orville Fisher at the time).

The mural was commissioned by TD Bank and it was painted onsite at 499 Granville Street in Vancouver. About the mural’s former home, architects McCarter and Nairne built the Granville and Pender branch in 1948-49, a building that exemplified the International style. Later in 1958, McCarter and Nairne was once again hired to build another flagship bank across the street, this time for the Imperial Bank of Commerce (seen on Illustrated Vancouver previously).

The original home of the Comfort mural, the former TD Bank branch at 499 Granville Street.

The TD branch was closed in 2002, and BC Pageant was donated to Simon Fraser University in 2004. The mural is now located outside the Robert C. Brown Hall, in the northwest corner of the Quadrangle, at the end of a 144 metre long hall featuring British Columbia art from the SFU collection.

Thanks to a $50,000 donation from the family of the late Allen Lambert and another $25,000 from TDBFG, SFU was able to restore the grime and smoke stained B.C. Pageant. Lambert was a longtime manager and CEO at the TDBFG and founded its art collection.  [source]

The size of this mural is enormous; it is so large, in fact, it’s hard to appreciate the mural all at once.This is compounded by the placement of the mural in front of two large concrete pillars. To assist your appreciation of the mural, I’ve stitched together a rough panorama of the artwork. It’s a serious copywork challenge that requires at least 8 separate shots to be stitched together lengthwise, and if you’re trying this yourself, polarizing filters should be used to counter any glare on the painting’s surface (I didn’t have one handy).

A series of key figures from British Columbia’s history are named along the bottom of the mural: Quatlazape, Juan de Fuca, Pérez, Valdéz, Maquinna, Bodega-Quadra, Vancouver, Cook, Mackenzie, Fraser, Thompson, McLoughlin, Simpson, and Douglas.

I won’t go into great detail to explain the significance of all these early figures, but I will provide links to their Wikipedia pages so that you can study them further (all but Chief Quatlazape are on Wikipedia, so you’ll just have to Google him). Here are their full names, with appropriate links: Chief Quatlazape, Juan de Fuca, Juan José Pérez Hernández, Cayetano Valdés y Flores, Chief Maquinna of the Mowachaht, Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, Captain George Vancouver, Captain James Cook, Sir Alexander Mackenzie, Simon Fraser, David Thompson, Dr. John McLoughlin, Sir George Simpson, and Sir James Douglas.

These words appear to be painted on a plaque in the centre of the mural:

“…The shores of this channel, which, after Sir Harry Burrard of the Navy, I have distinguished by the name of Burrard’s Channel.” George Vancouver, Captain, R.N. 14th June, 1792.

Should that be June 13th instead? Did he actually name the channel on the 14th? Technically, I’m not sure. Here’s where I’d like to see an image or two from Captain George Vancouver’s actual journals, just to see the precise words he uses to describe the region. This painting by Jim McKenzie which I featured a few months ago sums up a simulated birds eye view of the landscape that the early explorers would have encountered.

When murals delve into the domain of history and politics, they are often subjected to some form of controversy. When Diego Riviera included the head of Lenin in a mural he painted for the Rockefeller Center in 1933, it became such a contentious issue, work came to a halt, and the mural was destroyed in February of 1934.

In recent years, the Comfort mural has faced criticisms of romanticizing colonialism. After it was installed at SFU, an Anti-Colonial Art Contest was held to create dialogue over the depiction of aboriginal peoples in the mural. A speech by Dr. Michael Stevenson, President and Vice-Chancellor of SFU, provided a response to some of that dialogue.

George Southwell’s murals in the provincial legislature in Victoria faced similar criticisms, and as a result, a motion was passed in 2007 to remove them (although technically, they have been covered over, not removed). You can read the lengthy discussion from the Hansard by searching for the word Southwell.

While it’s true that mural artwork often does present a nostalgic, romantic, and propagandized view, I’m not sure we’ve ever seen a truly historically accurate depiction of anything in a mural, short of Guernica perhaps? (I jest.) To its credit, the mural does feature the artistry of Pacific Northwest aboriginal culture, and with a certain amount of poetic justice, two large sculptural figureheads by Bill Reid now take centre stage in front of the mural.

