Fashion Monday with JJ Lee

The Whitecaps' proposal to build a new soccer stadium received a red card from the Vancouver Heritage Commission today. The VHC declared it "detrimental" to the heritage values of Gastown on Monday afternoon. The decision, while not binding, is one of several negative responses from advisory commissions who report to Vancouver's city council. The football club wants to build a 15 000-seat stadium over the railyard between Granville Square and Cambie Street. It would have to be built 10 metres above the tracks creating what some fear would be a giant wall on the northern edge of Gastown. Commissioner Cheryl Cooper said, "It flies completely in the face of what the Heritage Commission has been trying to achieve in Gastown and would disrupt the neighbourhood and the quality of life." VHC member James Burton said, "It would obliterate what you see from the water." Another member, Cam Cathcart, said the scale of the project "appalls me." But n...

(This column originally aired on CBC Radio One AM 690, On The Coast, April 3, 2006) A recent exhibition called "Graphex '06 - Do The Thing That You Do - Canadian Style" at the Pendulum Gallery in Vancouver asked, "Is there such a thing as a Canadian graphic design aesthetic?" The Graphic Designers of Canada organized the show as part of its 50th anniversary celebrations. An international jury including Rick Poynor, an influential design writer and founder of Eye magazine, selected over 60 works from over 600 submissions by Canadian graphic design firms. Representing the best works from 2005, a great local winner was Rethink. They're mostly known for their cheeky ads (a personal favourite is Rethink's TV campaign for Junior Achievers of BC featuring ethically-challenged business people teaching school kids shady, Enron-like practices and the tag line, "Teach kids everything you know about business...Well, almost everything.") but the agency has...