Vancouver's Waldorf Hotel / photo by Flickr user savageblackout
Members of Vancouver’s art community have expressed surprise and outrage over the past week regarding the closing of the city’s Waldorf Hotel.
In 2010, the 1950s-era hotel was reopened as an arts project space coordinated (though not owned) by a group called Waldorf Productions. As the Globe and Mail reports, “Last week, word emerged that the hotel’s owner—which leased the place to Waldorf Productions—had sold the place to a condo developer. Waldorf Productions was offered a week-to-week lease, but could not operate under those conditions.”
At a protest on January 13, the Vancouver Sun reports, arts community leaders including artists Paul Wong and Ian Wallace, as well as Vancouver Art Gallery director Kathleen Bartels, turned out to express their support for arts activities at the venue.
The local outcry seemed to have struck a victory when, as the Province reported, city council voted on January 15 “for a 120-day protection order for the site to allow staff to complete a heritage assessment.”
However, while the building may stand, Waldorf Productions has been asked to leave the building by the hotel’s owners, the Georgia Straight reports. The Straight also notes that the culture-vs-condos debate that has emerged around the recent events became complicated when it was revealed that Waldorf Productions at one point was seeking the cooperation of a condo developer “to redevelop the property and save the business.”
As of January 21, some groups are still campaigning to have the building’s new owner, condo developer Solterra, reconsider a relationship with Waldorf Productions. A “Save the Waldorf” email campaign is posted at Gen Why Media and a Vancouver Loves the Waldorf Facebook page remains active, as does a Save the Waldorf Facebook page.
Whatever happens to the Waldorf, the events surrounding it seem to have provided a point of focus for concerns about the declining affordability and availability of cultural space in Vancouver.
As the Vancouver Observer reported,
Arts advocates are concerned not only about affordability, but the type of development that is fostered by the current real estate market.
“I think the Waldorf is a tipping point for what might be this incredibly bland vanilla, Yaletown-esque future of Vancouver. If we’re not fighting for the Waldorf, I’m not sure how many other places there are to save in the future,” said Graeme Burgland, a Vancouver-based artist who ran the Black & Yellow art gallery in the Waldorf Hotel.
The Vancouver Sun has reported that Black & Yellow has found an alternate temporary space in East Vancouver.