As for the figures that appear in the mural, I was very eager to try and identify them all. It was tricky work, and based on the names that appear along the bottom of the mural, I thought it would be simple. I had nearly everyone identified except for the man in the military uniform. It turns out, I was close, but I didn’t have all the right answers. If you want to try and guess the figures yourself, you will need to avert your eyes from this next section, as it is loaded with spoilers! With help from SFU Art Gallery director and curator Bill Jeffries and with research assistance provided by SFU student Katie, I can now provide the definitive list:

1. Starting at left, the primary figures are: Juan de Fuca, Lorenzo Ferrer de Maldonado (who provided a circumstantial account of a successful northwest passage voyage in the winter of 1588), Admiral Bartholomew de Fonte (who may actually be a fictional figure), and Nootka Chief Maquinna.
2. Behind these four figures and to the right, a secondary scene illustrates Lieutenant Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra and his men who have just erected a cross on the beach.
3. A series of majestic totem poles appear next, the centre totem pole being the Dog-Salmon pole at Gitwangak (Kitwanga) Village (which had been one of Emily Carr’s subjects), and the totem pole on the right being a Haida pole.
4. The next party of explorers shows Captain James Cook on his 3rd voyage, as he explores and maps the Pacific coast up to the Bering Strait.
5. Captain George Vancouver and his men are prominently featured in the centre of the mural, the first European to enter Burrard Inlet in June of 1792.
6. Next, Sir Alexander Mackenzie is commemorated with a plaque from July 22, 1793; shown traveling from right to left, he was the first European to record a transcontinental crossing of Canada from east to west.
7. The party of men traveling by canoe represents Simon Fraser descending the rough waters of the Fraser River.
8. Below, the early settlers of Granville begin to log and farm the land, establishing the City of Vancouver.
9. Representing Culture, Emily Carr is shown handing a painting to the Honourable Eric W. Hamber, C.M.G., LL.D., Chancellor Emeritus of the UBC, who represents Education.
10. The final two figures represent National Defense and Labour. Major General Bertram M. Hoffmeister represents Defense (after WWII he became President of MacMillan Bloedel Limited in 1949), while Labour is represented by the anonymous figure of a Logger, British Columbia’s primary industry.

Much of this was substantiated in a brochure titled: “British Columbia Pageant: A romantic mural painting by Professor Charles F. Comfort, R.C.A. bearing on the discovery and development of British Columbia”, with additional links and details provided by wikipedia and the web.

I think my favourite part of the mural is the fact that Emily Carr is so prominently acknowledged in the right half of the mural as she hands one of her paintings to Eric Hamber, then Chancellor of UBC. The reality is, Emily Carr passed away in 1945 shortly before she was to receive an honorary doctorate from UBC. In fact, of all the figures in the mural, to me, she looks the most heroic with her humble attire and unassuming smile. As so much of her work went unrecognized during her own lifetime, at least in this mural she can be the recipient of her country’s eternal respect.

As for everything I’ve written about the mural thus far, it really is just the beginning of what can be said of the work. I’ve tried to keep my own opinions, analysis, and interpretations of the artwork to a minimum so that you can experience the mural yourself, drawing your own conclusions, making your own discoveries, building your own thesis or hypothesis. Therein lies the true beauty of art. Now go and appreciate some art this weekend!

Illustrations by Bob McIlhargey and Lori Brown, pre-Expo 86.

Concept renderings of the Expo 86 site speculating on redevelopment of the land before Expo had even been built. As I mentioned previously on Illustrated Vancouver, architectural illustrator Bob McIlhargey, along with his wife and associate Lori Brown were largely responsible for much of the concept rendering work commissioned for Expo 86 from 1982-86.

I’m told by Lori this was one of two enormous “8 foot long” isometric drawings all drawn by hand, the other drawing featuring the entire Expo grounds. They were drawn prior to the site being purchased by Li Ka-shing and taken over by Concord Pacific.

Since Bob passed away in 1998, Lori Brown has continued working in architectural illustration, using both traditional and computer assisted tools; she has also taught illustration at Kwantlen University. Bob’s lifetime body of work deserves much more attention than one or two posts could achieve; I hope to show more of this work in the future.

The Capilano Weather Beacon, before the Capilano Brewery was purchased and became property of Molson. This handy card seen below explains how to forecast the weather based on a series of colour codes and illuminated trends. The Canada Life building in Toronto has a similar weather beacon which according to Wikipedia, was the first of its kind to appear in Canada (installed on August 9, 1951) and was built at a cost of CAD$25,000. The Capilano Weather Beacon was a large neon sign which was installed in the spring of 1953 when the Sicks’ Capilano Brewery facility in Vancouver was built. The VPL has a great series of cake cutting photos from April 28, 1953, with a scale model of the building alongside a cake in the shape of the building. These negatives have not yet been scanned and prints are not yet available, so we may see those at a later point in time.

