Its an overcast Saturday afternoon on Granville Island, and kids are playing in a pile of sand. Families stand around in clusters, and children hold helium-filled blue balloons.
But this isnt a playground. Its the front yard of Ocean Construction Supplies, the concrete company Granville Island visitors pass by on a daily basis and seldom think twice about.
Yet the 90-year-old company has long been a fixture on this plot of land. And every spring for the last 14 years, Ocean Construction Supplies has opened its gates to give people the chance to learn more about wet-batch concrete than they probably thought they wanted to know and to remind us that Granville Island isnt just about dining, drinking and dropping off the kids at the Adventure Zone.
They [other Granville Island businesses] like having us here, Ocean Construction maintenance planner and unofficial spokesperson Stephen Bell tells us, raising his voice to be heard over the continuous blast of kids pressing on air-horns. We do advertising, and we keep the traffic moving.
The concrete mixing trucks do indeed keep the traffic moving. The trucks at Ocean go in and out every day, and the drivers are probably the best drivers down here, says Scott Fraser, Granville Island marketing and communications officer. And with the drums of some of its concrete mixer trucks decaled with fruits and vegetables to advertise the Public Market, the vehicles are a unique addition to the citys sights.
Ocean Construction Supplies is a holdover from Granville Islands early days. At one time the area was home mostly to industry, but in the post-Second World War years many of its factories were decimated by fires and the area fell into disrepair.
The federal government began redeveloping the site in the early 70s. The idea, according to the Granville Island website, was to transform the site into a people-friendly place with various uses, from parkland to housing to public exhibition space.
Since opening to the public in 1979, the island has lived up to its mandate. Besides heavy industry like Ocean Construction Supplies and manufacturer Micon Products, Granville Island boasts a brewery (Granville Island Brewery, the provinces first microbrewery) and an artisanal sake maker (the only one in Canada).
There is a strong naval element including a dock, whale-watching tours, marina, kayak rentals and fishing charters. Potters, weavers, textile artists, printers and jewelry makers work in studios that once housed foundries and machine shops. And of course, icons like the Public Market and Emily Carr University of Art + Design have become synonymous with Granville Island.
The art school was in the news recently when the Ministry of Advanced Education gave the university $1.7 million to develop a business case for expansion. How this will affect Granville Islands delicate eco-system remains to be seen, although the school owns one building on the island and is leasing another.
Barry Patterson, director of communications for Emily Carr, told WE via email that the school is working on a campus expansion project at Great Northern Way, where the institution already has the Master of Digital Media program with BCIT, UBC and SFU.
The expansion is to address the shortage of space we face at the Granville Island campus which was originally built for 800 students, writes Patterson, who notes that the school has been on Granville Island since 1978. The current space is in need of upgrades and repair. We now have more than 1,800 students every year and no residencies
Once we have determined if we are to proceed with GNW expansion we will address options with the Granville Island campus.
He adds, Granville Island is an important part of our history and however we proceed in the future it will be done thoughtfully and with consideration.
The school is indeed as much a part of the islands makeup as Ocean Construction Supplies and the Public Market. Blue-collar workers, art students, shoppers and tourists all contribute into making Granville Island one of the worlds great places (according to the New York-based nonprofit Project for Public Spaces). With its unique mix of arts, culture, industry and education, the site has stumped city planners from all over the globe who have scouted out the island in an attempt to find out what makes it tick.
For Ocean Constructions Bell, its the sense of community that he likes most about working on the island something that might sound odd when applied to a place known as a tourist destination.
I know my neighbours, says Bell, reached by phone a few weeks after the Ocean Construction open house. I walk around the island, I see everyone I know. Its a nice sense of community. I dont mind having tourists here I just have to watch tour buses dont block our gates.
Bell says that as far as he knows, Ocean Construction is a fully accepted part of that community; he hasnt heard anyone object to the presence of a cement plant in their midst.
I havent heard of any controversy and I havent come across any myself. Everyone seems to like us here were part of the history and the living heritage of the island.
On the afternoon of the Ocean Construction Supplies open house, I pause on the way to the cement plant. A young woman with a guitar begins singing a familiar-sounding melody. I soon realize the song is Steve Earles Copperhead Road. As the busker builds to the chorus, the uniqueness of Granville Island a place Id always taken for grant strikes home. Here I am on the way to a cement plant; after that Ill go to the market to pick up some fresh fish for dinner. Now, however, I stand with several other people, listening to the songs tale of redemption and reclamation.
