Dammit! What about the pot leaf?

Great article!

I'd love to see us get beyond kitschy Canadiana in our design arts!

Danish and Japanese design both showcase wood materials without having to build a antiquated log cabin. I'd love to see us do more of this and export it, supporting the development of a Canadian style of design.

I don't really see what the big deal is here. A log cabin represents simplicity and a proximity to nature. The fact that it can be built in 2 days is a plus. And with an abundance of forests in BC, the log represents one of our main resources. True, it is a bit cliched, but as long as the house isn't patrolled by security guard dressed up as a Mountie, it's OK with me.

"Log construction is extremely resource heavy; to build a similar sized house framed with 2x6 wood studs only a fraction of the amount of wood needs to be used."
You save wood, but you're talking about a huge increase in environmental footprint due to the sawmilling, transportation of the logs, etc.

"...I do not believe that this is the type of building that should be promoted and endorsed by the BC government through public funds."
I don't understand why ANY building needs to be supported by public funds, log cabin or space age BC dwelling. Sticking a house up at a commercial event in a far distant country? Leave it up to the relevant businesses to fund it themselves.

Ridiculous! The Hummer of residential construction. Extremely wasteful of lumber.

With roofing materials today that can outlive the structure, this log house makes as much sense as the cedar shingle/shake roof.

While I like the appearance of log homes and welcome the economic benefits of the current popularity for them, I too must question what the message being sent is.

Yes, we can build beautiful wood structures. I've built a nice wood structure myself out of recycled BC timbers, but as far as inovation goes the industry is little more than a niche catering to a market few can afford.

I suppose we could have got a wet coast artist to sculpture a giant sockeye to symbolize our wild and wonderful foods, but that would have likely opened a few cans of farmed salmon, an embarrassment we don't need.

Then there's the option of erecting a food bank, an industry that sees no limit to its growth in this province.

While there might be a few negatives tied to that image, there is a chance that some wise European might even suggest an alternative to food banks in BC, like fair taxes for everyone, thereby ensuring government has the means to protect the poor from the ravages of unfettered theft, er, I mean free-enterprise.

If that doesn't get those Euros paying attention to BC, maybe we could just put out a For Sale sign, indicative of Premier Campbell's master plan for anything still called public.

Failing those suggestions, I'd pick up on Jamez's suggestion, hold a province-wide contest and ship over the biggest BC bud in the land.

I would suggest the for sale sign, along with the usual sales pitches-"everything must go", "buy now" because we do not want to have sustainable economy & source of governmnet revenue!

I agree if industry wants to promote something then they should pay/fund the display!

Or perhaps the dsiplay should just be a pile of logs available for export; rather than showing secondary, tertiary, quaternary value added products!

While I too like the aesthetic of a log home, If I was to purchase such a home I would buy a log home "kit" and only require 600-1000 sraue feet of lioving space rather than a log "monster" home!

You know she's so right. It seems the true culture of this province is what people "think" it is rather than what it is. In fact I think the only time I've been in a log cabin is when someone took me to one at a lake or something.
Why not go with post and beam or those Widow's Peaks (I think that's what they're called)
You know, something REFLECTIVE

Allan:

"I've built a nice wood structure myself out of recycled BC timbers" Get any trouble from building inspectors. I remember a guy once trying to do that got in crap and the home was torn down because the wood wasn't stamped.

Jamez,
This is a retired union-carpenter talking. Much of the lumber being destroyed as buildings are bulldozed is superior to that garbage you have to pick over today in the lumberyard before you come to something half decent.

I recall even about 25 years ago building a large complex of False Creek townhouses. We had framed the first floors. I seem to recall that they were three or four-storey. Anyhow, by the time we got to the roof most of the first-floor studs were badly twisted and bent.
Most had to be replaced.

It seems the contractor got a "buy" on a load of green spruce. In this case, it may have been just as well it happened because these studs that had been set at 16-inch centers should have been at 12-inch centers, as the plans called for.

Log cabin eh? Though there are probably far better choices that are distinctly British Columbian (like the Wet Coast Long House or Interior ‘Dug out’) I hope the BC Canada lodge is being built from pine. If the cabin idea really catches on BC may find new markets for the many thousands of hectares of beetle kill presently under the saw.