A promotional advertising card from Sicks’ Capilano Brewery, probably circulated until 1958 when the brewery was purchased by Molson.

The “6″ perched atop the weather beacon represented the six Western Canadian breweries once operated by Sicks’ Breweries Ltd. I dug into the Google News archive to retrieve this announcement in the Calgary Herald from August 5, 1944, which outlines who those six breweries were: Sicks’ Breweries (Alberta) Limited, Sicks’ Capilano Brewery Limited, Sicks’ Edmonton Brewery Limited, Sicks’ Lethbridge Brewery Limited, Sicks’ Prince Albert Brewery Limited, and Sicks’ Regina Brewery Limited.

Advertisement from page 17 of the Calgary Herald, August 5, 1944

Perhaps it was a little shortsighted to promote your corporate image with a single digit, although there is some poetic alliteration with the Sicks’ family name. Furthermore, Heinz has done well with the number 57 over the years. But the numeric significance of the number six wouldn’t last forever. When Sicks’ Capilano Brewing Ltd was sold in 1958, Molson acquired eight breweries.

There’s probably much more that could be said about the Capilano Brewing Company, the Fritz Sick empire, and the complicated history of brewery mergers, acquisitions, and restructuring of operations, but I will leave that to adman Allen Winn Sneath’s excellent book on the subject, Brewed in Canada: the untold story of Canada’s 350-year-old brewing industry.

If you’re hungry for more beer folklore, I should direct you to a related post from about a month ago, when I posted a series of Vancouver beer labels that were being sold by a Polish collector on ebay. I don’t really know much about the brewmasters of yore, but I found looking over these historical beer labels fascinating. The collector still has images of his collection on his own personal website, which can be seen here.

Finally, I haven’t been able to determine when the “6″ Capilano Weather Beacon came down, so if anyone has further information on the subject, please let me know in the comments.

Update: I was able to get a few preliminary images from the negatives I mentioned above. Below are three images, all credited to Art Jones. The exterior was taken on March 8, 1953 and it shows the brewery and the rooftop sign under construction from Burrard Street. The 2 photos below were taken on April 28, 1953, showing 2 men with the Capilano Brewery model, and then 5 men cutting the Capilano Brewery cake! Extraordinary! I wish we had more building cakes these days!

VPL Images S-82123-A, S-82159-B, and S-82159-G photographed by Art Jones, 1953

I now have an audio excerpt from the tour posted here, where Richard goes into great depth describing the epic mural on the side of the Orwell Hotel (click for video from vancouvermurals.ca). On the tour, I also learned that Richard was taught by Orville Fisher, a significant Vancouver artist and muralist featured previously on Illustrated Vancouver.

We ended the bicycle tour at the new community mural River of Crows (the McLean Drive Mural Project) which was completed on July 19, 2011 (click for River of Crows video by W2TV). On the tour, we learned that the City of Vancouver is developing a new website to showcase the murals at vancouvermurals.ca (currently forwarding to the development site, muralsvancouver.ca). I believe this is a profoundly important initiative, as the study of mural art often is often not given the attention and respect it deserves.

A case in point: I recently read an essay about street art in San Francisco in the book Ten Years That Shook the City: San Francisco 1968-1978. Specifically, the essay covers the Mujeres Muralistas, a group of Chicana/Latina artists in the Mission District that pioneered large-scale, woman-painted outdoor murals. Many of their murals have been lost to history as a result of poor stewardship, redevelopment, vandalism, and the outdoor elements, all of which are constant threats to the temporal medium of the art form.

Murals may come and go, but photography can help to preserve their memory. Aided by an online image search, I recently came across one such lost mural of Vancouver I’d like to spotlight here.

Photograph by Luis Curran, at the end of Chilco Street between Alberni and W. Georgia Streets.

This idyllic view of Stanley Park was painted on the side of the Chapel at Stanley Park, at the end of Chilco Street between Alberni and W. Georgia Streets. This text description accompanied Luis Curran’s photograph, believed to be taken on November 6, 2005:

This mural was originally commissioned by the architect to answer the complaints of those who thought views of Stanley Park would be destroyed by his building on the corner. A new building has since been built right next to it so, inevitably, the mural is now lost!

I actually don’t even recall seeing this mural in person, as 2005 was the first full year I spent in the city. Clearly, I should have been spending more time photographing in and around Stanley Park!

