Changes All Around Me

For a long time I called this 1400 Howe Street block the 'Kunst Werk zone'. 
A  storage company owned a large building on that block.
I had been haunting that block because that's where the old Imagination Market building was at 1435 Granville.
I moved into this neighborhood in 2009.  I took photos.

Then a development permit sign went up and the storage business building acquired a new look that went with "Gesampt Kunst Werk" & some spiffy new partial cladding.
I really started taking photos, editing them, & getting swept up in the huge changes about to happen in my neighborhood.

                                             So here goes.  
First, a glimpse of the massive  project. This is a photo of the  model of the tallest building of the new complex. These are from the promo/info centre at 1410 Howe Street last summer. The bridge you see are various arms of the Granville Street Bridge on the north side.

It cracks me up this is being called "Vancouver House". It's in no way "a house".

            Rodney Graham also did this sculpture on a building nearby @ Howe & Pacific.

So...

Where I take you from here, since I was carrying a camera nearly all the time with me, are photos of changing things in my neighborhood.

First the dumpster with broken mirror.

Other congregations...

Shadows to die for...

 

shadows-- that's me on the bridge-- a selfie!

One demolition very near by at Mortifee-Munshaw then Richards on Richards, near my apartment. Suddenly I felt demolition was happening all around me.

 

One of my big surprises was how much metal and wood was separated out for re-processing. Very heartening.

I learned that old bricks sell for 60 cents a piece!

 

                               Some fence, somewhere, padlock leavings...

Un-welding on Richards St. so the awning frame can come down.

Staging grounds for for the Telus building on Georgia

  Telus building downtown, that's where those wire cages went.

Il Giardino also down. So sad. I loved that space. Plates!!! Tiles??? Good God!! They didn't save them? My New England soul quivered!!

                                         gaskets & pipes for new water/sewer mains

Looking down.

 

 Other street views

  

 Burrard Bridge cement-decay & other sadnesses....

Floating barrel at Hornby street dock.

I have so enjoyed this exploration.

Cities have their rawness. Somehow I manage to get caught up in the peculiar beauty, in the idea of impermanence, & in nostalgia.  Many artists get caught up is in this zone.

That's it for now.