Much better, say, a 20-unit complex two rows of ten back-to-back and attached at the second floors to allow individual rear exits at ground level. It need not be unnattractive.

I would present it as a model of assisted social housing to be constructed throughout the province in areas of need.

More later.

That's it! A cabin of blue-tinted spruce constructed in the shape of our newest symbol:

http://img366.imageshack.us/img366/1027/a1in.jpg

Jamez, oh, the building inspectors.! Well, I might if I approached them now, but then I would argue, if I must, that the structure is my garden shed.

A partial truth at least.

The big pieces, (9"X14"X24'), were D. fir bridge timbers, the floor and rafters (plus glass), from an old copper mine building,
the door and part of the walls from the ceiling in an old warehouse. It has 1"X4" fir ceiling covered with earth and a weird assortment of wildflowers, weeds, grasses, etc.

I call it my "urban kikuli" in reference to its genesis in the pit houses of the Interior Salish such as the Shuswap bands near Kamloops.

But to answer your question. I have several friends who have built extensively with older timbers and they have never had any problens, but I can appreciate the potential. I have heard tales of such, but these timbers, cut and used on logging road bridges, are quite capable to stand up to any ruckus I'm going to make.

An even greater problem is trying to cut the suckers because the older those big fir pieces get the harder the become. Hard like rock in fact, when the sap dries and starts on the process of becoming amber.

Sawmills won't welcome your custom cutting orders, believe me.

Skeptikool, I agree about the quality of the old wood and it makes me sick to see some demo-company using a front end loader or a backhoe to pulverize old wood structures, scrape them up and drop them in the back of a truck pointed at the landfill.

Fortunately much is being taken apart piece-by-piece and saved as well.

For many years I have considered economists and architects the most dangerous people on Earth, filling our lives with strife and ugliness.

I don't live in a log building, but many of my neighbours do and some are experts in building them. There's one going up next door, about 1 km from us.

A simple log building creates the feeling of peace and harmony in our minds, whereas another ugly city monstrosity shows us nothing more than the picture of sordid lives everybody's trying to escape on the weekends.

Ed Deak, Big Lake.

Much of our city and municipal taxes go to maintain armies of engineers, planners, building inspectors and other bureaucrats. This gauntlet must be run before before building or making certain changes to residences within the mandated area.

These facts did not prevent the leaky condo situation that touched many thousands of owners, leading in some cases to bankruptcy.

We finance these departments that, it seems, are less concerned with protecting the homeowner than running interference on behalf of contractors, property managers and certain industries.

I experienced my first and last strata complex tenancy and went through the whole leaky condo thing. This situation over-all became a monumental make-work project involving, I'm sure, much boondoggle between favored contractors and complicit property managers with warped priorities.

Simply put, after almost 200 years of non-native, residential construction on the Wet Coast numerous builders had not learned, from that history, to keep out the rain.

Now there's an idea for a representative of the current typical BC style of archetecture.

A nice condo, riddled with mold and covered with blue tarps and scaffolding.

Throw in some inhabitants wearing traditional rustic HasMat suits and you can show the world what it's really like living in the unregulated wilderness here.

Mel from Calgary. The log house represents BC. Vazncouver is not BC, it's an anomaly. BC is that huge chunk on the left coast that's almost entirely composed of trees.
To some of the other posters:
The longhouse was made out of logs.
You don't go to trade shows to show off socialized anything, let alone some of the sorry 'Cominterm condo' boxes tha no-one in the rest of BC would dream of living in.
Sustainable is now bullshit, sustainability was completely lost while politicians waffled ignoring the people who live here and the forests died. We're going to sell that bug wood as log homes, grind it up into pellets and burn it, whatever it takes to feed our families.
A log building is far more representative of BC than some leaky steel, glass and plastic abomination.

It is easy to be cynical about the Olympics, I was the same way (Calgary has a knack for making everything look like Stampede). When they actually happened Calgary did a fantastic job and it was way too much fun. I suggest to everyone who lives in Vancouver, go to as many events as you can and you will not regret it. Yes, there will be things that are cheesey but embrace it and you will not be sorry.

