Sinks, sculpture, even walls and fences: City firm’s work is beautiful and functional

John Mackie
Sun

CREDIT: Steve Bosch, Vancouver Sun Joel Berman can supply artistic installations to meet any need, such as …

There aren’t too many artists whose resume includes work for the United Nations, Trump Casino and Disney. But Joel Berman isn’t your everyday artist.

The 53-year-old is the head of Joel Berman Glass Studios, a multi-million- dollar Vancouver company that designs architectural glass for clients all over North America.

Berman and his staff of 50 can make functional glass artwork out of almost anything. Sheets of tall, thin corrugated glass with a touch of blue-green make a stylish outdoor windscreen on a terrace. Cast glass sinks on a glass counter top make for a very cool bathroom. Multi-coloured glass sculptures turn a partition in an airport lounge into an “art wall.”

The company’s creative versatility, imagination and technical know-how have resulted in commissions all over the world. Berman is doing a 6,000-square-foot glass sculpture on an exterior wall in Germany. Last year the company did glasswork in two hotels in Japan. Its biggest commission was doing three buildings for General Motors in Detroit.

But the company also does lots of residential work. For a penthouse in Coal Harbour, Berman is doing an art wall and a light sculpture in the dining room. The company put together a glass staircase for a client in West Vancouver. Another West Van client put up a glass fence.

“That was beautiful,” says Berman.

“With a translucent glass it gives you privacy [but lets in light]. Given that we have a lot of rain here, a high degree of light transmission is good. This [glass] would get about 70 to 85 per cent light transmission, depending on the texture.”

Texture is one of the things that makes Berman’s glass special. Some of his glass looks like a rock face, other glass has a ribbed look, some looks frosted. And it comes in a wide variety of colours. A suspended glass sculpture at Nortel Networks headquarters in Atlanta mixes a deep red wine colour with a vivid cobalt blue; strategically-placed spotlights bring out all sorts of hues.

Berman does some design, but stresses that the company is a team of artists and artisans who each add something special to the mix. The staff literally comes from all over the world. The two master mould makers come from Japan (Hiro Taniguchi) and Quebec (Daniel Masse). The head painter, Nenad Strebac, hails from from Sarajevo, Bosnia.

Berman is from Winnipeg, where his family ran a jewelry business. His father sold blown glass from Italy, and young Joel grew to love it. He learned leaded glass making in Winnipeg, but found there wasn’t much of a market. So he decided to study cast glass at Pilchuck Glass School near Seattle.

He moved to Vancouver in 1980. He started off making glass sculptures for private clients, but soon was commissioned to do corporate work through another Winnipeg expat, designer Ian Dubienski of Group 5 Design.

“We do corporate offices, and offices always have glass in them,” explains Dubienski.

“They have side lights for the doors, boardrooms that need glass. They need visual protection so that you can’t see through, but it allows light in. We were looking for some method to have something nice on the glass without putting drapes or blinds on it.”

Berman rose to the challenge in style. He started doing singular work for clients, modifying designs to suit each company.

“One job we did years ago for a shipping company,” recalls Dubienski.

“We were able to mould sextants and sea life and waves and things into a board room, so it looked as though it was a sculpture in a wall.”

Berman proved to be as adept at marketing as he was at art, and Joel Berman Glass grew from a small office/studio on Granville Island into an international company with offices on Granville Island, a 28,000-square-foot production facility near Japantown and a showroom in Chicago. He also has some glass mass produced in Europe.

He has an A-list of corporate clients, including Air Canada, AT&T, Bank One, Bank of Montreal, Bell South, Boeing, Continental Airlines, DKNY, Ford Motors, The Gap, IBM, Loblaws, Lufthansa, McDonald’s, Microsoft, Motown Records, Nokia, Northwest Airlines, Price Waterhouse, Ritz Carlton, Westin Hotels and Xerox.

Berman’s glass has become quite popular in high-end residences in the States.

