Stopping by my daily history read, I learned that it was on this day 30 years ago that the Carnegie Building reopened as the Carnegie Reading Room. Located at the intersection of Main and Hastings, I thought it would be worthy of the history profile to see how the building has been a part of the community for over a century.
1902 – Carnegie Library under construction, Item #: CVA 1376-27
“On March 25th, 1901 Vancouver requested and was granted $50,000 from US steel magnate and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie to build a library. Carnegie agreed to give the funds only if the city furnished a site and agreed to spend $5,000 a year. The city council accepted the Carnegie gift and its conditions.” – (VancouverHistory.ca)
1903 – Major Matthews collection, Item#: Bu P116.3
Built in 1903, it was indeed the first public library in Vancouver. In 1957 the library moved on to a bigger location and it became the home of the Vancouver Museum for ten years. In 1967 the museum moved out and the building lay vacant. “Following a massive campaign spearheaded by the Downtown Eastside Residents’ Association City Council agreed to save the building and convert it to a community Centre. Carnegie Community Centre opened its doors to the public on January 20, 1980.” – (Vancouver.ca)
190? – Photographer: Trueman, Richard H., Item #: Str P322
Carnegie also has some beautiful architecture including skylights and a towering spiral staircase.
Services include the public reading room, a seniors centre, a learning/literacy centre, a kitchen (serving 3 meals a day), an art gallery, an auditorium & gym, and even a dark room along with a pottery room for creative classes.
It’s an amazing building that is testament to the diverse community of Vancouver’s Eastside and the determination to make a progressive, educational, and safe centre for all. It’s open 9:00am until 11:00pm every single day of the year, every day of the week, and is worth checking out.
More than 200 athletes will be representing Canada and from Newfoundland to Nanoose Bay, everyone is being asked to go Red. This includes leaving up your red Christmas lights, putting a red “Go Canada Go” flag on your car, and painting your face red when watching event. You can even go online and creating an interactive “Podium Pal” which you can deck out in red or find other activities on the campaign’s Facebook page.
I’ve watched the campaign grow for a while now so I thought I would make a special appeal to Vancouverites at this time and if I may, I’ll use hockey as an example.
When the Canucks are in the playoffs we can rally enough to get towel power going however we never really have a “sea of blue” like how Calgary has their “sea of red” all year long. Our stands are speckled with blue uniforms, white jerseys, retro flying V’s and although those are all cool in their own right, there’s never one single uniform colour that takes over. This will be symbolic, from sea to sea.
The Olympics will be here in a short amount of time and athletes who have been training their entire lives will get the chance to perform to the best of their ability and represent their country on the world’s stage.
Even though this is but a small individual gesture on our part, if you’d like to support the athletes, wear some red during the games. Grab a Sled Head toque, some of those red hot mittens, put red ribbons in your hair, wear an old red t-shirt or knit yourself a scarf and just be a part of the experience. Go Canada Go!
Perched at the top of a small grassy hill, the IOC looks out over Lake Geneva and the public park, Parc Bourget. The IOC is made up of a few buildings pasted together over the years including a mansion that was centuries old. The entire area was once occupied by the Roman Empire and recent archeological evidence shows bones and ruins dating back to 6,000 BC.
I must explain that I missed pieces of the tour. Unfortunately this was our first stop after arriving from London the night before and with the 9-hour time difference and the jet lag migraine bubbling up in my head, I had to excuse myself from the tour a few times. After my intermittent absence I rejoined the tour group but as a result I didn’t take nearly as many notes on this tour as I could have.
Inside the IOC much of it seemed like your standard office building, with more than a few high-tech and upscale elements. The one thing that stood out most was the art work. Culture being one of the Three Pillars of the Olympic movement, the building featured statues, installations, paintings, and sculptures on every floor and down every corridor.
Olympic-branded candies sat in a dish outside one of many meeting rooms with dominating wooden doors, behind which I could only imagine the importance of the business being discussed.
There was a modern cafeteria for employees where chefs prepare culinary creations for staff daily. The eating area had dark wood floors, modular furniture and a full view of the lake from the floor-to-ceiling windows. On a pillar near the employee lounge/cafeteria were bulletins, including one promoting the Vancouver 2010 exhibit over at the Olympic Museum.