Skeptikool, you hit a nerve with that one.
But I think much of the blame for municipal development woes lie more with the politicians and senior bureaucrats who think cutting red tape for developers is more efficient than policing their efforts to turn huge profits in a short time at the expense of residents.

Most municipalities have the bylaws and codes that are to be followed to ensure safe housing.

Unfortunately, local politicians who have to get re-elected (they think), know that developers always have ways of rewarding their friends and complaining.

In fact irate residential groups could learn a thing or two about effective whining by listening to these developers.

So maybe the city's building dept. is a few staff members short, everybody's up to their waste in permit applications and inspections.

Something has to give and the builder is promising he'll do the right thing if only the inspector will ignore this one infraction.

Sometimes the issue is much larger. A big developer wants to build in a new area but preliminary reports suggest unstable hillsides, underground springs or other concerns.

Planners and permit people raise red flags, but mysteriously the permits get approved because deals are cut so the project can go ahead and politicians can talk of economic development.

Planners and inspectors, aware there are few medals awarded for taking on developers and their own bosses at the same time, aren't known as whistle-blowers.

I remember a time in Kamloops back in the early '90s when a senior person in the city's building inspection branch confided he hoped to be retired before parts of a large part of the city started to slide.

Much of Aberdeen, the southwest area of Kamloops is built on hillside, the site of several historic major slides and more underground springs than anyone has been able to count.

Within two years of the officials voiced fears, an entire block of condos began a slow slide down the slopes.

The problem has since be corrected according to the city, which spent at least $2 million dewatering the hillside, installing sensors and trying to calm irate residents whose lives have been thrown into expensive chaos.

As is often the case, the city and the developer were sued, but the developer had bankrupted that firm before starting a new construction firm free of those liabilities so the city (that's me and my tax buck), quietly went about settling the claims, but avoided any discussions then or later on what it costs.

The city continues to quietly work to correct other water problems flowing out of the southwest part of the city. It's almost a continuous stream of projects to shore up or divert this stream or that sluff.

Taxpayers are hit with the entire bill while the former landowners, developers and builders holiday on their earnings from those projects.

And the politicians? Those who pay attention refuse to talk about it while the rest play golf or break bread with the developers, thinking they are keeping company with the city's best citizens.

I always considered the log cabin as a symbol of Alaska.

Allan,
You wrote:
"As is often the case, the city and the developer were sued, but the developer had bankrupted that firm before starting a new construction firm free of those liabilities so the city (that's me and my tax buck), quietly went about settling the claims, but avoided any discussions then or later on what it costs."

I'm convinced that projects are often entered into with knowledge that they will fail. These failed projects will still return big bucks to the bottom feeders milking the taxpayer.

We have a fine example reported in yesterday's Dose: $35 million to kill bridge deal

The NDP leader Jack Layton asks why Transport Canada paid $35 million to avoid building a bridge to Toronto's island airport that would have cost $25 million to construct. The NDP is seeking who received the money and why.

Examples may also be pointed to in forestry where companies claim loss of rights to log "public" forest.

It's a whole sleazy growth-industry.

herbie,

On a couple of your points:

I think many of B.C.'s homeless would not balk at living in transplanted "Cominterm condo" boxes.

With the insane, Lower Mainland property values, there is much room for innovation in affordable "compact" housing. The possibilities really scare the industry. I would love my own Carpenters' Union to climb aboard.

To repeat, the row housing I suggested need not be ugly. I had in mind a pre-insulated tilt-up construction with a decorative facade and staggered fronts. They would be low maintenance with no exterior wood - two or three storeys - perhaps even with a slab roof (flat or mildly pitched) to permit roof gardening.

While it is realized there is a nostalgic and aesthetic attachment to wood, whether in building boats or houses, there are superior and often-more-economical materials.

Australia seems much ahead of us here. A ranch-type residence I stayed at near Perth (typical of adjacent properties) had no wood in the exterior window and door trim or fascias.
The fencincg comprised a corrugated, cement-cellulose material avaialable in several colors. It was easily erected and held with a metal cap and will last for life unless hit by an earthquake, kangaroo or backing vehicle.