“We do a lot of work in New York,” he says. “We did a 35,000-square-foot house in Vail for a single guy.”

Metropolitan Home magazine recently featured a Berman glass shower from a home in Washington, D.C. This week, editors from Metropolis magazine and Architectural Record are in town to tour his facilities and interview him.

In homes, Berman’s glass is used as doors, in showers, as backsplashes, balustrades, divider walls, skylights, and yes, even windows.

Glass stairs are proving to be quite popular.

“It’s something that’s a little bit new, something that has a novelty to it,” says Berman.

“We can do them in all kinds of colours. Glass stairs are a function of engineering, how thick to equal a load you can put on it, non-slip for safety and all that.”

Glass stairs start at about $120 a square foot, or $500 per stair. For an average staircase with 16 stairs, that’s about $8,000. Backsplashes start at $16 a square foot, doors at $25 a square foot, and guard rails/balustrades at $50 to $70 a square foot.

“Everybody has different budgets and different needs, different sizes,” he says.

“We have glass that’s inexpensive, we have glass that is very expensive. We approach [a residential project] from three ways: what you and your family want, what your budget is, and what your expectations are of how it’s going to work.”

Sometimes residential projects mix production pieces with specially cast glass. There is also a large inventory of glass in the warehouse basement clients can look through.

“We probably have $300,000 worth of leftovers — too big, too small, chipped corner — that we can cut down and turn into something else,” says Berman.

Dubienski likes Berman’s glass so much, he had some installed in his home.

“I’ve got one of his moulded products that was developed for offices,” he says.

“I put four big sheets beside my front entrance way, and it looks beautiful. You can’t see in, I get a whole bunch of light, and it gives a prismatic effect as car lights go by, it’s really quite beautiful.”

It works as art, and it works as architecture, which is why Joel Berman has become an international success.

© The Vancouver Sun 2005

Other

Housing bubbleoney

By Cameron Muir, Senior Market Analyst
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation

I must admit that I sometimes chuckle when bombarded by Vancouver’s latest home-grown fad—Housing Bubble Mania. The armchair economists who populate Internet blogs on the subject have been prognosticating a Vancouver housing bubble for years now. The imminent crash hypothesis is based on what can only be called pseudo analysis supported by few facts. In these forums, only discourse that agrees with the cause is valid, and all else is labeled incorrect or even conspiratorial. The popularity of such opera is due, at least in part, to the fact that impending doom sells.

Today, even the chartered banks are weighing in, trying to reap the harvest of media exposure that accompanies any news release with Housing Bubble in the title. Of course, the banks recognise that the so-called bubble is an illusion, a fact contained in their research if anyone bothered to read it. Recently, one bank economist released the first of a supposedly quarterly report called Housing Bubble Watch. The bombastic title eclipsed only by the disclaimer, “it is impossible to identify a bubble before it bursts.” So why bother? Publicity, that’s why.

No reputable economist believes the housing market is due for a 1982-type collapse, where prices fell 40 per cent in one year. They will tell you, including those milking the Housing Bubble theme, that housing markets move in cycles, that today’s hot market will eventually cool and that home prices will likely edge downward before the next cycle begins. Headline material? Hardly.

Nevertheless, the spectre of a market crash is proving to be irresistible as bait for media attention. In fact, the Housing Bubble is merely a straw man propped up by some economists so they may knock it down in fine analytical style. It’s shooting fish in a barrel. However, an unintended consequence of all this is the anxiety created when people only remember the term Housing Bubble and not the rationale for why it doesn’t exist.

Housing is a long-term investment for all but a small minority of buyers. Those who choose to speculate do so knowing the risk. Long-term homeowners face much less risk and can more fully enjoy the many other benefits of their homes. This is the crux. Homeowners expect the market to ebb and flow, and the current market cycle is just that—a market cycle. No catastrophe is on the horizon. Don’t be fooled by straw men and housing bubbleoney.