Our guide explained that just out the window and to the West was the local waste treatment plant and that energy produced from the waste when it is treated actually supplies power and heat for the IOC buildings. With Environment being yet another one of the Three Pillars of the Olympic Movement it seemed quite fitting.
From there we walked through a few more boardrooms, each more impressive than the next with flat screen televisions, branded pens, and bottles of water on standby as though half a dozen meetings were about to convene at the same time.
We crossed over to the old IOC building, which is the mansion and home of the smallest meeting room we had seen yet, although it was the most distinguished. This was where top-ranking IOC officials get together with IOC President, Count Jacques Rogge.
I’m unsure if they do tours normally but it was a nice familiarization of a beautiful complex that simply emanates excellence, right down to the Olympic-branded Mercedes parked out front.
On our way out some protesters started to gather on the front lawn. They had t-shirts, signs, and appeared to have invited local media – either that or they brought their own troop of photographers. We were inside the building as the group began chanting outside and two of them walked over to the entrance. Pausing outside for a photo op, we watched as the protesters chatted politely with the women at the front reception desk. After a few minutes they came back outside, picked up their signs, and continued their display. No security, no men in suits with earpieces coming to take them away. They pretty much just walked to the other side of the street on their own and continued peacefully. For some reason I suspect that this isn’t a rare occurrence at all outside the IOC.
We hopped in our tour van and headed for the the Olympic Museum but not before our guide pointed out that there’s a campground next to Parc Bourget and the IOC. To camp on Lake Geneva, in a place as historic as this, surrounded by dozens of international sporting federations and museums just seemed like something we’d have to do when John and I go back to Switzerland. We’ll even see if our pal Dave wants to come as it seems like something he’d really get a kick out of.
You can view the rest of my photos from my media trip to Switzerland in this photo set, and read all posts here.
Club Bud, the notorious Olympic party destination is coming to Vancouver for the 2010 Games, setting up shop for five crazy nights in February.
Torino introduced the world to Club Bud in 2006 with a six-story pyramid-shaped nightclub. Club Bud kept the party going in Beijing with 360° video screens, an electrifying dance floor and an outdoor pool. In February 2010, Club Bud will transform the famed Commodore Ballroom into the place for athletes, celebrities and some lucky fans to celebrate in style. Athlete and celebrity arrival times on the red carpet will vary by party.
Companies and sponsors are each hosting special evenings at the Commodore and Club Bud is looking for an intrepid social media reporter (and a friend) to capture and document the festivities. They’re calling it the Club Bud Party Crasher search where successful applicants will get full access Club Bud in order to blog, tweet, and take photos.
Here are the Club Pub parties that the Party Crasher can choose to attend:
Friday, February 19 – Burton Party (Update: Read about it here)
Saturday, February 20 – NHL Party (Update: Read about it here)
Thursday, February 25 – Budweiser Party
Friday, February 26 – Under Armour Party
Saturday, February 27 – lululemon athletica Party
To apply to be the Club Bud Party Crasher all you have to do is become a fan of them on Facebook which will add the Club Bud application badge to your profile.
I’m unsure if the public can purchase tickets for Club Bud so it’s definitely worth entering the Party Crasher contest if you’d like to take part in any of these events. The job search closes on February 3, 2010 and you can read all contest rules and regulations on their Facebook page.
Red toques sporting the “I’m a Sled Head” logo will be sold in support of Canada’s Olympic & World Champion Bobsledder, Pierre Lueders.
Having been to the birthplace of Bobsleigh this initiative is of special interest. Lueders has been the Olympics before having competed in Lillehammer (1994), Nagano (Gold), Salt Lake City (2002), and Turin (Silver).
He is the most decorated bobsleigh pilot in Canadian history and there’s even a turn named after him (“Lueders Loop”) at the Whistler Sliding Centre where the Olympic sliding sport events will be held.
The Sled Head toques are made by the Kootenay Knitting Company Ltd. and retail at London Drugs for $9.99, with $3 from each going towards Lueders’ Olympic efforts and expenses.
As a side note, the Kootenay Knitting Company is also making scarves for the Canadian Olympic Cross-Country Ski team.
To further their support, all London Drugs one hour photo departments will be also be donating $2.10 from the sale of every 14 oz photo mug to the Sled Head campaign.
Services include the public reading room, a seniors centre, a learning/literacy centre, a kitchen (serving 3 meals a day), an art gallery, an auditorium & gym, and even a dark room along with a pottery room for creative classes.
