WORLD SPOTLIGHT MOVES TO 2010
March 8, 2006TORINO-Canada received an enormous amount of attention thanks to its showing at the Olympics. Canucks ranked third in the medal count, but the surprise hit of the games was the log pavilion sprung from B.C.’s South Cariboo.
Turn on the television at any given time during the event and the woodsy, interior of B.C.-Canada Place was visible from behind the heads of a variety of celebrities. It made it clear to the world, B.C. is prepping for the 2010 spotlight.
Walter Bramslaven, the general manager of Sitka Log Homes, was in Torino for six days and said being there was an opportunity of a lifetime. Not only did he get to see the company’s product shine, he also got to rub elbows with some big names.
“As it turns out, it (B.C.-Canada Place) was the single biggest venue in all of Italy in all of the Olympics,” he said. “By the time I flew home on Thursday, 100,000 people had toured through the house and on the last day I was there, 10,000 people went through.”
During his time in Torino he was able to catch a gold medal hockey game, meet Gillian Apps, one of Canada’s gold medal hockey players, and the men and women’s curling teams.
Bramslaven was also in attendance on closing day when Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan and Premier Gordon Campbell came to the pavilion to mark the end of Italy’s turn at the Olympics and the start of Canada’s.
“They actually brought the Olympic flag to the house, and had everyone view it, and then they folded it up so Mr. Sullivan could take it home,” he said. “It was an emotional and a sad evening, but also very exciting because, basically, it was the first day of our venture into our Olympics in 2010.”
B.C.-Canada Place not only helped put this province on the map for the upcoming Olympics, but unveiled a venue that turned the heads of an international audience with interest in B.C.’s timber industry.
An information sharing event hosted by BC Wood attracted an audience of 95 architects and engineers from Italy and Europe.
“It was very informative, and they were quite happy which gave us a pretty good applause when we finished our presentation,” he said. “They were very happy with what they saw. It seems to me that in Italy, there’s a movement towards a wood culture.”
European builders are trying to get away from stone and brick and masonry, because it’s a non-renewable resource, he said.
“The chair of the Italian Architect Institute probably said it best: ‘You can plant a seed in the ground and nature will provide you with a tree to build with, if you plant a brick in the ground, you still have a brick’,” Bramslaven said.
Whether Sitka will be able to cash-in on the next Winter Olympics remains to be seen, however.
“We are hoping and we are very optimistic that we will be involved in 2010 to a certain degree and certainly anyone in B.C. should pursue those opportunities because they are out there,” he said.
Courtesy of: Kathy Michaels, The 100 Mile Free Press
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