The Waldorf Hotel & The Beatty Street Mural

Here’s a couple local Vancouver projects that inspire me. I’ve documented each of them as they’ve developed over the past several months and recently published these editorials.

The Waldorf Hotel
“The Waldorf is a creative hub in the heart of East Vancouver where contemporary art, music, food and culture convene under one roof. The programming for the space will be both artistically expansive and thematically inclusive. The complex consists of thirty rooms, two restaurants (directed by Ernesto Gomez and executive chef Ned Bell), a Tiki bar (restored and retrofitted with a vintage analogue audiophile sound system), a hair salon (run by Barbarella Hair), a gift shop, a nightclub and a live music venue. In the works are a multi-media theater space and recording studio (tied to a residency program for visiting musicians).The Waldorf joins a new wave of Vancouver businesses that are conversing with the city, setting a benchmark for culture and hospitality.”

 The Waldorf Hotel was a creative hotbed full of interesting artist collaborating with one another to squeak out a life on the fringes of society.

We turned a shipping container into an art gallery and Bev Davies had a rock and roll photography show in it.

Vancouver stylist, thrifters and the fashion world would gather at The Waldorf Hotel once a month for a special vintage clothing swap.

We had a lot of fun space to work with and many big holiday parties took advantage of all the nooks and crannies to stash art and goodtimes.

There were several resturants and food options available in the Waldorf Hotel. My favorite was alway Nuba for is fresh yummy veggies.

Music, comics, poetry, theatre, fashion, photography and more were all taking place on top of each other when The Waldorf Hotel was thriving.

The Beatty Street Mural

“The Beatty Street Mural Project aims to explore the effects of applying various social networking concepts to a monumental public art installation. Creating an interactive platform between the community, the http://www.acgillespie.co.uk artists, photographers, bloggers, etc”

Vince organized and painted much of the mural.

Painting blue over the old mural was controversial and rumored to be tied to ‘Vancouver 2010 Olympics Cleanup Projects”.

The Beatty Street wall sat in statis for a while with block letters up indicating that something was coming soon. People started to chatter.

Paint is acquired and sketches are drawn up as artists prepare to resurrect the Beatty Street Wall.

Insert psychedelics here.

Vince and crew kick off the painting of the new Beatty Street Mural in Vancouver, BC.

Shallom Johnson gets up on the Beatty Street Mural.

Jeremy Crowle gets up on the Beatty Street Mural.

Many dirty hands make light work.

It took Vince and crew several weeks of focused attention to complete the project and requires ongoing touchups and protection.