Other

Who can advertise a listing? The most common query from members is about advertis­ing. Who can advertise a listing? Who can advertise a listing that has sold? Can I advertise the selling price? The graphic below is an attempt to try to answer these questions. Who can advertise a listing?

List DateSubject Removal DateCompletion Date | Listing Brokerage | |Co-operating Brokerage| |All

There are 6 basic principles when it comes to advertising a property: 1.        The listing contract restricts advertising the property to the listing brokerage. This restriction runs from the effec­tive date of the listing to the completion of sale. If you want to advertise another member’s listing, you must get their permission. 2.        A co-operating brokerage is permitted to advertise its involvement in the sale once the sale has been reported by MLS. 3.        Between the time of the reporting of the sale by MLS and the completion of the sale, the sale price must not be advertised. 4.        After completion date, the sale price and date become public information. There have been no rulings that state this information cannot be published after completion of the sale. 5.        “Advertising” does not include your need to use sold information for the purpose of CMAs or working with a client. You’re free to use any available information for this purpose. However, “advertising” does include hand–delivered flyers, newspaper ads and all other methods of mass distribution. An exception is internet advertising through the Reci­procity program for active listings. Reciprocity is avail-able through your office and permits you to advertise all MLS listings on your personal or corporate website. 6.        The bottom line on advertising is this: Do not publish, circulate or advertise in any way another brokerage’s listing without their permission.

Pointe Claire residents lose fight to stop Flatiron

Keith Fraser
Province

CREDIT: Wayne Leidenfrost, The Province The new tower will go in the open space between the buildings above, blocking the park views of neighbours.

B.C.’s highest court has given the green light to a tony, 28-storey residential tower in Vancouver‘s Coal Harbour that will block the precious views of some owners in a nearby tower.

The project on West Pender Street by property owner Cathedral Ventures Ltd. — to be called The Flatiron because of the property’s triangular shape — was given conditional approval by Vancouver city’s development-permit board last year.

But some owners in Pointe Claire, a 34-storey highrise across the street, feared the loss of their views of Stanley Park and appealed to the city’s board of variance for a review.

In January, the board of variance overturned the permit board’s approval. Cathedral then took the case to the B.C. Supreme Court, seeking to have the approval reinstated through a judicial review.

The developer argued that the board of variance lacked jurisdiction under the Vancouver Charter and that the owners of the other building lacked standing to initiate an appeal.

A judge found that the board did indeed have the jurisdiction, but Cathedral appealed that decision and won: The Supreme Court ruling now has been reversed by a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal.

“The case was originally about a development-permit board decision being overturned based upon complaints by neighbours that views were blocked,” said Peter Busby, the architect for the new project. “Given the shape and form of Vancouver, that’s a frightening prospect because you can’t build anything without blocking somebody’s views.”

He said the appeal court has made it clear the powers of the board of variance do not include reviewing and rejecting projects related to third-party complaints.

Busby said he expects the project will be reviewed by the city’s urban design panel within four weeks and then will be in a position to be given the go-ahead.

Tetsuya Kotogi, a resident in Pointe Claire, said the project initially was going to be built closer to the western edge of the property, but is now planned to be built closer to the eastern side — good for him personally, but bad for others in his building because their views will be blocked.

“We are happy, but some people on the northeastern side, they are going to block their views.”

In approving the project, the development-permit board posted a number of observations on its website, including the comment that “the city has set a tone for the sea of towers in this area, so one more from a view standpoint is really not an issue at all; it’s more an issue of getting some dramatic architecture.”

Cathedral could not be reached. Rick Scobie, chairman of the development-permit board, said the city’s law department is reviewing the appeal court ruling to determine what it means. The board of variance, which was meeting yesterday, could not be reached.

© The Vancouver Province 2005

Tenants are not covered under their landlords’ policies

Michael Kane
Sun

CREDIT: Glenn Baglo, Vancouver Sun BCAA’s residential insurance expert Patricia Stirling urges renters to get home insurance

Lena Karlstrom is a fire victim with a difference. She had tenant’s insurance which will go a long way to replacing her lost possessions.

