These are windows

Natalie Corbo Vancouver, Canada

[windowcity]

More Gastown. Should I stay or should I go?

[windowcity]

Lunch break walkabouts - this is the International Language Schools of Canada building, along that stretch of Richards near the used bookshops.

[windowcity]

My very beautiful pals from Woolworm live in this big 'ol house on 12th Avenue. They just released a 7 inch split with Grown-Ups, and it is 100% worth your time/money. Listen to it here: http://woolworm.bandcamp.com/

Giles drew a floorplan of the house a while back, which I absolutely love and will post here as well, if he ever allows me to do so.

[windowcity]

This office bridge houses the SFU Urban Studies graduate program offices. After wondering for many months about this structure which I can see from my office window, I was recently accepted into the Urban Studies masters program at SFU. Mystery solved - now I've been inside too.

For now, I am stuck with the difficult decision of whether to stay in Vancouver and pursue this program at SFU, or accept U of T's offer, move back east, and go to planning school.

[windowcity]

More from the secretly nice trail along National Ave. 

[windowcity]

Probably because I walk down Granville Street rather than drive, and am so distracted by the shopfronts and what's going on in the street, I often notice things on the second storeys of the buildings that I've never seen before. This is one such building, down near the Templeton diner. 

[windowcity]

On a weird (but lovely) walk down National Ave, east of Pacific Central station. There's a good walking path through that light industrial area, and apparently that's where the Fire Rescue training centre exists... I peeked in the grounds, and it sort of looked like a movie set. People in uniforms running around, and a dummy body laid out on the ground. 

Seeing interesting parts of the city that I've never seen before is always a favourite experience, and it's always surprising to me when it happens in Vancouver - a city which feels so knowable. 

[windowcity]

Boarded up, near the Olympic Village. 

[windowcity]

Look up.

[windowcity]

Bye, Dunbar - I work in Gastown now, in a former warehouse building originally built in 1905. 

The centrepiece of the brick building's lobby is the window that I've drawn, which looks onto the water and the North Shore mountains. Right underneath the window, sits a giant grand piano - a functional bit of decor that Spring Breakers and Future lead me to believe is making a not-so-stuffy comeback. 

[windowcity]

One last Dunbar area drawing. 

[windowcity]

Exploring neighbourhoods in Toronto this past January. 

[windowcity]

Seen from sludgefeast's apartment window. 

[windowcity]

Walking from Kerrisdale to Dunbar, where I used to work. Makes me appreciate my new neighbourhood of employment.

[windowcity]

re.pe.ti.ti.on 

[windowcity]

These are the windows of the remaining facade of the 1929 Bank of Nova Scotia building that faces Granville St. The rest of the building has been converted into the Scotiabank Dance Centre.

It's not an especially fluid conversion, but I like the idea of the space being used as a dance centre and I like the remaining facade because it's more interesting than the rest of the building. Too bad the last little bit of art deco facade at Granville and Robson will house an Old Navy. 

[windowcity]

Canadians #3

Last drawing from my waiting for the minor league baseball championship series. Here is a mobile home that was parked next to Mt. Pleasant Park. This one bothers me a bit aesthetically, but I don't normally draw vehicle windows so I guess you could call this an experiment. I wouldn't include car windows on this blog, but I think a mobile home counts as a building to some extent.