Vancouver Art Gallery Plans Scrapped, Back to Drawing Board

The Herzog & de Meuron design for the VAG

Will Vancouver ever get a new art gallery?

The latest plot twist? The Herzog & de Meuron-designed flashy building has been scrapped because the city can't afford the C$600 million bill.

Now gallery officials are going to start from scratch, after having started construction in March, but was suspended in August because of the 50 percent increase in construction costs.

Construction was suspended in August

Chair of the gallery board of trustees Jon Stovell confirmed the gallery had suspended its contract with the architects and is now "looking forward to a new approach."

He adds the "new approach" will be more realistic and practical.

Developer Michael Audain, who kicked in C$100 million to build the gallery was not surprised by this latest turn of events, though disappointed by how slow the progress has been, since Herzog & de Meuron released their plan for the gallery back in 2015 and only last September broke ground.

"I'm kind of delighted that they're going to a new architect, but I'll be delighted only if it's a Canadian architect. We have over 40 million people in this country, and surely we can find someone to design us an art museum," Audain said. "This is a position I've been taking for over 10 years... From Day 1, I thought it should be a Canadian architect."

Stovell says the new plan will be practical

Meanwhile Bob Rennie, a prominent art collector and local businessman has been critical of the art gallery's plans for years, saying it is a waste of taxpayer money and philanthropy, and that "starchitecture" focused more on the building than the art inside.

"It's disappointing to see anything in my city fail. I think it looks very bad for the city, but since 2012, there's never been a concrete plan. It's always been imaginary," Rennie said.

He says it's time for the gallery to look at all options to come up with a more practical plan.

In the meantime which Canadian architect wants to revamp the Vancouver Art Gallery on a tight budget?

HK Golf Course Won't be Turned into Housing

High Court ruled the golf course not be turned into housing

When there was a consultation that recommended the government to take over the Hong Kong Golf Club at Fanling and build housing on the land in 2018, it immediately sparked a debate between the haves and have nots, as members, who are part of the elite class wanted to keep their prestigious club along with the green space, while those who waited for a roof over their heads are still waiting with no end in sight.

But it was finally decided when the High Court ruled against developing the city's oldest golf course into public housing. One could probably audibly hear the sighs of relief of Fanling golf club members.

That means 9.5 less hectares of land for flats

That means the government will have 9.5 less hectares to build housing, though Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu believes this setback won't have a significant effect on the overall housing supply, even though that means 12,000 fewer flats that were planned to be built on the golf course.

He spun it as a proposal by the previous administration.

"Now that the environmental assessment report is overturned, the government must do a comprehensive assessment and public consultation again," Lee said before meeting with the Executive Council.

"This will greatly affect the number of flats, the density and the completion date of the project."

But Lee believed the government was still on track to build 300,800 homes over the next decade.

Lee says the govt has enough land for housing

"The government has sourced enough land to construct more than 308,000 flats," he said. "The single change in the site's development will not have a huge impact on Hong Kong's overall housing supply."

So where else is Lee going to find more land to develop flats? It's an ongoing refrain that the city has numerous brown sites, land that has buildings that were for previous uses like schools or warehouses, and yet the government has not considered these, perhaps because they are too small.

But Hong Kong is not a place where it should neglect any possible sites -- land is scarce and any that is left vacant should be considered. Beijing is putting pressure on the Hong Kong government to house its citizens and in this case should comply with some creative solutions.

Palm Springs: Supersize Me

Super thick corned beef sandwiches at Sherman's

We're in Palm Springs and we still can't get over how huge the portions are at restaurants.

This evening we went to Sherman's Deli & Bakery and it's quite shocking how much food they serve people. Salads are a large platter plate with a giant heap of greens enough for four people to share.

Part of the meatloaf dinner meal at Sherman's

A dinner portion of meatloaf includes a large plate of salad and two thick slices of meatloaf, gravy, cooked vegetables, and a baked potato. It was enough for two hungry people to share.

I had a hot corned beef sandwich and there was so much meat layered in between two slices of rye bread that it was impossible to fully bite into it. Needless to say I only had half of it and took the rest home.

Even though she saw us unable to finish our food, the waitress asked if we wanted to order dessert!

The same goes for Billy Reed's, a large restaurant that feels like being in a family home, with old wooden furniture, painted plates on the walls, and large tables.

A dinner entree includes a soup or salad, a choice of mini loaf of corn bread, date nut, banana nut, or garlic toast, and choose between French fries, mashed potatoes, sweet potato, baked potato or rice pilaf.

And did you want dessert with that? 

Roast turkey with sweet potato at Billy Reed's

Is it any wonder why so many Americans are overweight and obese?

We wondered why the restaurants didn't make their portions smaller so there would be less food wastage? But it seemed like most customers did take home leftovers.

Perhaps the restaurants want to give the impression they are giving people value for money? Or they think shrinkflation would be bad for business so they need to keep serving the same amount of food?

Meanwhile a well known restaurant that we have visited called Babe's Bar-B-Que & Brewery, which was known for its barbecue ribs, beef brisket, pulled pork and corn bread, closed in August because of rising costs.

Even though the restaurant has been around for 22 years, it could not keep the 12,000 sq ft space packed with diners all the time, and the increased costs for ingredients and labour made it challenging to keep going. 

Dessert anyone? Strawberry pie at Billy Reed's

It plans to open in a new location in January, about one-quarter the size to keep costs down.

"When Babe's opened 20 years ago, everything was so much cheaper: utilities were cheaper, payroll was cheaper. Everything was just you know,... it was able to work," said Lucky Callender, the owner of Babe's was quoted as saying in August.

"Our revenues were strong at The River, you know, we did good business. It's just -- if you do high revenues, you should see the profit. And the problem was, we weren't seeing enough profit to make sense. And, how can we retain that profit? Obviously it's going to a smaller space."

Meanwhile we noticed at least two multiplex theatres have shut down in Palm Springs, one inside a shopping mall. It's a sad sign of the times here, that the economy is struggling, which is perhaps why people feel good having big portions?

Adrian Cheng's Successor Quits After Two Months

Hopes are riding on Huang to revive NWD

After scion Adrian Cheng Chi-kong's embarrassing exit as CEO of New World Development in late September, his successor has quit after two months on the job.

Eric Ma Siu-cheung who was formerly Hong Kong development minister resigned on Friday to "pursue his other personal commitments" and was promptly replaced with Echo Huang Shaomei on a three-year contract earning HK$984,880 (US$126,540) per month including a discretionary bonus and other benefits.

Ma quit after two months as CEO

"Having reviewed the development direction of the group, I understand that timely phased changes need to be made, and the role of the CEO also [needs] to be adjusted," chairman Henry Cheng Kar-shun said in a statement. "I'm very pleased to have found a more suitable candidate."

Will Huang be able to turn around New World's fortunes after Adrian plunged the company to have HK$19.7 billion in losses, the worst performance since the company's inception in 1970? And he was making HK$1.51 million per month...

Huang will have the difficult task of continuing to off-load assets to lighten the company's debt load, and then figure out a way to help New World generate more revenues in the property sector, probably from the mainland.

She has worked for New World China since 2015, and became the CEO just as the pandemic hit in February 2020, leading many major commercial projects. Huang is also a member of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Consultative Conference and its standing committee.

Cheng was booted out in September

Good luck to Huang as she's got a tall order ahead of her. It's always the women who have to clean up messes that men make...