Being perched 450 feet (137 metres) above the city for up to 16 hours a day, you see everything from fights to car crashes to fingers of early morning fog making their way through the streets.
Christian Brunette is a 28-year old tower crane operator working in Vancouver. Originally from Saskatchewan, he knew he wanted the job since he was eight years old. Brunette came by the interest naturally - his whole family works in the construction industry.
After graduating high school he became a rigger, a precursor position to crane operator, and was then indentured through a company in Alberta for his crane training. After receiving his Red Seal, Brunette worked on tower cranes in Regina, Saskatoon, Edmonton and Whitehorse before coming to B.C. to work on Amazon’s new Vancouver headquarters in the old Canada Post office at 510 W Georgia St.
An amateur photographer, Brunette frequently takes snaps from the window of his office in the sky. Earlier this month he posted one such photo on social media from his view over The Cardero building project on Cardero and Alberni. The photo prompted many questions about his work from locals.
Q: Is there some protocol crane operators have in the case of an earthquake?
A: Aim for the bushes.
Vancouver Is Awesome recently caught up with Brunette to ask a few questions f our own.
V.I.A.: How’s the climb up to the cab?
Brunette: The building I'm on right now I can take a material hoist elevator to the 38th floor and then from the 38th floor there's what we call a tiedeck so it braces the crane to the building and then we just have a walkway there so I don't have to climb that 450 feet. So I only end up climbing like 100 or like 80 feet.
Does that climb ever get hairy in high winds?
Not really, it just kind of gets a little harder to breathe sometimes depending on the wind direction, other than that it's mostly pretty safe. Most cranes have 14 foot 20 foot ladder sections between tower sections. And then there's like a birdcage around the ladder so you're usually generally pretty safe going up them.
Are you afraid of heights at all?
No, I'm not, but I used to be deathly afraid of heights.
How'd you get over that?
I always knew I was afraid of heights so just one summer I decided to take a break from running mobile cranes and decided to get a job building and fixing cell phone towers. So I pretty much forced myself to get over heights that way and it kind of all panned out because then now like heights to me are just normal.
How did you know you wanted to be a tower crane operator at such a young age?
By eight I was always fascinated by them and I think when I was about 11 I got to go up in a crane at Regina General Hospital in Saskatchewan. That was kind of when I knew that's what I wanted to do.
What are the days like?
As a tower crane operator, you sacrifice quite a bit of your life. Like you're usually like the first person on-site and the last person to leave. So there’s lots of times you get like 16 hour days depending on the job.
How long do you think you'll keep doing it for?
Probably for a while. I do have other avenues of work. I shoot a lot of photography and stuff like that. I kind of wanted to get into a photojournalism sort of role if I could.
What kind of things does your view allow you to see?
In Saskatchewan, you see some of the wildest sunrises and sunsets. Out here [in Vancouver] it definitely gets interesting when you start seeing the city skyline change drastically super quick.
I love it when there's a really good heavy fog coming off the Lions Gate bridge and it starts seeping into downtown.
When I was doing The Post at Amazon's headquarters, you'd see all the protests and stuff going on down Georgia Street.
Pretty much anything you could really think of you'll probably see at one point or another. I've had jobs where you see people doing the business in their front window and they don't shut the blinds.
Does your perspective change how you look at the city when you're on the ground?
It does at the start, especially at a new crane or new job site. I don't spend any time out in New West so I started going to work [at the Royal Columbian Hospital] a little early and then did a little walk to get a coffee, take a camera in case I saw anything. You start figuring out different little areas.
Brunette has archived his crane-photos-only Instagram account (his OnlyCranes if you will) but occasionally shares his view to the story of his photography account @range___finder.
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