Photographer unknown, from the website of RE/MAX Crest Realty (Westside)

This second image shows a nearly empty city block, except for the chapel with its five storey mural perched on the edge of Stanley Park. I’m guessing the date of this photograph is circa 2001? Since I don’t know who the artist of the mural was, or even who the architect of the chapel was for that matter, I welcome feedback in the comments. With your help, perhaps we can fill in some of the details of this lost city mural.

UPDATE! Thanks to a comment from our readers, the artist has been identified as Dana Irving, and the mural was titled Stanley Lodge. About the mural, Dana writes:

I did the painting in 1995. At the time, the architect – Ernest Collins was doing a lot of homes and buildings for prominent clients here in Vancouver. I quite often painted for these clients, Stanley Ho being one of them. The mural was something of an afterthought as the building was getting bad press for blocking the beloved view into Stanley Park and Lost Lagoon. Stanley Ho thought painting a picture with the essence of the missing view might help. It was known from the beginning that future development might impede the view of it. The mural lasted about 10 years…It was an exciting project at the time and the payment was equally exciting so it’s all good. A friend of mine put it this way…it’s now in a time capsule.

Big thanks go to Mike for the comment below, and Dana for filling in additional source details about the work! Much appreciated by all those who appreciate murals of the city!

UPDATE #2! I’ve just received a rare gallery of photos of the chapel and vicinity just before the reconstruction of the Stanley Park S curve, thanks to Vancouverite David Fletcher, who also happens to be featured on Illustrated Vancouver. He took these photos on February 23, 2003. See the photos after the jump…


From Chilco Street side

The posted plan of the Stanley Park “S” curve underway

The mural on the Chapel building wall

The Chapel at Stanley Park

Thanks for the photos, David!

You may have heard recently that the City of Vancouver launched an ideas competition to brainstorm future possibilities for the Georgia and Dunsmuir Viaducts and the False Creek flats, named re:CONNECT.

The competition is divided into three categories. The first, Connecting the Core (“THE BIG SCALE”), seeks high-level ideas to make the most of the Eastern Core (including the False Creek Flats), focusing on sustainability and Vancouver’s green economy. The second, Visualizing the Viaducts, looks for ways to rethink the viaducts, whether that means tearing them down, keeping them as they area, or finding a new use (you may recall some of the recently renewed debates about what to do with the viaducts. For more background, check out this audio tour we told you about in March.) The third category, The Wildcard, is for those who have ideas so big they just can’t fit into the other two categories.

Now I know some of you know exactly what you’d like to see happen to the viaducts and False Creek Flats, so here’s your chance! The best part? Submitting an entry is FREE!

Photo: Modified Enzyme

There are two streams to the competition. One, with an entry fee of $65, is geared towards professionals working in the industry and offers cash prizes (a total of $10,000). The other stream is completely free to enter and while it won’t add some padding to your wallet, it will give you a pile of publicity and urbanist street cred.

re:CONNECT comes on the heels of a number of recent, well-publicized design competitions in Vancouver.

In 2008, the Vancouver Public Space Network, noting the lack of a central focal point for civic life in the city, asked us to locate Vancouver’s grand gathering place with Where’s the Square?. Out of 54 entries, 3 were selected as the winners (jury selection and 2 people’s choice), but I’ll bet you everyone who entered felt a bit more excited/optimistic about the future of public space in Vancouver, whether or not they went home with a prize.

Photo: Where’s the Square People’s Choice #1, Hapa Collaborative

While Where’s the Square? was still open for entries in early 2009, FormShift asked us to rethink the approach to urban planning in the city, with a particular focus on sustainability and Vancouver’s new EcoDensity Charter (adopted in 2008). Architects, designers, planners, and ordinary citizens submitted 84 different ideas, hoping to get a shot at some of the $12,000 in prize money. Each of the winning entries was diverse, inventive, and totally impressive in one way or another.

Photo: FormShift Vancouver Primary winner, Sturgess Architecture

FormShift was so successful in fact that Surrey got in on the game at the end of 2009 and into 2010 with TownShift: Suburb into City.

But I have to wonder, how did we get here? Architectural competitions are nothing new. All over the world, ‘starchitects’ are competing to build the most impressive monuments conceivable. Our own postmodern favourite, Library Square (completed in 1995), was the result of a worldwide competition won by Moshe Shafdie. In 2007, poto:type asked architects to envision forward-thinking alternatives to the podium/tower typology of Vancouverism. So why include the average citizen? What does it mean when you and I have an opportunity to envision the city we’d like to live in, and know that someone will be paying attention?

