Vancouver's Hotel Europe another triangle

The Hotel Europe, at Alexander and Abbott Streets in Gastown, has always been one of my favourite Vancouver icons.

A treat for the eye, this was commissioned by Angelo Calori, whose name is inscribed above the main door. The building was designed by architects J.E. Parr and T.A. Fee.

Built in 1909, it was undoubtedly the last word in elegance when erected, and still retains its original Italian tilework and some leaded glass windows. Glass blocks inset in the sidewalk used to give light to a below-ground saloon.

According to www.archiseek.com, it was the first reinforced concrete structure in Vancouver. It predates even the dear old ivy-covered Sylvia, which didn't arrive on the scene till 1912.

Photo by archiseek

Recent Triangular Building echoes older ones

Gastown, like Toronto and New York, has some lovely triangular buildings.

Taken on Water Street, these picture show a new and much taller triangular building that echoes the older ones.

This beauty is located at Water Street and Cordova.

Photos: Carol Tulpar

The Royal York Hotel in Toronto

Right Photo by Carol Tulpar

When first I visited the city, the Royal York and Union Station still dominated the downtown waterfront. Now "the grand old lady," is hemmed in by huge high rises. The waterfront has been filled in too, to create more building space.

Left Photo by Gemma Grace

In Toronto in 2009, I had coffee at the Royal York, and learned of its current green innovations of the current Royal York. The hotel now serves produce from the rooftop garden, where they also have an apiary. The rooftop honey was delicious.

A Sea Change

The past week has brought demonstrations of the speed of linguistic change. These anecdotes came from two different teachers.

One asked her class -- mainly baby boomers, "Would you know what I meant by a sea change?" Most of us nodded vigorously. "I said to someone, 'I'm going through a sea change,'" she said, and he looked at her strangely. He had no idea what she was talking about.

"And he's an actor," she said. laughing. The reference, of course, is to Shakespeare's play, The Tempest. To go through a sea change means to undergo an mysterious and radical transformation, a profound shift, as the original lines from Ariel's song suggest:

Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.

This anecdote made me face the possibility that the metaphorical language used so easily and effortlessly by our passing generation to express elusive ideas might soon be lost. Not exactly lost, but replaced by new linguistic innovations.

The second anecdote was related in passing, after -- as a self-correction -- an editor with forty years of publishing experience elided the pronunciation of a common three-syllable adverb.

"My fourteen-year-old granddaughter taught me to pronounce that as a two-syllable word," she said.

The Flatiron Building in Toronto

Left Photo by
David Henman





Photo right by Kit Logan

Like its New York counterpart, Toronto's Flatiron building was associated with the alcohol business. Built in 1891, more than ten years before its New York sister, the Toronto Flatiron was commissioned by the Goodenham family as a head office for Goodenham and Worts Distillery.

It was built on a triangular site at intersection of Front, Wellington and Church Streets, in an imposting Gothic Romanesque style.

Renovated and designated as a Heritage building in the 1970s, then revitalized again in the 90s, the Flatiron is now the home of highly sought office space.

A feature of great interest is the mural. Painted on the rear of the building by Derek Basant, this intriguing work of trompe d'oeil depicts the Perkins Building, located across the street.

Door Bridge Stair

Photo: courtesy of freefoto.com

According to Jungian analyst and renowned author Marion Woodman, dreams about doors, bridges and staircases often mirror significant moments on our life paths.

Like many other dream watchers, I've had my share of these. Looking back, I see them as dream series that heralded life transitions from one phase of psycho-spiritual evolution into another.

The other night, I had a refreshing variant of this type of dream. Overlain with a light sheen of humour, it involved an international border, itself a kind of door.

I was trying to cross into the USA from Canada, and had forgotten that we now need passports to cross what was for long touted by both nations as the longest undefended border in the world.

Though I live in the west, this dream took place in eastern Canada, so I had no chance to run home and get my passport.

That's when the magic idea of reversal struck. The people I wanted to see in the US were at home, ergo, they had access to their passports. Instead of frantically trying to figure out how to get to them, why didn't I simply invite them to come to me? So that's what I did.

Regrettably, I woke up before finding out how they responded to this revolutionary idea. Meanwhile, I remain intrigued by the layers of possible interpretations the dream suggests.

High above Lake Samish

Photo: Lake Samish Canoe, by Eddie McHugh

In this dream, I'm crossing a precipitously high bridge over Lake Samish, Washington.

Yes, I know. Geographically inaccurate. Dreams are like that. Is it one of my threshold dreams? I'll have to wait and see how waking life works out. Then I'll have a better idea.

Where am I trying to get to in these dreams? Always the same destination, I think.

It's the part of me where the good stories reside. Maybe is it even a portal to something that extends beyond me. Either way, it gives me access to fiction, and that's where I'm bound.