Another Vancouver harbour scene by artist Walter J. Phillips, this time in colour, and from 1933, showing a mountainous background, cargo ship docked at grain elevator, and workers on the dock. The above watercolour sold at auction for $38,000, according to this Winnipeg auction house website (image is slightly cropped, and colours may be a bit off; the tweaked image comes from the aforementioned webpage).
A Vancouver harbour scene from 1941 by W. J. Phillips, showing workers loading / unloading ships on the Vancouver dock. This watercolour is printed on page 187 of the book Canada, The Foundations of its Future by Stephen Leacock. It would be nice to see this in colour, so if anyone knows where this painting is, let me know!
Walter J. Phillips (Walter Joseph, ASA, RCA, CSPWC - 1884-1963) was a celebrated Manitoba artist who on occasion, painted in British Columbia.
Images of Vancouver, an Ian McLeod poster, one of a series of vintage Vancouver posters offered on ebay, three of which I have already featured here at Illustrated Vancouver.
Cindy Buckshon’s Transit Roots Art Exhibition opens this Saturday, February 11, 2012 at the Deer Lake Gallery in Burnaby. I’m resisting the urge to show a link to her blog to help build suspense! I just know this show will be loaded with Vancouver transit love, and I implore you to go and check it out! Makes a great Valentine’s expedition!
Reception is from 2-4pm, and refreshments will be served, the general public is welcome; transit riders especially welcome! I believe the gallery is only open Tues - Sat Noon - 4pm, so be sure to get there before 4!
6584 Deer Lake Avenue
Burnaby, BC
Map to Deer Lake Gallery
YMCA Building at Burrard and Barclay St by McCarter & Nairne, perspective view 1940, pencil and colour wash on illustration board. Reprinted on page 56 of Trace Magazine, July - Sept 1981. The building recently went through a complete redevelopment and is now known as The Robert Lee YMCA Building, joining forces with a 42-storey residential tower known as Patina. For those who want to read the fine print, here’s the City of Vancouver rezoning report and Heritage Revitalization Agreement from 2005. The Vancouver Observer took a tour of the facilities in this 2010 article. The numbers, briefly:
Number of units: 256
Cost of YMCA restoration: $67 million
Total project cost: $250 million
What I’d really like to know: cost of the original building in 1940 ??
Proposed pagoda for Pender Street, from the October 1968 issue of Canadian Architect. In a 1969 article from the Calgary Herald, ‘Corny’ Architecture Rapped at Meeting, it mentions that Vancouver is importing a genuine pagoda from the Orient, to be used as a pagoda; I presume this is the pagoda they are are referring to. Instead of the extravagant pagoda seen here, the city would eventually get the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden, which was built in 1985 and completed just in time for Expo 86. I for one am glad we got the garden over the pagoda; in this particular location, the pagoda seems clearly out of proportion to the street and surrounding buildings. One final detail to note; as you can see in the second photograph, Pender Street was once a one-way street heading west at this junction.
Cover image of Chinatown, from the October 1968 issue of Canadian Architect, artist unknown. The scene illustrates E Pender Street, looking towards Carrall. Inside this issue are a number of fantasy concepts which I hope to feature in a series of upcoming posts. Click here for the Google Street View today.
2011 was a big year for Illustrated Vancouver, and following (late) on the heels of the Past Tense Vancouver blog, I wanted to add my own year in review, even if it is rather tardy. According to studiomoh.com’s best of tumblr tool, below are my best posts of 2011, automagically generated for your viewing pleasure. The results are in fact, not 100% accurate, but I speak to this in greater detail here at VancouverIsAwesome.com:
Another unique artistic aerial view of the city, this time from DC Bucholtz. There have been a few vintage maps in the past that turn the aerial perspective on it’s head, and they’re quite refreshing to look at. The map was sponsored by CKNW, The Pop Shoppe, and The Province Newspaper, among other sponsors. It was published by Cornwall Publishing Co., and Chuck Davis was the editor. This was pre-Expo, as you can see the Expo site is simply indicated with a flag and a large circle, so I’m guessing it was drawn some time around 1983 or 1984, since the Seabus colour scheme was no longer orange in 1985. I also just noticed the map shows Cambie Bridge as the old truss swing span bridge (the new bridge was built 1984-85), so that reinforces it would most likely be circa 1983.
Come fly with us! (for a one day vacation), a Grouse Mountain poster calendar from either 1980 or 1986 based on calendar dates, although I think the aesthetic is more 1980, and if it was 1986 they probably would have made some sort of Expo reference. More about the history of the tramway from wikipedia:
The tramway, known as the Blue Tram, was built by Austrian steel company Voestalpine and was opened and inaugurated on December 15, 1966, by Premier W. A. C. Bennett.
Ten years later, the mountain was purchased from its original owners by the McLaughlin family in 1976. The new ownership provided additional funding for the construction of a second aerial tramway, built by von Roll, known as the Red Tram or Super Skyride, that same year. The Super Skyride, using much larger gondola cars holding several dozen passengers, is now the main tram, arriving at a separate top terminal building a short walk from the lodge. The older Blue Tram is now mainly used to transport staff and supplies directly to the lodge structure.
Update: Not really an update; I’m just having second thoughts. I might not have picked up on some clues. The typeface for Grouse Mountain is very Expo86 inspired, and the fact that the gondola becomes a jet aircraft fits very well with the transportation theme of the transpo Expo. This also falls during the summer months at Grouse, right at the peak of Expo 86; maybe this WAS from 86!?
Stanley Park Junction, a painting by Brian Croft, 2011. Happy Christmas, everyone! Brian writes on his website:
The beginnings of this little railway can be traced as far back to 1904 when Park Board meeting minutes record a note stating “Application to establish miniature pleasure railway in Stanley Park turned down”. As chance would have it, in the 1940’s, Provincial Chief Engineer, John Armstrong built a miniature steam engine and train in his basement in Victoria. Cutting a hole in the wall of his house to get it out and onto 7 1/2 inch gauge tracks all around the neighborhood, the railway soon became too big an attraction for his community and as events unfolded, it was announced by the Vancouver Parks Board in April of 1947 that a location in Stanley Park was to become the new home for Armstrong’s railway….
A 1969 Greater Vancouver Real Estate Board poster, signed by McLachlan, published by Agency Press Ltd, Vancouver.
An interior mural painted by Vince Dumoulin last week in Gastown. The Building is the former Vancouver Police Stables, now utilized as the offices of a software firm. Thanks for the submission, Vince!
Reifel Sanctuary by Pat Service, 1997, from a Buschlen-Mowatt catalogue purchased at the Vancouver Sculpture Biennale art book sale (held over December 17-18; posters, books, catalogues for $5. Cash only; 290 W3rd Ave, Vancouver, BC 10am-3pm).
Painted QR code shows what vandalized mural should look like.
Originally photographed by me, and syndicated by Wooster Collective!
More about the work from the artist’s website:
AUDREY - approx. 45’ x 14’ - Located on First Avenue at Nanaimo Street, Vancouver, BC - painted October 2005
This mural was sponsored by the City of Vancouver as a deterrent to graffiti and as a means of helping to beautify the neighborhood. The subject of this mural is Audrey, my daughter, and the background is in the Vancouver Art Gallery. I was trying to capture a dreamlike setting while keeping the image simple in order not to distract the passing motorists.
Update: I’ve learned the mural repair was organized by the Coordinator of the Grandview Woodlands Community Policing Centre (GWCPC) on Commercial Drive. This news item from 2008 on their website talks about RestART (restorative justice through art) and the kind of community based programs they’ve supported in the past.
