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| I'm at it again with the camera! This building is located on Lonsdale where the old Lonsdale Elementary School once stood. The North Vancouver School District offices are located above the Gordon Smith Gallery. North Vancouver has an excellent program where artists donate original art pieces and the prints from each piece are sold to benefit the Art for Kids program. The N.Van art students are able to attend a summer art camp at the outdoor school ... with the artists donating their time to teach. |
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| The building is all wood and glass ... very impressive. A Central 'well' has offices located around the empty central space. |
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| Looking down from the top floor. |
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| Looking up from the bottom floor. |
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| From the patio: Vancouver skyline |
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| Looking down Lonsdale ... with high rise buildings rising like mushrooms. |
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| Outside the building ... yarn bombing adds a colourful note. |
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| A Robert Davidson sculpure in the garden. |
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| Mt Ranier from the hotel window. |
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| Many old factories and warehouses were here and are now 're-purposed' into condos. |
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| The harbor was used for commerce and is now filled with pleasure crafts. The bridge is the old railroad bridge across the tracks. The huge turquoise installations represent ice cubes. |
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| The ceiling on the bridge contains Chihuli art - available for people to enjoy in daylight and it is lit up at night. |
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| The walkway on the bridge has dozens of large glass pieces that are contained within a transparent wall. |
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| detail |
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| After the bridge, there is a series of wide stairs and reflecting pools with glass installations. |
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| The Glass Museum has ever changing exhibitions of breathtaking glass pieces. |
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| The 'Kids Design Glass' is a program for kids up to 12. They make drawings and the hot shop crew makes two pieces - one for the child and one to keep for display. The kids are able to be present and comment on the process. |
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| The boss .... |
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| This is the product they will make below. |
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| There are several ovens, tables and equipment in a large area. The public can watch from arena seating or a cat walk above. |
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| They start with a pole dipped in molten glass and turn it on a table to shape it. |
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| It goes back and forth from the oven dozens of time. |
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| Shaping continues with wet newspaper and a cast iron pan |
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| Calipers measure and shape. Wooden paddles help support the weight and shape. |
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| The blow torch shapes and heats to allow cutting. |
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| A second pole is added to the bottom (not shown), the first pole is is cut off and the second pole is then used to support the glass object. |
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| What will be the top is now pinched off, cut with calipers and flattened with the paddle. |
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| It is smoothed on the outside to ensure it is level and the top is smoothed and flared a little. |
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The outside is torched to make it glossy and the end is tapped to remove the pole. In an instant, a man with an asbestos suit swoops in and picks up the vase to place it in a cooling oven.  I've seen the process before, but still find it fascinating! I find it interesting that some of the tools are very basic: wet newspaper, wooden paddles and the poles ... just as in the past. |
