It's DESTROY VANCOUVER!! time: Whale mural demolished
As Vancouver continues its pathological rampage of self-destruction by tearing down buildings in ways that will thrill MONSTER TRUCKS!! addicts, fans of the Transformers movies, people who get a kick out of pouring scalding liquids on swarming ants or salt on slugs, or this Confessions reader, an iconic mural has been one of the latest casualties.
The mural in question is one that was painted by American artist Robert Wyland, commonly known as Wyland, who has painted 100 whale murals around the world.
Known as whaling walls, he painted his last one in 2008 in Beijing.
The murals, which feature whales painted in life-size dimensions, are intended to increase awareness of and draw attention to marine life.
Vancouver had two such murals. One has been mostly covered up by new construction and the other one is currently being destroyed. (RAWR!!)
The mural "Vancouver Island Orcas" was completed on August 15, 1994, on the former Continental Hotel at 1390 Granville Street, which is surrounded by the Granville Street Bridge and its off-ramps.
The 80 feet long by 90 feet high mural was restored in 2010 for the Winter Olympics.
The deteriorating building, which was built in 1910 and has served as social housing since 1970, is being torn down.
The first whaling wall in Vancouver (entitled "Orcas") was painted in 1985 at 1170 Melville Street.
Unfortunately, a new building construction has obscured the majority of the painting. (So much for the save-the-whales movement.)
There's also plenty of other destruction (RAWR!!) going on in the vicinity of the Continental Hotel tear-down that may make tourists wonder if the next Godzilla film is being shot here.
Only a few blocks away, there's this site of devastation where the long-standing La Bodega tapas bar used to be at Howe and Drake...
...and there's this one at Richards at Drake, which appears to have become a swimming pool for a discarded Christmas tree.
And if that wasn't satisfying enough for you, perhaps this will be...
Comments
21 Comments
I wish
Jan 26, 2015 at 8:09pm
that I'd known the whale murals were being taken down. I would have walked over and spent a few minutes remembering them. They were beautiful, and a part of the Vancouver that is rapidly being swallowed up by 300 square foot condos where you put your sofa in the kitchen and pull your bed out of the wall when you go to sleep.
Who the hell actually sits at one of those high-chair bars to eat dinner anyway?
Goodbye whales. Goodbye Vancouver.
out at night - art snob
Jan 27, 2015 at 9:53am
I've been rather pompously calling it "BC Orca Art" for years and that's because there's so much of it. It's kinda maudlin, air-brushy stuff for the most part, though that "digital" sculpture of the breaching orca down by the convention centre is somewhat above the usual middle-brow standard.
Not only can BC afford to lose one not particularly inspired orca mural, but it might be a good idea to get rid of the whole lot before we make orcas extinct with our raw sewage (Victoria), ocean icidification, industrialization, over-fishing, oil spills (watch this space - coming soon!), etc. I mean, after the killer whales are all dead won't BC orca art become somewhat more painful reminder than innocuous seascape?
Brocouver
Jan 27, 2015 at 10:12am
I'm major stoked for the giant pile of glass and steel that will replace it and I'm crossing my fingers that it will be "mixed use" at street level so that I might enjoy the charm of an awesome Money Mart or rockin' Granville party-zone slice joint.
Deal with it, haters!
J.M.T.
Jan 27, 2015 at 10:26am
Maybe we'll get something new in place of our west coast Orcas. Maybe something more in keeping with our changing Vancouver landscape. Something Chinese would be fitting.
Ryan
Jan 27, 2015 at 10:27am
Should we have kept this decrepit, crumbling building for the sake of mural? Time to move on people. Cities grow, murals can be re-painted.
Those murals...
Jan 27, 2015 at 10:29am
... were amateur at best and a little kitsch actually (like so much of Vancouver). Nice enough if there's nothing better to be developed on the site. But to make such a fuss over a bit of bad poster art... the dense mixed use development replacing the old building will have a range of benefits that outweigh what is (was) there now.
Now, saving that old building would have been cool - modernizing it and integrating it into the future development... bemoaning THAT would be worth an article Craig. But the whales!? You need to think bigger man.
Expo 86
Jan 27, 2015 at 11:25am
You're late. You can actually still hear the echo of Vancouver's last gasp of air reverberating around the mountains from it's death at expo 86.
This place is an overcooked burger with no side.
Norman
Jan 27, 2015 at 11:58am
Vancouver....city without a soul.
Good
Jan 27, 2015 at 12:16pm
This building is on unceded Salish land.
Meatballs
Jan 27, 2015 at 12:30pm
Wyland is safe and boring at best. Regardless, I'm not a fan of demolishing murals either but this is hardly scandalous so tone down the shrieking drama, Craig.