For any of you back home who are interested in doing an MBA sometime soon, you should roll on down to the Pan Pacific this coming Thursday (november 6) and meet Bob from Babson. Bob is in Vancouver as part of the mba tour, talking about the program and meeting with potential students. Check it out!
Back in August I was approached by a local developer to expand WorkSpace into a building downtown. I looked extensively at the proposal, but ultimately turned it down. In the mean time though, I developed a good relationship with the company. They were still looking for a solution for the building, so I took on the job of project manager.
My objective was to take the 1950’s 5 storey building, which had gone through innumberable mickey mouse renovations over the years, and turn it into a series of big open contemporary spaces where people would want to work. The approach was to reveal the building’s slab structure, and frame it as a feature. I quickly hired David and Heather to develop a design for the units.Over the last ten months, the building has undergone extensive interior demolition, code, and infrastructure upgrades. The waffle slab (ish) ceiling revealed itself to be rich in texture. The concrete and aggregate had oozed through the forming in places, leaving an almost creepy appearance in its original grey color.
We started spraying the ceiling white, and putting in new washrooms. B+H carried a half inch reveal around the door jams and between the ceiling and drywall. The floor was ground down and given a fresh epoxy coat andfinally the heater grills were replaced with a new MDF design that really gave the space character.
Right now the office portion of the building is nearly complete, with lobby and entry work pending. The designs that have been developed for those areas are truly striking, but they’re still in the approval process so I can’t say much. Except for that they’ll make a landmark out of a building that 10 months ago was falling apart.
455Granville.wordpress.com
I’ve been considering business school for a long time now. It’s been in the mix among other things, a cycling carrer, a masters in architecture, and business itsef… but I’ve always hesitated. Last fall while trying to narrow things down, Dane recommended that I look into Babson College, and I immediately had the impression that this school was different. They are all about innovation and entrepreneurship, they say. So I submitted an application and went to Boston to visit.
The idea of an “MBA” sort of turned me off. I pictured a bunch of booksmart kids in a room studying statistics and prepping themselves for a career at the bank. Babson’s not like that. The people I met were totally down to earth, full of real world experience and looking to build on it with a practical education. Most of the students I talked to had already run their own business. There’s even a class that collaborates with students from RISD to come up with solutions to bring their design ideas to market. Whaaaaaat you wont get that at Queens!
With the exception of Stanford, there is no other MBA program that I would really want to partake in. The people at Babson sold me on the school, and got me excited about the MBA aswell. This Wednesday I’m packin’ up my gear and moving east!
“Last year, more than $8,000,000,000 was wasted on these [gift certificates]. Not in the value spent, but in fees and breakage. When you give a card, if it doesn’t get used, someone ends up keeping your money, and it’s not the recipient. People spent more than eight billion dollars for nothing… buying a product that isn’t as good as cash.”
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/11/the-8-billion-s.html
My business was broken into last week by two young, moronic men. They took with them four laptops and our two iMac’s. We have the crime on tape, but weren’t able to capture a high res. image. Amazingly, one of the thieves (or at least the new owner of our hot machines) was using photobooth and unknowingly uploaded a photo of himself to our flickr stream.
If you know this guy, or recognize the tatto artist (another angle here (thanks!)), please let me know. Also feel free to re-blog this image.
[update] To answer a few questions that have come up in the comments…
a. The thief is using an access card, and we were able to track it back to one of our former members…but he wasn’t one of the two thieves. The card could have been passed on intentionally or lost, we’re not really sure on that point. The member in question has an overdue account and we haven’t be able to contact him. Any cards have now been deactivated.
b. The video that was posted is of the second entry, there was of course a first…for those of you that were keen enough to recognize the discrepancy between the photos and the video. We do have the first entry on tape, but haven’t placed it online.
Article questioning Iconic architecture and proposing, perhaps, a subtler more economics practice.
“I personally resent, for example, two billion dollars being spent on a subway station in New York City that looks like a bird. I have no idea why a subway station should either look like a bird or cost two billion dollars” -Eisenman
lives here.
Over There., originally uploaded by MacEwen.
I took a photo of Pigeon Park yesterday. I’ve done this before and its been a bit awkward but manageable. Yesterday it wasn’t. Three dudes who were more likely on the supply end of things were pretty pissed. “You better not get my face in that photo **** ” etc. I walked away from it and one guy threw his lunch at my back. Another guy comes up to me and tells me to delete the photo (i shoot film, he didn’t get it), starts tugging at my camera…
“I live here man” he says, and gives me a cracked out shove.
I leave, it’s only a block to my house from here.
WTF?
My business and more recently my home have been within a two block radius of that spot for over a year now. I chose this neighborhood because I like it and the supposed sketchiness of it does a good job of filtering out the pretentiousness that exists in other parts of town. Gnarly events have been going on here for a long time. The only difference is that the real estate has become valuable enough to attract mainstream developers and buyers. Until then there has been a fairly distinct boundary between where you go and where don’t. People tell the tourists to “stick to Water St. and don’t go past Carrall. Don’t walk down Hastings past Cambie. Pender’s okay though, that’s Chinatown.” So fine. We go to our movies at tinseltown, shake ass at Honey, but you do not chill out on park bench at Hastings and Carrall. That boundary is being erased, and the tribes are butting heads.
The Woodwards District, Paris Block, Koret Lofts, Smart Gastown. These developments are encroaching on turf that was previously out of bounds. The mainstream is moving in. Every other day I see moms in lululemons pushing baby strollers by crackhouses on E. Cordova. The cops turn a blind eye in these areas. The place governs itself. What makes us think a Chip Wilson-Yoga-Mat-Karate-Chop is going to keep junky away from baby?
(Dave O.)
The Carrall St. Greenway and $120 000 for Pigeon Park will fix the aesthetics. But broken window theory does not do much to help you kick that heroine addiction. We are glossing over the real problems here. They need to be addressed, not just moved east.
What about the next generation of users? What are we doing to prevent people from getting in these situations in the first place? What about the people down here with mental illness? Why can’t we be providing them with proper care?
Where do we go from here? Why not answering some of these questions and taking action. If anyone has any suggestions please comment!
