Gerhardt Class sculptures - 1201 West Pender Street
This sculpture sits on a small, raised plaza at 1201 West Pender Street, Vancouver,
at the intersection of Pender and Bute. Apparently it was originally a fountain,
accompanied by a wall mounted fountain on the adjacent face of the building. It
was installed in 1966. The sculpture is made of pre-constituted marble that was
cast in a plaster mould, then finished. I have to say that the sculpture has held
up very well all these years. The water for the fountain probably came out from the reveal at the
base of the sculpture. The conversion of the fountain's pool into a rather zen-like circular
Japanese garden is attractive and successful (a layer of raked sand would be interesting),
and the entire plaza is a well maintained little oasis.
Exterior fountain (decommissioned)
Main floor lobby back wall
There are a number of attractive artworks designed into the main floor elevator lobby.
They are made out of hammered metal in large panels. There is a bird theme and a water theme,
and the entire space is a harmonious design related to the colours and materials chosen
by the artist, who clearly worked closely with the architect. Unfortunately Exploring
Vancouver doesn't even bother to list the building, and the multiple indexes in
Building the West make it difficult to determine if the building is
even listed in the book.
1201 West Pender Street is known as East Asiatic House. It was designed by Vancouver
architect Gerald Hamilton for the Prince of Denmark, not your usual client. The current
owner of the building is Wicklow West. Their web site provides a bit of information
about the building, but does not say when it was built. Three strikes on that so far,
VanMap will have that information.
Another interesting feature of the main floor lobby is a custom-made, built-in mail
drop-off slot in the wall. Mail pickup times are listed, it was three times a day from
Monday to Friday. They sure don't do that any more!
Main floor lobby
Main floor lobby
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