Page 58 - 06_September-2024

10 BE HOME TOUR.24
WALLS OF ART
The Churchill Exchange Building has sat on downtown’s 102nd Avenue/100th Street corner since 1908. Most people think it used to be a bank, and, for a time, it was. But first it was one of the most advanced telephone exchanges in the country.
For readers under 30 who don’t know
what that last sentence means, all you need
to know is that a telephone exchange had an overwhelming number of wires that needed
to be constantly “exchanged” into a wall of corresponding holes. For the owner of this sleek downtown loft, that now means really high walls. "And the great thing with these high walls is they're perfect for art,” he says.
As a born and raised Edmontonian, he adores downtown — for the convenience (“I don't
care when we get a foot of snow because I’m a seven-minute pedway walk from my office”),
the food (“I’m not someone who cooks, and
the restaurants are great”), but most of all, for the art that adorns his giant walls: “It’s mostly Albertan artwork, and most of it’s from the Art Gallery of Alberta’s art sales and rentals.”
On the largest wall, a Jim Vest, titled “Rocky Shoreline (Christine) JNP,” depicts an instantly recognizable Rocky Mountain lake scenescape that dwarfs the big-screen TV below. “Revival II,” by the late Arlene Wasylynchuck, portrays Chaba Imne (translated from Stony Nakoda into “Beaver Lake,” also known as Maligne Lake) hangs on the opposite wall. Together,
the pieces give the feeling of looking out
at the mountains through a pair of artistic windows. “This is as downtown as you can get, in my opinion, so it’s like bringing the Alberta landscape inside, into the middle of super-urban downtown."
As someone who’s spent time living in likely the loftiest city in the world, he knows what “super-urban” can be, and loves having a piece of it here. “Through work, I spent six months living in a high-rise apartment in midtown Manhattan, with a concierge doorman and everything. There aren’t a lot of lofts like this in Edmonton, so it feels pretty special.” HT