Most of the renters burned out earlier this month when fire destroyed four Kitsilano heritage homes were not protected and are starting over from scratch.

Renters often mistakenly believe that the landlord’s insurance covers their personal property but it does not, said Lindsay Olson, Vancouver-based vice-president of the Insurance Bureau of Canada.

Nor does it cover the tenant’s personal liability if he or she is responsible for a fire or loss or injury to him- or herself or another person.

A standard tenant’s policy also includes all sort of little-known coverages ranging from the cost of accidental damage you might cause while visiting someone else’s home to medical claims by someone bonked on the head by your errant golf ball.

More important, if you are burned out, it will also pay for a motel and out-of-pocket expenses while you look for a new place.

Yet most renters don’t give insurance much thought.

“We don’t have hard numbers, but anecdotally we’ve heard that it may be less than 25 per cent of tenants who actually carry tenant’s insurance,” Olson said.

Karlstrom is a mother of two who recently separated from her husband and had just finished buying all the stuff she needed for her new place when the fire struck.

She was paying $30 a month for $30,000 of basic coverage from the B.C. Automobile Association and is still compiling an inventory of her losses which include designer jewelry from her native Sweden and most of about 900 books collected over 20 years.

“I lost everything in the fire,” said Karlstrom, a 41-year-old teacher of Swedish and Scandinavian literature at the University of British Columbia. “I saved a few pieces of furniture, most of my photos, a few books and some clothes but the rest is gone or damaged by smoke or water.”

Karlstrom said becoming a mother changed her outlook on insurance.

“Before then I was like most of the people in the building who didn’t think they had much and didn’t worry about it. I never imagined my losses would amount to $30,000 but when you start adding it all up, it’s surprising.”

BCAA’s Patricia Stirling suggests everybody — tenants and homeowners — should take an inventory of their possessions.

“I guarantee that if you listed every single item that you own, you would have twice as much as you expect,” said the auto club’s manager of underwriting development.

“People tend to forget that the cost of food items like spices can really add up if you have to replace them all at once. Or they forget things that are only used occasionally, like rollerblades, or the box full of Christmas decorations on top of the closet.”

The liability protection bundled into the standard tenant’s policy is also important. The landlord may have fire insurance, but if you are responsible for burning the building down, you will be expected to pay.

Stirling notes liability coverage applies anywhere in the world, so you have some protection if you are taking a trip to Palm Springs and your golf ball hits someone in the eye, although there will be a limit to the amount that can be claimed.

Similarly, property coverage applies outside the home to include items stolen from your vehicle — auto insurance only covers items affixed to the vehicle like audio systems — or the loss of your suitcase on vacation.

Less well-known is something called “voluntary medical or property coverage” where your policy will pay out if a visitor to your home is injured, perhaps cutting themselves on a glass coffee table and requiring stitches, or if you clumsily break somebody else’s glass coffee table while visiting their home.

All tenant’s policies have exclusions, including wear and tear, flood damage, or losses resulting from your own illegal activity. If your grow-op goes wrong, you are on your own.

There are also limits on how much the standard policy will pay for CD or book collections or items like bicycles, jewelry, furs, artwork and computers. If you have more of those items than the average Joe, or more expensive versions, you will need to pay for extra coverage.

You can also pay for extras like earthquake insurance and some insurers, including BCAA, offer identity theft protection, in case somebody racks up bills in your name and ruins your credit rating.

For more information on tenant’s or homeowner insurance call the Pacific region office of the Insurance Bureau of Canada toll-free at 1-877-772-3777 or visit www.ibc.ca

© The Vancouver Sun 2005

Jeani Read
Province

CREDIT: Jason Payne, The Province The homes of The News aren’t big, but they have big-city sleekness and have space-stretching layouts

CREDIT: Jason Payne, The Province The homes of The News aren’t big, but they have big-city sleekness and have space-stretching layouts.