Many of those clearcuts can be given over to hemp, that also has uses in building materials.

another liberal scam, supporting resort developers, i'm afraid
"The proponent of the Jumbo project is Oberto Oberti, a Vancouver architect and, through his company Pheidias Project Management, developer. Jumbo is not the first ski resort he has promoted. In the 1990s, Mr Oberti obtained approval for the Kicking Horse Moutain Resort in Golden, BC. Once the project was completed, Mr Oberti stepped aside. He is now, apparently, not involved in the ski resort, which opened in 1999, according to its own website. We will come back to Kicking Horse in a moment."
http://tinyurl.com/7oloe

With all due respect to those who have turned this threadbare article into something with a little meat on it by making it about pine beetle infestations and construction codes, I'm more concerned about the upcoming meeting slated between US El Presidente Bush and Premiers Campbell and Klein. In the face of what's at work selling out our province, why should I care whether a loghouse is an appropriate symbol at an event which has nothing to do with my community and which is attended by people who couldn't care less about us one way or another?

Te Aro Arahina: I agree but I think stories like this one are necessary diversions. They fill the same function as stories in the Entertainment and Sports sections of most dailys: They provide stimuli necessary for irrelevant tho’t as well as providing a level of comic relief.

Personally, I don’t dwell on the Sports or Entertainment pages, but my cat won’t use the litter box unless it can scratch down to a fresh image of Bertuzzi or David Foster or some other icon mass mindlessness.

I’m confident that, given the Tyee’s history , you will have more than ample opportunity to spill meaningful mental ejaculations over the Campbell, Klein, Bush ménage a trios, and other stories that concern your community.

I realize your question is rhetorical but tho’t I would throw another log on the fire to keep the cabin story ablaze.

In the good old days people like Campbell and Klein used to be called quislings. Now they're the disciples of "wealth creating, globally competitive market economics"

So, if the environment and the people are trashed in the process, it is because they're not "competitive producers".

So, what happens when 3 alcoholics get together ?
What are they talk and competing for ? Ed Deak, Big Lake.

Shelter being one of our most basic requirements, I do feel this article raises interesting questions.

If this log house, instead of its planned showing at the Turin Olympics, was shown in Paris today I'm sure it would be regarded by many as a frivolous display for the wealthy and of no consequence in responding to a dire need.

Headline: Fire sparks call for cheap shelter

When a dilapidated rat-infested, Paris building burned, leaving 17 dead, the French government was further urged to build low-cost homes. Reportedly, 100,000 families on low or modest income competed last year for 12,000 subsidized homes in Paris.

One French newspaper writes that it is difficult to justify the co-existence of thousands of dilapidated buildings and a scandalously speculative housing market.

This problem, I suggest, is generic to the whole "civilized" world.

"A civilized world".........what an interesting idea. Perhaps humanity should try it sometime ?

Ed Deak, Big Lake.

Ed Deak remembers what a Quisling is! That makes two of us. Let's go to to Victoria or Ottawa someday and do a head count...
Te Aro, the article seems to disapprove of using the beetlewood to export log homes. We're mad that nothing was done about the infestation in order to pander to environmentalists. We can't object when we're critised for utilising the damaged goods we're left with? We're getting premium prices and jobs for junk, this should be a good thing.
And Skepticool, just what has to be done to get people to move? There's an entire province to populate, yet everyone wants to live in one small area. I just went down there and listed my Mom's 1000 sq ft condo in Burnaby for the price of two new 3,000 sq ft homes on lakeshore lots up here. That's insane! We have to encourage the employers to move away from the Lower Mainland and we can make a better province with housing for all.
This is a BIG province and we need to think BIG picture, that's the failing of the article. What's good for one part of the province may not be the best solution for another, but if it's not detrimental, it's good to the big picture. The rest of BC is not a Northern Resource Co-Prosperity Sphere to be exploited by a central ruling area. We want inclusion, to derive maximum benefits, just like any citizen anywhere. I'm gonna make that my job.

