The Philosopher King & The Philosopher Queen
Sunday, August 31, 2014
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| Lynn Zanatta, Cornelia Oberlander, Clancy Dennehy, Carolyn Chan, Bruno Freschi, Joe Wai, Charles Barber, centre Sam Sullivan & Pancho |
On August 28, 2009 Vancouver architect
Abraham Jedidiah Rogatnick died.
Last Thursday, August
28, 9 former friends met at Opus Hotel’s La Pentola for lunch to converse (not talk
or chat) about the man and how he touched our lives.
The lunch was
instigated by Liberal MLA Sam Sullivan and his wife Lynn Zanatta. The lunch
would have included 10 except architect Geoff Massey wrote the wrong date on
his diary.
The t-shaped table was
anchored on one side by Sullivan and by architect Bruno Freschi and landscape
architect Cornelia Han Oberlander on the other.
Sullivan has a
favourite curiousity which is to always ask, “What are you doing now?” After
listening to all the 8 present I came to the conclusion that I was the single interloper
living in obsolescence and redundancy.
Consider that Bruno
Freschi, after having survived 7 operations in recent years to control a
recurring cancer seems to be just fine. For a while, between operations, he had
planned an exit strategy (luckily for us that was never executed) and now he is
busily constructing a new addition to what was his first house in Vancouver. The client and
West Van’s city council stand up and clap when Freschi enters for meetings. Freschi
told us, “This is a remarkable change as I usually have to battle those folks.”
Architect Joe Way is
attempting to keep the spirit and the look of Vancouver’s
China Town alive. Of all of us he was not only
taught by Rogatnick but lived in close proximity (next door) to the man on 11th Avenue
across from George Bowering. Both Bowering and Wai live in silence by the birthday
cake that replaced the demolished Rogatnick residence.
Video artist Clancy
Dennehy and his wife Carolyn Chan (a Butoh dancer) are working on joint
projects while Dennehy is planning and organizing a Wikipedia page
for Rogatnick.
Sullivan our very own
philosopher/king politician (deftly organized by his wife Lynn Zanatta) still
finds time to have his salons where people must say good stuff in very little
time. This is a challenge if you consider that most now say nothing in a long
time.
Dr. Charles Barber,
Artistic Director of City Opera Vancouver, is basking in the success of his
organization’s mounting of the Margaret Atwood and Tobin Stokes opera Pauline
which received good reviews. He is currently in the planning stages of an opera
on the missing women that Robert Picton murdered as seen by the sister of one
of the women. I must add that Rogatnick and I were present at a special recital
by Judith Forst in which Stokes was chosen as the composer for the Pauline
opera.
But I must leave to
the end the best. We were all wowed by the intelligence, energy and lucidity of
93 year-old Cornelia Oberlander who is not retired. I must repeat, she is not
retired. We found out that this Harvard graduate (along with Rogatnick and
Massey) worked with the likes of architect Louis Kahn. It was a surprise, a
delightful surprise to find out that when Oberlander spotted the notification
for the building of a new Main Vancouver Public Library, that she called up
architect Moishe Safdie and told him, “Let’s apply.” The rest of course is
monumental history.
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| Abraham Jedidiah Rogatnick |
I asked Obelander why
access to the library’s green roof ( an Oberlander passion, these green roofs
that help offset the encroaching concrete of expanding cities) was still
restricted. She almost got as angry about this bureaucratic SNAFU as she did about Bartell’s railroading
our city to move the Vancouver
Art Gallery.
We all contributed to this as it was also a Rogatnick crusade to keep the
gallery where it is. It was further illuminating to have Wai, Freschi and
Oberlander explain to us all the ways that the gallery could remain.
Since Oberlander did
the landscaping for Robson Square
she knows that the Erickson plan was to extend the gallery down towards the law
courts. That space has been ruined (I must repeat this, ruined) by the folks at
UBC. When it is convenient they are out in the Endowment Lands and they are
separate from our city. When it is convenient they are in the city, at Robson Square. At Robson Square they
have killed all the city discourse on the arts and city living that we used to
enjoy at the beautiful Judge White auditorium where Rogatnick was roasted by
the Vancouver Urbanarium Society. It was at that auditorium where I heard
Erickson (as a sitting spectator) enlighten us on how our city should be.
To this day many will
we aware of the city presence of Simon
Fraser University.
They have organized a rich cultural experience for us. How many know about UBC
in our city? What do they do? Is their bookstore in Robson Square still around?
My guess is that UBC is busy building a city of condos on their main campus
which will eventually tax our transportation system or increase car traffic. “Not
green,” Oberlander would say.
But that was not all
Oberlander enlightened us about. She has been working in the far north and she
has exact knowledge on the encroaching global warming. She cites how building
on permafrost now necessitates pilings at least twice the length to find firm
and frozen ground. There is not enough gravel to stabilize Harper’s new
construction of a highway. She talked about the far too-low Richmond
sea wall and how Waikiki will soon be a fond
memory of long departed beach. Having really no choice in this year’s candidates
for mayor (¿Cuál es el menos malo?) I think that the prospect of a
philosopher/queen for mayor would be an excellent solution.
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| Geoff Massey |
Present to all this
was Pancho, the Mexican papier-mâché skeleton
that Rogatnick gave me one year before he died. He told me, “You can have this
as I will not be around in a year.”
I miss Abraham
Jedidiah Rogatnick but Thursday was ample proof that indeed there is good left
in our city and in us. And we all have that man to thank for.
Abraham Rogatnick video by Clancy Dennehy
Civics and civility at City Hall with Abraham Rogatnick and Sam Sullivan
Abraham Rogatnick video by Clancy Dennehy
Civics and civility at City Hall with Abraham Rogatnick and Sam Sullivan
