It's a Wrap for The New Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel
If you walk by the corner of Burrard and Cordova next summer, you’ll be able to admire the city’s newest hotel tower and read poetry at the same time. The text of an original poem by British artist Liam Gillick will wrap around the southern and eastern exteriors of the Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel, running all the way up to the 23rd floor.
Fairmont
development.
Shaw
Tower
had a public art budget of about $400,000 but he spent more than $1 million creating an LED light-tube art installation that extends along the entire height of that building.
Shaw
Tower
added more value to the building than I paid and I know the value of the
Fairmont
piece will add more value than I’m going to put into it,” he said in an interview.
Vancouver
needs some “pizzazz” and the poetry-onbuilding concept is a step in the right direction.
Vancouver
is very subtle, but this piece is not subtle and the piece at [the Woodward’s project at Hastings and Carrall] is not subtle,” he said. “I wanted them to grab you by the throat and make a difference.
Vancouver
artist Stan Douglas to create a large photographic mural of the area’s living history that will be displayed in the development’s public atrium.
Douglas
plans to unveil the work at a
New York
exhibition in October.
The opening line was briefly visible this week, but now is carefully covered up. It reads: “lying on top of a building … the clouds looked no nearer.”
Project developer Ian Gillespie won’t reveal the rest of the text, which will be unveiled when the hotel opens next year. But he expects to spend significantly more than the $767,000 budgeted for the public art component of the
Gillespie noted the
“The piece I put on the
Gillespie, president of Westbank Projects Corp., said public art in
“Much of the public art in
“You’re going to walk or drive by that building and you won’t forget it.”
Westbank is also developing the Woodward’s project and has commissioned
Gillespie said the recreated shot of a historical scene speaks to the history of Woodward’s in a “very dynamic way” and
He said people will be fascinated by Gillick’s poem on the new hotel building.
“It’s about the fact that whether you’re a billionaire or a regular Joe walking down the street, your perception of reality may be the same,” Gillespie said. “There’s a bit of a social statement there.”
He said art inside the new hotel rooms will “play off” the theme created by the outside text.