Canada House
Here’s another Erickson design. This is Canada House, completed in 2009. It was built to house the Canadian athletes during the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, which ended 15 years ago today with another spectacular hockey win for Canada.
The condos have since been sold and an entirely new neighbourhood has sprung up on the south side of False Creek.
Waterfall Building
When I started researching the buildings designed by Arthur Erickson, I was surprised to learn that a concrete building I always walk past after seeing my hairdresser was one of his designs.
This is the Waterfall Building, named after the water feature that frames the entrance. Completed in 2001, it was intended as a live-work complex and is on a far smaller scale than the other Erickson buildings I have written about in this series.
Koerner Library
As someone who has worked with books most of her professional life, I appreciate a well-designed library. This is the Koerner Library at the University of British Columbia, designed by Arthur Erickson and completed in 1997. It is named after Walter C. Koerner, a forestry businessman and philanthropist long associated with the university.
Koerner Library is the largest of the 15 libraries at UBC’s Point Grey campus and home to the humanities and social sciences collections. What’s kind of neat, I think, is that it was built on top of the former Sedgewick Library, which was below ground level and used skylights to bring natural light into the stacks. That building is now the basement of the Koerner Library.
Our Country, Our Game
You can’t take our country — and you can’t take our game.”
— Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
What a month. What a week. What a game.
I try to avoid discussing politics on this blog, but I have been known to write about hockey. And last night’s hockey game got political.
Of course it did.
Canada is being forced into a trade war with its neighbour to the south. Rumblings about tariffs since the US elections last November became reality on February 1. In response, our prime minister gave as rousing a nationalist speech as I’ve ever heard him give. That, along with the ridicule a certain American politician has expressed towards both him and our sovereignty, has united the country in a way it hasn’t been for quite some time. Grocery shopping has become an act of patriotism as Canadians resolve to buy only products made or grown in Canada.
And then last weekend, on February 15, we celebrated the 60th anniversary of our flag. All five living former prime ministers got together to issue a statement asking Canadians everywhere to fly the flag with pride. Mine came out of the drawer where it had been sitting since the Vancouver 2010 Olympics and is now hanging in my window. I think I’ll leave it there for a while.
In the meantime, a little hockey tournament took place this week. It was clear during last Saturday’s game between Canada and the US that emotions were running high. Players on both sides dropped their gloves three times in the first nine seconds. The Americans won, but I had faith that Team Canada would come through when it mattered. And they did.
Last night’s victory was oh so sweet. I can’t say it any better than Jon Cooper, coach for Team Canada:
I just hope Canada’s proud because every player in that room is proud to be a Canadian. And yeah, did we need a win? Not only our team, but Canada needed a win. And the players [bore] that on their shoulders. And they took it seriously. And, uh, this one was different. This wasn’t a win for themselves. This was a win for 40-plus million people, and the guys knew it and they delivered.”
I took the above photo during the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. Hockey at next year’s Olympics is gonna be lit.
Robson Square
One could argue that the most iconic of Erickson designs in Vancouver is the Robson Square complex. Sprawled across three blocks in the centre of downtown, it is bookended by the Provincial Law Courts and the Vancouver Art Gallery.
Long before Erickson came on board, the plan was for a vertical building — the tallest in Vancouver. But the 1972 provincial election brought about a change in both government and architect. And when worries were expressed about the immense shadow that such a building would cast, the new architect, Arthur Erickson, declared, “Let’s turn it on its side.” His vision was for a public square that people could walk through, anchored by the law at one end and the arts at the other.
The Provincial Law Courts were completed in 1979.
The renovation of the Vancouver Art Gallery, formerly the provincial courthouse, was completed in 1983.
The result is what Vancouver considers to be its main civic square. Curiously, though, our City Hall is located some three kilometres away. Why not downtown like most cities?
Good question, but that’s a topic for another post.
Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, the landscape architect who worked with Erickson on the Evergreen Building, designed the hanging gardens with its series of cascading waterfalls.
The law courts contain courtrooms, offices, and a law library. The entire complex is multi-level, with provincial government offices above ground and a sunken plaza with an ice rink below, offering free skating in the winter and salsa and ballroom dancing in the summer.
The buildings flanking the rink contain the classrooms and offices of the downtown campus of UBC.
