Vancouver's public art ranges from very straightforward sculptures to more abstract visual arts to, in at least one case, sound.
Given the unique nature of each piece of art, there are often interesting stories or stories involving different pieces. So here are five pieces of art facts you (probably) didn't know.
1. There's a leftover podium from a bright vase
As part of Vancouver's role as host of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, there was a push for more arts and culture around the city.
One of the pieces that was temporarily put in place was the "Garde-Temps." It was a huge vase-like sculpture that lit up the area under the Cambie Street Bridge near the Olympic Village Canada Line station.
Anyone who's gone past in the last decade will not have noticed it, because it's not there.
While the art was a temporary installation, the podium that was put in place to hold it was a permanent addition to the city.
When the Voxel Bride piece was installed as part of the Vancouver Biennale a couple of years ago, the podium was used, but it's once again unused.
2. The city tried to for a sculpture
David Oppenheimer was a popular figure in early Vancouver, even sitting as the city's second mayor.
He passed away in 1897, but his role in the city wasn't forgotten, and in to build a memorial to Oppenheimer.
According to the city's site, the first choice to make the memorial was a famed sculptor named Augustus Saint-Gaudens.
However, there was an issue with that, as one person pointed out in the Daily Province on Oct. 27, 1909.
"The gentlemen who suggested and those who concurred with him that the services of Augustus St. Gaudens be enlisted in designing the memorial evidently overlook the very important fact that Augustus St. Gaudens himself died two years ago," reads a letter to the newspaper.
Saint-Gaudens did indeed die on Aug. 3, 1907.
3.
Those waiting for a bus in the Punjabi Market (well, just south of it) have the option of sitting in a bus shelter or sitting on a seesaw.
Installed in 2018, the piece of art is also a functional seesaw and a potential bus stop bench. The seating area on the seesaw isn't set up like a typical one; instead, it has dividers almost exactly like the nearby bus stop bench.
"Uncomfortable when used by only one person, the artwork is best experienced with another person and thus becomes a tool for whimsical social exchange," reads the city's page for the art.
4. The oldest mural in Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»is
The Fraser Wilson Mural is only partially public; it's actually located in the Maritime Labour Centre, which is used for a variety of events like craft fairs throughout the year.
Painted in 1947, it depicts Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»as an industrious city in the 1940s.
What's unusual is that the mural is in a building built in 1972.
The mural was actually moved in the 1980s when union activists and groups heard it was threatened in its original building, the Pender Auditorium (which was lost to a fire in 2003).
It was restored and rededicated in 1988.
5. The of "Girl in Wetsuit"
"Girl in Wetsuit" is one of Vancouver's best-known pieces of public art, and it took a fair amount of effort to get it in place.
For one thing, the boulder it sits on was always the planned location, but it was actually moved to a higher spot so she'd be more visible at high tide.
A floating crane was actually used to move the huge stone.
The sculptor, Elek Imredy, also had to make a version of the boulder top at home to work on.
Once it was designed, a fibreglass cast was sent to Italy, where the sculpture was actually cast. It then had to be flown back to Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»and attached to its watery home.