I asked Gordon Price, Director of the City Program at SFU and former Vancouver City Councillor, what he thought about holding an open ideas competition and here’s what he had to say:

“It attracts attention around a singular project, generates some interest and energy. [Participants] may come up with some ideas that would not get any oxygen otherwise, particularly ones that are ‘edgy’ – i.e. beyond the institutional boundaries of the sponsoring organization.”

“And it may alert decision-makers to mistakes in their thinking or opposition to the assumed proposal that would otherwise work its way forward until the opposition catalyses, as some embarrassment or destructiveness.”

He raises an important point. Cities are fairly permanent creations, and great cities are rarely built according to a single plan. In the 60′s when the viaducts were constructed as the first stage of a larger expressway network, it seemed ridiculous NOT to plan around the automobile. Today, it seems preposterous NOT to build as many bike lanes and mixed use developments as possible. But what will the future tell us? What decisions are we making today that we might regret in the future? By asking the public… by asking everyone to be active participants in the process, we’re minimizing the risk of making dumb mistakes, and providing opportunities for the creative minds of tomorrow to germinate. If you’re not already, I highly recommend following Gordon’s blog, Pricetags.

Demian Rueter, Transportation Coordinator with the Vancouver Public Space Network (VPSN) had some similar thoughts:

“The competition format that is being pursued is a good one in that it will hopefully promote innovative thinking and allow a wide spectrum of ideas to be put forward. Given the importance of the lands and the viadcuts’ role in the transportation network, collecting a large volume of innovative ideas would be prudent.”

“I’m also optimistic about the free option in that it encourages a variety of individuals and groups such as community associations or student groups to have their ideas heard. For example, someone who uses the viaducts everyday or lives in one of the communities that surround them, may have a unique perspective which allows them to generate ideas that are a bit more outside the box than those that would come from established design/planning professionals.”

And that gets right to the point, doesn’t it? This is your city, so why shouldn’t you have a say? Remove the politics, remove the barriers, and ask the people, “What should we do? What do you want your city to look like? Will you help us make it happen?” Take a quick read of the larger study goals for the competition, and you’ll see this open communication and exchange of ideas is exactly what the City is hoping to achieve.

Photo: mee dee mah

So what are your ideas?! Tear down the viaducts and extend Creekside Park from False Creek up to Andy Livingstone Park? Keep them and pull a High Line, converting the road surface to an elevated parkway? Maybe include a few cement cars while we’re at it, harkening back to the undulating Highway 86 at Expo86? Or throw some waterproof lining up there and toss in a few gondolas for an elevated crosstown canal?!

What about the False Creek Flats? I guess it’s too late to convert it back into marshland/tidal flats, but maybe we could blanket the open lots with red cedar seedlings for a future provincial park? Construct blocks of carbon-neutral, low-income student housing? Build up an ol’ European-style town centre, complete with winding alleys and decaying brick facades? I’ll dream big if you will!

Learn all about the competition here – and make sure to register by November 2, 2011 and get your entry/entries in by November 4. This is your chance!

For “More on design competitions, and building a city’s ‘culture of design”, check out this great article on Planetizen by Brent Toderian, Planning Director for the City of Vancouver.

Metro Vancouver Is Awesome, and you should get out and explore it!

Last October, local design firm Green over Grey planted North America’s largest and most biologically diverse green wall, with over 10,000 plants and around 120 species covering nearly 2,680 square feet. Because it was installed last autumn, the wall just finished its first summer season, where it filled out into a lush, vertical oasis. I’m sure some of you saw some articles that were circulating around the web a little while ago. And just in case you’re wondering, it’s in Surrey not White Rock!

If you’re curious, the North-South dividing line between Surrey and White Rock is 16th Ave, or North Bluff Rd. Over the years I’ve found that many people living in South Surrey, and even businesses, often refer to the areas south of about 20th Ave as White Rock. There’ve even been proposals put forth a couple of times over the years to give parts of South Surrey to White Rock, since the communities are closely linked in terms of amenities and commercial services, and divided from the northern parts of Surrey due to a large area designated under the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR). For now, however, the Semiahmoo Library will continue to showcase the growing investments (see what I did there?) in the community by the City of Surrey.

And speaking of Surrey and investments, the new City Centre Library, designed by Bing Thom Architects, complete with its own green roof, had its grand opening on Saturday! It really is a fantastic sign of things to come for Surrey, so be sure to head out and pay it a visit – it’s only a few minutes walk from Surrey Central Station. If you’re curious to see the Semiahmoo Library and its green wall, why not grab a bus from Bridgeport, Surrey Central, or King George and head south. And while you’re down there, be sure to enjoy the beach at White Rock before autumn really makes its arrival known :)

Archives of the Nicholson Road project can be found HERE.

