Downtown Vancouver has received something of a facelift for the Olympic Winter Games. Not that our buildings look shabby, but an effort has been made to have the core area look more colourful. Most of it is sponsored advertising for large corporations.
One of the most dramatic forms is that of the wrap. You take a building and cover it with a coating that's a cross between cling wrap and wallpaper. Usually, you can see out from inside a wrap, but from the outside it looks opaque.
My wife and I saw many wraps in Europe. They were used to cover construction areas. Often, the wrap would show what the finished building would look like. Now, wraps are becoming popular in North America. The wraps in Vancouver are among the largest and most intricate of any in the world, with a couple of local graphic arts companies emerging as the top leaders in wrap technology.
I took a snapshot of this patriotic wrap which covers the massive renovation of an old building into some kind of super luxury condo. The renovation has been going on for years. Someday, it might be interesting to see what the finished product will look like when the wraps come off, even if I can't afford to get past the lobby.
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