Ya you fools only think of Vancouver when you speak of B.C. The rest of the province has completelt different ideas of what is British Columbian. Travel to the Caribou country of central B.C. (no not the Okanagan dumbums) and ask all of the Italians and Germans that have believe it log homes what they like about B.C. and precious old Vancouver will not even enter the equation. So to all that responded in favour and the writer as well, WAKE UP and take a drive around this province of ours before you shoot off your mouths about what is British Columbian and you will find the truth.

later............

No, herbie. I have no problem with people who use beetle-killed wood to build houses.

My issue is this expectation that I'm supposed to get all hottied up about the Olympics. Why? They don't give a shite about my community or the people I care about and work for.

Like the author wrote, the log cabin's a banal and materialistic choice, which is why redshift pointed out it's perfect for Oberti---the man who wants to destroy Jumbo. Undoubtedly the Liberals approved this junket because he's singlehandedly done more to alienate Europeans from visiting this country since the first ads of clubbed and bloodied baby seals.

A blah-cabin is a perfect symbol to represent banal and materialistic BCers, the leaders they voted in, and their financiers. Maybe there are still a few BC artists with imagination and spirit who haven't been silenced or impoverished by years of hostility, underfunding and corporate philistinism, but because this government doesn't know or care who they are or what they stand for, it's bloody ludicrous to expect their work to show up as a representation of the best of BC at the Olympics. What we get instead is that thing in the photo.

Given that, let's move onto an interesting topic, like what the BC artists/architects with real imagination and spirit are doing. If they haven't all moved to Saskatchewan yet.

herbie you say and I quote you...

"We're mad that nothing was done about the infestation in order to pander to environmentalists."

You are kidding right??? The real problem was the forest companies themselves, they were getting good wood for cheap, the old timers used to ring trees in the fall so they would bleed to death in the spring when the sap was running and then that fall or the following they had dry wood for building or firewood. Cured on the stump.

My point is the bug wood was excellent wood as long as they caught it in time, I grew up in logging, ran skidders and cats, my Father was a logging contractor until the corps and forestry forced most of the small guys out of business in the sixties. He was tired of the b.s. anyway fighting to get his money from the mills, waiting months then getting screwed by the scaling.

Their used to be a small sawmill every ten or twenty miles, family owned and operated not anymore, now they haul trees for up to hundreds of miles, this nonsense will end with high fuel costs.

The bugwood is lighter on the scales and forestry cuts the forest companies a deal to harvest it from what I have heard yet the wood is good for chips, they do saw bug wood if caught early. Lots of profits being made how else do you think they are making record profits while being hit by the softwood lumber tariff?

Most of the old timers wanted the beetles burned out and they should have back in the late sixties early seventies and it would not be the problem it is today! Before fire supression the beetles would have been burned out by nature, what is really scary now is a wildfire in all that dry wood.

It was the forest companies who took advantage of the bugwood, it got them into areas they still wouldn't be getting into, now thanks to their greed we have a dissaster happening. It is not just pine beetles there are also beetles killing spruce.

They are hauling beetle infested trees all over the country and have been for years helping the beetle to spread. It is greed and nothing less. Environmentalists yeh right! Are you from burnaby?

> The reality in this province is that a large percentage of the
> population lives in glass and concrete condominiums and
> can choose to eat from a variety of first-rate restaurants

This is true only because development has absolutely failed to distribute our population, the majority of our population lives in the Fraser Valley.

By geography, the log cabin plays a significant role. We need to export both BC Brands - it's the cabins that attract tourists, at least judging by my travels around the province this summer.

Yeah, that's what people want when they travel. Bland, homogenized crap that's less interesting than the stuff they've got at home.

Ursus: yeah I was a burnabeing. But I have to point out that the spread is not due to hauling. Two things control the beetle naturally, cold and fire. It hasn't been cold for ten years, and whenever there's a fire we rush to put it out and 'save' the forest. Kind of both partly our own fault, so don't get the idea people upcountry aren't pro-environment.
Sorry for such a broad generalization, but the condition is directly attributed to political sensitivity to the environmental lobby. It began in Tweedsmuir Park, and the previous gov't and this one at first refused to address the issue with known solutions. You can't log, burn, or spray in a park.... sacred ground....
So while they flapped their jaws and ate donuts in committee meetings, the damn bugs flew and spread, flew and spread, flew and spread.
Where was the research into known predators, pheremone releases, species specific virii? Nothing. Nothing was done. Nothing but talk.