Rohan’s, the Record Store, an advert by Rand Holmes in the Georgia Straight, April 6, 1972. Rohan’s was located at 2865 West 4th Ave, Vancouver, a building which remarkably still exists today, now occupied by The House Gallery Boutique, which today specializes in some very fancy handmade gowns and dresses. But back in the 1970s, Rohan’s was a musical destination. By 1973 however, Rohan the Record Store had closed down, and in its place the musical venue Rohan’s Rockpile opened up just down the street at 2723 West 4th Avenue. BCBusinessOnline described the venue with the following caption recently: “In the 1970s, Fred Xavier’s club hosted eclectic hometown bands who performed for love instead of money. And then there was the night The Who came to play after an arena show.”

Why was Rohan’s such a destination? Perhaps these insights from Wikipedia can shed some light:

Because restrictive liquor laws forbade live music in ordinary bars, there was no long-standing popular music tradition of the kind associated with places with more liberal entertainment laws. During the 1960s when popular youth culture flourished (in spite of all restrictive laws), clubs such as the Retinal Circus on Davie Street in the West End and Rohan’s Rockpile in Kitsilano were the hubs of the hippie scene.

Some further reminiscing appears on the tribute page for Rohan’s Rockpile over at PNWBands.com. Here’s a few words from Roger Stopmerud:

Rohan’s was perhaps my favourite place for live music in Vancouver.  As far as I can remember, it was the very first local club that had it’s own sound system and lights. The place was tiny, no more than a storefront. Service was self-serve for the polite, and table service if you had patience to wait for your order.Fred Xavier ran the place. It was a favorite with local musicians, and Fred hired the most interesting of local scene. He also had acts from out of town/country.

I worked there as the sound man for my good friend Richard Stepp band Shakedown. After our first night Fred came up to me and said he
has never heard better sound there. But the praise was unneeded, as the clubs mixing board was exactly the same as ours. Easy…..

Local FM radio station CFRO (Co-Op Radio 102.7 broadcast a live hour or two every week there.

Some of the bands I remember seeing there include:

Alexis (Radlin) and her fantastic band of heavyweights
Rocket Norton Band
Bruce Miller Band
Foreman Young Band
Shakedown
Dave Paul & The Silver Dollar Band (featuring Lindsay Mitchell (Prism))
Danny Mac (MacInnis) and The Cement City Cowboys
Danny Tripper
…..and a whole bunch more……

Roger Stomperud, January 2008

I noticed on the same website that Gunnar Roger Stopmerud died on the 4th of July, 2008, so I’m glad he took a moment to preserve those fond memories!

A few more ads for Rohan’s, the Record Store appeared in the weeks after the advertisement above, including the ad below from the May 4th issue of the Georgia Straight. In true hippie fashion, the ad simply said: “Thank you”, and showed a caricature illustration of 3 employees of Rohan’s: Gordy, Thora, and Fred (Fred Xavier was the owner).

Rohan’s advertisement, illustrated by Rand Holmes

I wasn’t certain how long the record store operated at 2865 West 4th Avenue so I checked the Criss Cross reverse directories from the era, and saw Rohan’s was listed in 1972, but it was not listed in 1971 or 1973. The 1972 directory also showed Mark Grady, The Inter-High Student Society, and The Oganookie Standard (an underground highschool newspaper) all had phone numbers at the same address. Once Rohan’s Rockpile had moved down the street, the house at 2865 had a host of tenants. Michael Kluckner recalls in 1974, it was used as the office of the West Broadway Citizens Committee, the most radical of the stop-development groups in Kitsilano which organized protests against high-rises, the loss of affordable housing, and the like. I’m told the storefront was also used as an orthopedic furniture store at some point, and by the mid-1980s, it had become The Heart and Soul Psychic Centre for a few years. It was in 1987 when the current tenant, the dressmaker The House Gallery Boutique moved in upstairs. Some 6 months later, she took over the ground floor, and she hasn’t looked back! Incidentally, she’s also the great granddaughter of legendary Vancouver photographer Philip Timms!

The fact that this modest storefront home at 2865 West 4th Avenue still stands today is fairly significant when you look at the encroaching development all around it. Be sure to take note of the building the next time you pass by 4th Ave West, and much like you should when you pass by the Smilin Buddha, pay your respects to Vancouver’s musical roots.