Welcome to the Vancouver Lexicon. Its purpose is to pin down the patois of the City of Vancouver by recording its toponyms, nicknames, slang terms, personalities, places, and other Van-centric things. Full A-Z here.

Bridge Scrotum | nickname, public art | One of several emerging epithets (also “Frosty Balls”) for local artist Rodney Graham’s “Spinning Chandelier”, which was permanently fixed to dangle under the northern end of the Granville St. Bridge in the late autumn of 2019. Made of stainless steel, LED lamps and 600 polyurethane crystals, the 3,400 kg, $4.8 million chandelier rapidly spins up and down at two fixed times a day. Though objectively beautiful, the piece of public art – commissioned by property developer Westbank Corp. – is seen as tone deaf by many on account of it being a symbol of excessive wealth in a city suffering a housing crisis.

Usage: “The Bridge Scrotum is great, but I’m not surprised some think its tasteless seeing how it’s located where desperate people might seek shelter…”