Seaspan

Three Fountains and a Super Yacht

by Eve Lazarus on July 5, 2024

Do you remember the fountain at Lonsdale Quay? It had sails on top of a tiled base of green and blue swirls and whales and octopus and starfish. When my kids were small it was the best part of a visit next to ice cream and the ball room.

Lonsdale Quay fountain — Paul McGrath photo, North Shore News, April 23, 2023

It broke down in 2020 and cost $300,000 to fix, now the only thing left to remember it by, is a round piece of asphalt used to patch the hole in the concrete.

At least it no longer blocks our view of the $225 million-dollar super yacht that is perpetually parked at the dock. It’s called Attessa 1V—I’m not sure what happened to one, two and three, but looks like it’s time for an upgrade. The Attessa 1V went up for sale earlier this year.

White Winds:

“White Winds” the fountain, was created in 1985 by Gerald Gladstone. The metal sculptures in the centre represented sails in a nod to the boats in Burrard Inlet.

No sails on this super yacht but it does come with a helicopter.

The 100-metre-long yacht is owned by US billionaire Dennis Washington, who also owns Seaspan which owns Vancouver Shipyards, Vancouver Drydock and Victoria Shipyards, and presumably why his yacht is parked by our former fountain.

Centennial Fountain:

Speaking of fountains. The Centennial Fountain, which was built outside the Vancouver Art Gallery in 1983, developed a leak in 2013 and was gone a year later. Now there’s nothing to get in the way of the protestors, just a sterile looking plaza.

Vancouver Art Gallery fountain — The fountainless public space in front of the VAG in 2020. Eve Lazarus photo

Lost Lagoon Fountain:

We still have the Lost Lagoon fountain; it just doesn’t work. In 2016, the Parks Board put out a Facebook post: “Due to an unfortunate flood in the electrical chamber the fountain is now inoperable until renovations are complete. The fountain is currently undergoing mechanical upgrades. Hope to have it ready by this time in 2017!”

Nope, didn’t happen. According to a Daily Hive story last December, the price tag to get it up and running and delighting residents and tourists alike is an inexplicable $7 million dollars.

Lost Lagoon fountain, 1936, Vancouver Archives

But enough about fountains, it’s not like you can swim in one. If you want an outside swimming experience, you can always go to Kits pool. Oh wait, no you can’t, it’s broken as well. The good news is that Mayor Sim says it will be fixed by August 7. Maybe.

Tags Attessa, Centennial Fountain, Dennis Washington, Gerald Gladstone, Lonsdale Quay, Lonsdale Quay fountain, Seaspan, Vancouver Art Gallery

Riding the Spirit Trail – from Mosquito Creek to Pemberton Avenue (part 5)

by Eve Lazarus on November 2, 2018

At the end of our last post, we were watching harbour seals at Mosquito Creek. Now we’re going to take the Spirit Trail to Harbourside. While you may see a large tract of vacant land, as well as some businesses, a Spa Utopia, and an auto mall–developers see 700 condos, office space, retail stores, and a hotel.

Did you know that all the land at the bottom of Fell Avenue used to be tidal flats? In the late 1800s, James Pemberton Fell and his uncle Arthur Heywood-Lonsdale, bought District Lot 265 which included the foreshore rights. James had lofty goals that included a million-dollar marina and industrial complex. He got as far as building a seawall and creating 21 acres (8.5 hectares) of additional land before the Great War hit and all infrastructure plans were put on hold.

So, over 100 years later, let’s not go counting those condos until they’re hatched.

Back on our bikes we’re going to ride along the waterfront past the off-leash dog park and take a hard right up Kings Mill Walk and the Harbourside West Overpass and onto Pemberton Avenue.

In the early 1900s several different flumes in North Vancouver transported logs and shingle bolts from the forests to the sea. They were long wooden chutes filled with running water, used by loggers like conveyor belts to float cedar shingle bolts from the hills above to the mills below.

Close up of the Capilano River flume in 1916. People used to walk along it in their Sunday best. Courtesy CVA 21-42

The Capilano River flume was the longest at over 12 kilometres in length. Built in 1905, it ran from Sisters Creek, just north of where the Capilano Reservoir is today, to a mill at the foot of Pemberton Avenue. The flume had a catwalk that ran alongside it so crews could do maintenance, but it was also accessible to the public.

In the early part of the 20^th century the Capilano Timber Company had its own railway for transporting fir, hemlock and cedar logs from the upper Capilano valley to the firm’s grounds near the foot of Pemberton. The railway ran down the west side of the Capilano River, crossed the river and headed eastward, running along what is now the Bowser Trail behind Save on Foods. The train crossed Pemberton and Marine drive and headed south and lasted until the early 1930s.

Capilano River Flume (on left) for cedar shakes in 1900. Courtesy CVA 122-1

In the 1970s, Pemberton Avenue almost became the jumping off point for the North Shore’s third crossing. Alderman Warnett Kennedy, an architect and town planner lobbied for a tunnel under Thurlow Street that would carry cars and rapid transit to the North Shore over the world’s biggest cable bridge, and exit at Pemberton Avenue.

Instead, you’ll find Vancouver Shipyards and the headquarters of Seaspan, the largest tug and barge company in Canada. After winning a federal government contract in 2011 to build 17 ships that include a Polar-class icebreaker for the Coast Guard, the company built a new office on the western spit of the Seaspan property. Seaspan expects to fill it with more than 1,300 new shipbuilding and office staff by 2020.

Next post we’ll be winding through Norgate to Ambleside.

The North Shore’s Spirit Trail – Moodyville (part 1)

Moodyville to Lonsdale Quay (part 2)

Lonsdale Quay (part 3)

Mosquito Creek (part 4)

Pemberton to Capilano River (part 6)

West Vancouver (part 7)