KWD, you are underestimating the importance of shelter as a basic human need.

Since there are millions of people forecast to migrate & be born here over the next twenty years, it will be a huge task to provide them all with basic human services while preserving the stellar quality of life in BC.

Since most of the jobs and population are focused in the Lower Mainland and Capital Region, it is likely that most of the new migrants & births will be focused in those areas. Building log cabins is romantic and rural, but is a drop in the bucket when it comes to providing shelter to all the new BCers. Don't get me wrong -- I love log cabins & rural living (as I grew up a country boy), but it won't be enough to deal with housing all the new BCers.

I think we should be looking at how to use our resources in a manner that can provide low-cost, low enviro-footprint, aesthetically-pleasing homes to house all the new people who will be here -- without trashing our quality of life. Therefore, revisiting the log cabin at the Turn Olympics is a lost opportunity to showcase our know-how.

the spread is not due just to hauling but hauling made the situation a lot worse, spreading the beetles further and faster into areas it would have taken years for them to reach.

It hasn't been really cold since the early eighties, about the time of the big cut blocks on the east end of Francois Lake and south west, I remember driving down to Nadina lake (from Francois) in about 87 and seeing the huge cut blocks there for the first time and I was shocked.

If you get a wind warning on the coast it only takes about five hours to blow up into the east end of Francois lake now. I don't know if the cut blocks changed the weather, only the timing is about right. Do know we never got ice on the branches before then, not like we were when I was still living up there, left in 97.

I remember the big debate about tweedsmuir, the parks branch was concerned that if they let the forest companies into the park it might encourage the deliberate spreading of the beetles since this would allow them access to the entire park system and considering the present beetle situation not as far fetched as some might think.

They were cutting bugwood on the North edge of Tweedsmuir during the winter of 82-83, hauling across an ice bridge just east of the old east ootsa camp. So the bugs have been in the Park for years but it only became a big issue when the local mills wanted access to the wood in the Park.

It is my opinion that they should have let Forestry burn in the Parks as soon as the bugs showed up, a late fall burn would have gotten rid of the bugs but then not to many Northerners have confidence in the Forestry department to pull off a safe burn either.

They may have been a little fearful of this themselves as they have been known to let a few of their controlled burns get away on them burning down a lot of good wood in the process.

I agree with darcy.mcgee that there are two BC stories to tell from a tourism perspective. I now live in Germany, and I can tell you that the typical German's mental image of BC, when he/she has one, is of a log cabin, not of a City of Glass. This is not the fault of marketing hacks in the Ministry of Tourism or whatever it is called these days, this is part of a deeply-ingrained, romanticized fairy tale of western North America that was created and nurtured in large part by European dime novelists like Germany's own Karl May, and propagated in the educational curriculum ever since.

I see no problem with exploiting said image in order to get the folks through the door -- literally, in the case of the log cabin in Turin. But once this has been accomplished, we then have to say to them, "oh, and by the way, this is what we've been up to in the century or so since your great-great uncle came out here to homestead." And wow them out of their socks.

Yeah, let's wow them with the moonscape imagery of BC and how many clearcuts we've swathed across the province since their great-great granduncle ponced around pretending he was a bonafide Haida Warrior. That will make a nice follow-up to Oberti's bid to destroy one of the last postage-stamp parcels of actual wilderness left in the province. That will really wow them.

To me, a log cabin is a beautiful thing. Hey, but if that's no good, how about show casing a lovely Vancouver Special, pink stucco, terra cotta roof tiles, wrought iron and all? They're plenty popular in my neck of the woods.

Now we're getting sentimental or something Pepa.
I'm back to favouring Bailey's nicely blue-tarped condos.
They are just so eye-popping Wet Coast and you won't have to worry about what's in your neck of the woods, it's been clearcut.