CREDIT: Jason Payne, The Province The homes of The News aren’t big, but they have big-city sleekness and have space-stretching layouts.

The good news is The News is a great new development in a great new spot in New Westminster. The bad news is the first two phases are 80 per cent sold out.

Of all the ‘burbs around Vancouver, New Westminster has been pretty well last off the mark when it comes to new development. Prices reflect that, so the astonishing early-promotion starting price of $168,900 (still emblazoned on the presentation centre wall) for one-bedroom condos and $223,900 for two-bedrooms at The News seems impossible. Granted, those have been snapped up, but the remaining units are still brilliantly priced. .

We really like New West these days. The city fathers are seriously behind the revival of the town, with the mayor recently announcing improvement going on around the waterfront — more or less The News’ neighbourhood.

The News is situated on a lovely south-facing slope just above the waterfront, with views that look pretty lovely all around, especially toward the river.

It’s not the only development in this little area: Generations, River Vista and Belmondo are some of the others right in the same area, which bodes really well for a lively, thriving urban environment in the future.

Maybe it will lead to the perking up of the Quay, too, which has always had so much potential but has never really got off the ground. The young, professional first-time buyers flocking to The News and the other developments here will probably make it so.

As it stands, The News is a block and a half from a SkyTrain station, a spit away from Douglas College and close to Columbia Square shopping plaza and a lot of other necessities such as a Keg, Spaghetti Factory, sushi places and a Starbucks — so your emergency needs are taken care of.

The dollhouse model for The News reveals a gracious plan, two towers, lots of landscaping, a group of townhomes. And last but not least, the style and finishings of the homes are city-sleek and smart. No, they’re not big. Yes, they are cool and well-appointed.

With space-stretchers such as computer nooks, oversize patios and, in the two-bedroom display suite, a big walk-through closet, the open plans are compact but totally liveable.

Gated parking, storage lockers and wiring for high-speed Internet access are standard, as is the stainless appliance package.

Add an upgrade or two — frosted cabinetry and granite counters in the kitchen — and call it home.

The third phase of The News? Mark your calendars: October.

Five Fab Features

– The prices. Great.

– The views. Who knew?

– A new neighbourhood. Be the first on your block to — well, to live on your block. In style.

– Great landscaping. A private park in a town of parks.

– The commute. We’ve said this before, but New West is our favourite commute. No bridges

or tunnels, easy roads into

Vancouver.

And in the other direction, it’s a big head start into the rest of the valley. Perfecto.

QUICK FACTS

WHAT: The News is 224 condominiums and six townhomes (in the first two phases) in New Westminster.

WHERE: Agnes Street between Blackie and Mcinnes, New Westminster.

DEVELOPED BY: Rykon Group.

SIZES: 560 sq.ft-1,152 sq.ft. (townhome).

PRICES: $182,900-$339,900 (townhome).

Open: Noon to 5 P.M., 8095 Agnes Street, 604-526-8322.

© The Vancouver Province 2005

Michael McCullough
Sun

Home sales across B.C. picked up in February after a slow January, returning to last year’s record-setting pace.

Though the number of units sold declined slightly from February 2004, to 7,404, dollar volume increased a healthy 8.3 per cent to $2.3 billion, the B.C. Real Estate Association said Thursday.

The totals represent an increase of 2,800 units and $1 billion from January, which was affected by inclement weather in addition to the usual seasonal slowdown.

“Sales are keeping pace with last year’s record levels and consumers are confident that now is a good time to buy a home,” association president Gordon Maroney declared in a release. “This is going to be another strong year for home sales in B.C.”

Although 10 of the province’s 12 real estate boards increased dollar sales year-over-year, some regions fared better than others.

Boards in the central and northern Okanagan, Kamloops, Powell River and Vancouver Island (excluding Victoria) all managed to boost both the number of transactions and dollar totals.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, which accounts for roughly half the home sales in B.C., essentially matched last year’s transaction pace with 3,150 resale homes changing hands.