Robson Square takes its name from downtown Vancouver’s main shopping street, which runs through the middle of the complex. That one-block stretch of Robson Street was first closed to vehicle traffic during the Vancouver Olympics, then every summer, and then permanently in 2017.
Robson Street is named after John Robson, a business man from Upper Canada who came west during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush of 1859. He was a strong advocate for the Colony of British Columbia joining Confederation and eventually served as our ninth premier.
Dry January
After a rather soggy December, we’ve enjoyed an unusually dry January. So dry that records were broken: this was our driest January in 40 years, and the third driest since 1897.
We’ve also had a steady streak of spectacular sunsets. There’s something about winter sunsets that creates magic.
Like this.
Evergreen Building
Yup. Still here, still working on my series on Arthur Erickson buildings that have shaped Vancouver.
This one is easy to walk past without realizing its significance. Located on a quiet intersection in Coal Harbour, the building’s recessed terraces are meant to emulate a mountainside. Erickson collaborated with landscape architect Cornelia Hahn Oberlander when designing the building.
Its unique footprint came about for a practical reason: it was the space available where the two streets meet at an obtuse angle, instead of the usual 90 degrees. It is categorized as an office building, but also has some corporate residential suites.
The Evergreen Building was completed in 1980.
Through My Lens: January Afternoon
I was going through old photos and came across this one, taken on a sunny January afternoon some years ago. That’s Lost Lagoon in Stanley Park.
Merry Christmas!
English Bay, Vancouver
Notre-Dame Restored
Five and a half years ago, the world watched as Notre-Dame burned. Two days later, Emmanuel Macron, president of France, promised that the Cathedral would reopen in time for the 2024 Olympics. Many doubted him.
Last weekend, as Macron stood in front of Notre-Dame welcoming world leaders for a special service of thanksgiving, I’m sure he was feeling pretty pleased with himself. The Paris Olympics may have come and gone, but his prediction was only six months off.
Which is incredible, considering how much has happened in our world since 2019.
Last weekend’s special services got a lot of media coverage, but what impressed me was how Notre-Dame held what it called an Octave of Reopening, which concluded today, eight days after Macron welcomed the world to Notre-Dame. Every day this week, a special mass was celebrated.
The first was last Sunday for heads of state and invited dignitaries. On Monday, the priests and deacons of the Diocese of Paris were welcomed. Member of religious orders were invited to Tuesday’s mass. Patrons and donors of the Cathedral were invited to the mass celebrated on Wednesday, charitable associations on Thursday, employees and volunteers of the Diocesan House on Friday, and schoolchildren on Saturday. Today, the final day of the Octave of Reopening, a mass was held for the Parisian firefighters, artisans, and all those who worked on the reopening of the Cathedral.
Going forward, visiting Notre-Dame will remain free of charge (as it always has been per French government policy), but a ticketing system will be put in place. This is because capacity will be limited to half of what it was before the fire as the restoration work continues. It won’t be completed until 2026.
As I read about the opening of Notre-Dame last weekend, I was stunned by the photos of the Cathedral’s interior. It’s unrecognizable to me. By way of comparison, here is a photo I took of the Blue Rose window in January 2011, the last time I was inside Notre-Dame. The walls were covered in soot, and seemed weighed down by years of history. Now, those same walls are luminous and full of life.
At my office Christmas party this past week, a co-worker mentioned that her daughter wanted to spend Christmas in Paris, but they decided not to because she wasn’t keen on spending the holidays in a hotel.
“Well,” I said. “I’ve spent Christmas in Paris and I highly recommend it.”
Because it was Christmas Eve and we were in Paris, it seemed inevitable that we would make our way to Notre-Dame. We were able to walk right in, but the crowds inside, and the fact that none of us would understand a mass said in French, made us leave. Here is the grainy photo I took while we stood at the back trying to make up our minds whether to stay or go.
Notre-Dame will hold Christmas services this year for the first time since 2019. Prior to the fire, it had not missed a Christmas mass since the French Revolution, when the Cathedral was converted to a wine warehouse and renamed Temple of Reason.
I don’t regret that we skipped the Christmas Eve mass at Notre-Dame; it was the right decision for us at the time. But I do hope one day I will again experience the magic of Christmas in Paris, and that maybe, with better planning, I will witness a Christmas Eve mass at Notre-Dame.
There and Back Again 