·
On a recent visit to Desert Hot Springs (DHS), CA, in the Coachella Valley, not far from the well-known Palm Springs, we discovered Cabot Yerxa’s Pueblo Museum. It’s a museum that also functioned as Yerxa’s home. It was built in the Hopi-Pueblo style to honour Indian people. You can see the Hopi Kachina designs portrayed…
This picture says it all – a chaotic situation generating no end of frustration for many drivers. Even the hold-up being on a bus is not pleasant. This $58 million upgrade is set to finish sometime in the fall of 2017. So what’s it all about. First a bit of history: the Burrard Bridge opened…
Located on Burrard near Robson, this was the 2016 site of the closed clothing store Le Château. Unfortunately, this is a very typical scene in Vancouver with people sleeping in doorways, and no one taking any particular notice. Not that people don’t care – it’s just the problem has become overwhelmingly common. It’s part of…
Here we have the image of Carrie Fisher, as the famous Princess Leia in the original Star Wars film first presented in 1977. The image is displayed on today’s state of the art Telus building in downtown Vancouver, in some ways as futuristic as some structures seen in Star Wars. It’s an image that brings…
This is the mantra that accompanied the restoration and renewal of Christ Church Cathedral at the corner of Georgia and Burrard in the heart of downtown Vancouver. It is the Cathedral church of the Anglican Church of Canada’s Diocese of New Westminster, the Regimental Church of the Seaforth Highlanders and the place of worship for…
This small triangular park, on the north corner of Hastings and Carrall Streets is virtually on the east/west divide of Vancouver. It’s at the heart of Vancouver’s history, standing on the southeast corner of the 1870 Granville Townsite, which pre-dated the city of Vancouver. It’s also on the traditional territories of the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh, and…
Located at 401 East Waterfront Road at the foot of Dunlevy Avenue, this house represents the historic area from which the City of Vancouver began its development. Vancouver’s first public school, the Hastings Saw Mill (circa 1865), the Hastings Mill Store (1865) that housed Vancouver’s first post office, library and community centre were all located…
As the name implies, this is a tree associated with wishes. This one is located on the south edge of a park at Jervis St. in the West End between Burnaby St. and the alley which eventually becomes Drake St. The written wishes began appearing at the end of this summer of 2016. They are…
Commissioned by the Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG), Ovoidism is a 2016 work located at the former site of Vancouver’s old bus depot, west of the Canadian Forces Beatty Street Drill Hall and east of the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. This is the area where the VAG hopes to relocate. The Coast Salish Dancers in this photo…
Although the West End’s Sex Workers Memorial has broad implications, the Sept. 16, 2016 unveiling was still a prideful neighbourhood event. It was inspiring to listen to stories of people’s struggles for the rights of sex workers. All three local First Nations Bands were represented: Tsleil-Waututh, Musqueam and Squamish, and their unceded territory recognized. They…
This 104-year-old steam engine pulls a vintage train along the remaining 10 km (6 miles) of the famed Kettle Valley Railway (KVR). It’s a 90-minute tourist ride and well worth it. Skirting through the beautiful Prairie Valley of Summerland, B.C., the train ride offers beautiful vistas of vineyards and fruit orchards, a hallmark of the…
This is the beautiful Pride sign, in rainbow colours at Bute & Davie in Vancouver’s West End. It stood in the new Jim Deva Plaza during Pride weekend. The sign was an initiative of Young Ideas, which works out of Gordon Neighbourhood House. Young Ideas proposes to connect young people who live in the West…
What we are seeing is collaborative public art in action to produce a 4’ by 8’ woodcut print using a genuine steamroller, ordinarily employed in paving streets, as a press. This event, BIG PRINT PROJECT, took place on Granville Island over the Canada Day weekend, July 1, 2, 3, 2016. It is one of 11…
