Friday, February 03, 2006


This building was once known as the BC Electric. It then became the BC Hydro Building and now it is called the Electra. The architect was Ron Thom, on the right and the man who okayed everything was his boss Ned Pratt, on the left. I photographed Ron Thom only once, weeks before he died. When he posed for me I faced someone who seemed to be in despair. Many say he drank himself to death. Pratt, I photographed many times and he was a cheerful man who was all I thought architects should be. He was urbane and could talk about anything. He was interested in everything. Few in Vancouver have made the connection between his Dal Grauer Substation (on one side of the Electra) and Mondrian. The Dal Grauer Substation could be the only three dimensional Mondrian in existence.

architects