Cash flow, however, increased 8.6 per cent, reflecting the year-to-year rise in home prices.

– – –

VALUE OF SALES UP AT A HIGHER RATE

The number of B.C. home sales slipped slightly in February compared to the same month a year earlier, but the value of the sales increased at a greater rate.

B.C. home sales, volume

Feb. ’05 – 7,404

Feb. ’04 – 7,566

Change: -2.14%

B.C. home sales, value

Feb. ’05 – $2.3 billion

Feb. ’04 – $2.1 billion

Change: +8.3%

Source: B.C. Real Estate Association

© The Vancouver Sun 2005

Bob Ransford
Sun

How much must a home cost before its owner (at least) might consider it a trophy home? I am not talking about your upper-middle class executive-style home or your edge-of-the-city hobby-farm home. I am talking about the kind of home that we used to call a “mansion” — the home of your dreams.

Perhaps you are already living in your dream home. But everyone has bigger dreams. Everyone dreams of that trophy home — a real luxury palace with features that would indulge your wildest fantasies.

The kind of mansion I am talking about is probably located on a signature property in an exclusive neighbourhood. It is sprawling in size, finished with the finest of materials and built by craftsmen. It has superb architectural detailing, probably a separate guest suite, servants’ quarters, more than one home-entertainment room. It might have a pool with a pool house, a detached garage and more.

If money were no object and you could buy that trophy home what would you expect to pay for it?

It doesn’t seem that long ago that you mentioned the million dollar price tag and you were most certainly talking about a mansion. Now, a million dollars gets you little more than a West Side move-up on a standard lot.

The sky-rocketing trend in real estate prices has certainly had as much impact on the top end of the housing market as it has on the middle and bottom ends of the market.

Recently, I was doing some research for a magazine article I am writing on luxury homes in Canada‘s big cities and I was trying to peg the price threshold for luxury homes in Vancouver.

A search of homes for sale on the MLS in Vancouver revealed that there were 367 homes listed for sale in the $1 million to $2.5 million price range. Almost a third of them were apartments or townhouses. Of the remaining 281 single family homes, all but two of them were located on the city’s West Side.

Most of these homes appeared to be your average upper-middle class large home. Few of them boasted of the features typical of a real mansion. Fewer still were in signature locations.

Then I started to think that the price threshold for luxury homes was at about the $2.5 million mark. Well, when I looked at the data, the market seemed too deep at that level. There were simply too many homes listed in the range just above $2.5 million to make that part of the market exclusive enough to categorize as the luxury market.

There were 84 homes listed for sale in Vancouver at prices above $2.5 million and 18 of them were apartment homes. None of them were trophy homes.

It wasn’t long before I concluded that the luxury trophy home market in Vancouver starts at about the $4.2 million price level. The average home price in Greater Vancouver in June was $422,843. That means a home worth $4.2 million is about 10 times the cost of the average priced home.

I haven’t been able to find any data that compares the ratio of luxury home price to average home price over time, but I suspect the ratio of 10 to 1 is near the highest it has ever been.

A survey of luxury homeowners in the U.S. last year indicated that the overwhelming majority felt that interest rates hikes have little effect on their luxury spending. Sounds like it is a pretty secure part of the market.

Meanwhile, Canada‘s RBC Financial Group last month predicted that, with B.C.’s strong provincial economy and its scarcity of land, house prices will continue to go up and housing affordability in B.C. is expected to get even worse.

What does that mean for the price threshold for trophy homes? Is my $4.2 million benchmark too low? Who is it that can afford a real mansion at these rising prices?

I would like to hear what you think.

Bob Ransford is a public affairs consultant with COUNTERPOINT Communications Inc. He is a former real estate developer and a director of the Urban Development Institute – Pacific region. Email: [email protected]

© The Vancouver Sun 2005