By now you may have seen the quirky TV campaign aimed at drawing attention to the latest project by Danish architect Bjarke Ingels and urbanism expert Trevor Boddy, GesamtKunstWerk.

Or you may have done a double take while driving over the Granville Street Bridge, wondering whether yet another foreign movie is being filmed on our turf.

GesamtKunstWerk Vancouver
[Photo credit: everydayisawesome on Instagram]

Westbank Developments has commissioned Ingels to design a new $200 million dollar, 52-story tower near the Granville Street Bridge, located at Beach and Howe Streets.

Westbank is also the real estate development team behind the Fairmont Pacific Rim, Woodwards, and Toronto and Vancouver Shangri-la Hotels. Westbank has a long-term interest in public art, as well as a commitment to LEED-certified housing. This project, focused on architectural creativity in motion, is perfectly suited to their company culture.

Gesamtkunstwerk: Life as a Total Work of Art will open in mid-March, in the very building graced with the white neon Gesamt Kunst Werk sign that glows nicely at night as you head across the bridge.

The public is invited via the website to be part of the March 15 opening. This intersection of art, architecture, interior design, and urbanism with Vancouver’s continually growing creative scene is sure to bring about inspired dialogue.

Follow the action on Twitter using the hashtag #gwerk.

2 Comments

  • Comment by Lois Patterson — February 11, 2014 @ 9:41 am

    Thanks for posting this. I signed up, as it sounds very interesting. I enjoy art done on a large scale.

  • Comment by Ariane Colenbrander — February 11, 2014 @ 12:45 pm

    Hi Lois,
    It’s definitely cool to see something like this emerge in our city. And that new building will likely be spectacular inside and out!

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