A no messing around guide to the coolest things to eat, drink and do in Vancouver and beyond. Community. Not clickbait.

Vancouver Would Be Cooler If It Was Represented In A Bird’s Eye Mosaic

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(via) I love mosaics, especially Roman ones. There’s just something about the colourful arrangement of thousands of little tessarae (the smaller the better) that makes me smile. I particularly enjoy watching them get uncovered by archaeologists (watch these guys reveal the beauties at Dinnington in Somerset), but that doesn’t happen every day. Mosaicists are a rare breed in the modern age, but Gerhard Marx, an artist in South Africa, recently put together one of the most gorgeous and unique mosaics I’ve ever seen with Spier Architectural Arts. Instead of Apollo and Daphne prancing around a pomegranate or a simple geometric pattern, it’s a realistic birds-eye rendering of a section of Johannesburg done in marble, travertine, red brick, ceramic, and chips of Venetian smalti glass, all set within 56 different panels. Altogether, the free-standing work of art weighs three tonnes. Watch the video below to get a feel for the process…

Vancouver Would Be Cooler If We Had More Safe Indoor Spaces for Skateboarding

Its vaulted ceilings may have once carried the tenors and altos of Catholic choirboys, but nowadays the acoustics of the abandoned St. Liborius Church have been repurposed to carry the screeches and echoes characteristic of a DIY Skatepark. We think Vancouver would be cooler if we had an all-inclusive indoor community skatepark of our own...

Vancouver Would Be Cooler If It Had a Massive Floating Housing Project at the Port

Imagine a colourful, mixed-used, housing complex like Amsterdam's Silodam floating at the foot of Victoria Drive.

Vancouver Would Be Cooler If It Had Floating Camp Sites in False Creek

Imagine Belgium's Vlot Kamp - essentially eight floating campsites accessed from the shore by canoe - next to Olympic Village.

Vancouver Would Be Cooler If It Had a Cocktail Bar Hidden in a Skytrain Station

This 15-seat speakeasy-style bar is located behind a nondescript door in New York City's 28th Street subway station.