x-long files and Punch Clock Plaza

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x long files and punch clock plaza

This project pays homage to the thousands of workers who once passed through the former Burrard Shipyard site in North Vancouver, BC. The piece speaks not only of those who came to Canada to build ships, but also of a nation built by immigrants and the bureaucracies that organized them.

The very long drawer of files is cantilevered over a concrete foundation wall. Emblematic of a vast demographic, the files are etched with the time cards of a few of the male and female workers who came from all over the world. The plaza is framed on one side by a giant photo mural which illustrates hundreds of workers entering into that space in the 1920s. On the other side, rusting shoring steel holds back the original topographic line of the shore before its industrial transformation.

The rusting steel, sepia photo, and large cantilevered drawer paint a portrait of people, economy and a physical geography of this earlier time which is mediated by our presence.

Title
x-long files and Punch Clock Plaza
Location
North Vancouver, BC, Canada
Client
City of North Vancouver
Completed
2010
Studio Team
Bill Pechet, Gabe Daly, Heidi Nesbitt
Project Team
Pechet and Robb art and architecture Ltd., Durante Kruek Ltd.
Fabrication
Marcon Metal Fabrication, Mondiale Development Ltd.
Images
Gabe Daly, Bill Pechet, Mike Wakefield