Green Gallery


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	Green Gallery

	What makes us a ‘Green’ gallery? At Crystalworks we believe that being a “green’ company means more than just using recycled toilet paper (although we do this too). We believe that a green company acts with integrity. We believe that benefiting the environment also means that those that live in the environment are benefited as well. We think that to be ‘green’ a company must conduct business in an open hearted way and for this reason we practice cross promotion, networking and other cooperative business practices. Below you will find more detail on the green products we have used and the vendors we have worked with on this amazing project.

	Bamboo Millwork by Ornamentum We chose to use bamboo – a renewable resource for our millwork. Bamboo has several features that made it impossible for us to resist: Its Strong Bamboo can withstand a great deal of use without damage. It’s stronger even than oak, considered the most durable hardwood. When laminated, bamboo is nearly as strong as soft steel. Bamboo doesn’t swell or shrink as hardwoods do, making it ideal for furniture and floors. It Grows Fast Bamboo is not a tree—it’s a grass, and it grows like one. Many species of bamboo can grow two feet or more a day. When it’s harvested, it need not be replanted, because it will grow a new shoot from its extensive root system. So bamboo renews itself readily, unlike hardwood trees, which, once cut, are gone forever. Bamboo is an endlessly renewable resource. It Enhances the Environment Farmed bamboo stabilizes the earth with its roots, preventing erosion. It takes in greenhouse gasses and produces oxygen. In fact 35% more oxygen than an equivalent stand of trees. It can also provide habitat for birds and animals (though our bamboo is not preferred by pandas, and is therefore panda-safe). Its World-Wide and Historic Our bamboo comes from China, but the adaptable bamboo will grow most places on earth. Wherever it is native, bamboo has been integral to the economy and culture, used for cooking, beverages, paper, houses, and bridges. In China, it’s known as the “friend of the people”. Since 1999 Ornamentum has manufactured contemporary furniture for interior designers, architects and private clients across Canada and the United States. Each Ornamentum furniture piece is bench made from start to finish, and then signed and dated by an individual cabinetmaker. This fabrication method allows us to precisely articulate the designer's intent in appearance, fit and finish, as our clients demand furniture that is unmatched as a collectable and individual work. Fixtures, Furnishings, Lighting, Appliances and Publicity Our bamboo laminate is made with E-1 glue, which meets tough European standards for off-gassing. Some laminated products emit formaldehyde long after manufacture, but the Ecodesignz furniture in the gallery is virtually formaldehyde-free. Parts of the bamboo that aren’t suitable for furniture are used for many other products, like the laminate used in the gallery. Though the bamboo is fast-growing and renewable, we’re still committed to using bamboo products without waste. All exhibit plinths are made from MDF that is formaldehyde free, and made from recycled materials supplied by Moco Sustainable, a company that serves as a sales representative for a group of FSC-certified operations. Greenworks Building Supplies also provided bamboo plywood. Trays by Woodpak made from wood salvaged from a guitar manufacturer. They are lined with cork (another renewable resource) from Jelnik. Low flush toilet in our bathroom and energy efficient and energy star appliances in our kitchen. Our flooring is polished concrete (the slab on which the building rests) impregnated with a non-toxic densifier and polished to a sheen by Western Substrate. All of our toilet paper and paper towel is made from recycled paper products. Postcards, business cards and promotional materials are printed on 100% recycled stock from Green Printers. Eco-tread rubber tiles made from recycled running shoe treads.






	Bamboo furniture (stools and chairs) by Ecodesignz. We have used Low VOC paints from Benjamin Moore Squak stone counter tops by Tiger Mountain Innovations. This counter top material is a fibrous-cement material comprised of recycled paper, recycled glass, coal fly-ash and cement. Material is hand-cast into “slabs” as an alternative to natural or quarried stone. All of our countertops are off cuts, miscolours or scraps. We have incorporated this material into our displays. LED lights from Bowen Innovation which have never been used in a gallery setting before. These lights last for 30,000 hours and are completely recyclable when finished.

Building Our Green Gallery (or Sh** Happens!)
The building of Crystalworks new gallery started with the shoking news that the city had bought the building we had had our gallery in for the last 16 years. Since we had a right of first refusal written into our lease we were very very upset about this. We always thought we would eventually purchase the little heritage house and stay there forever. After our shock wore off we realized that this was the opportunity for us to grow up and move out of the house (literally).

The more we thought about a new place the more we realized the down falls of our original gallery. One of the major drawbacks was that we weren’t wheel chair accessible. So with great fear and trepidation we started looking at where we wanted to move to and how we wanted our new space to look.

We noticed that a building around the corner from us (in the preferred 3^rd Ave) had a developers sign (Trasolini Chetner) on it so we gave them a call. When we told them we were looking for a large high ceiling gallery space in approximately 2 to 3000 square feet, they responded with “that is exactly what we are building! We invited the principles over to the gallery to see what we were up to and they really liked what we were doing and thought it might be a perfect fit.

Meanwhile my father had befriended a shop owner who recommended his designer for our upcoming build. When we contacted Catherine Youngren she informed us that she was already working with Trasolini Chetner on the Jewish Historical Museum. Coincidence or no?

We started planning in earnest the millwork and designs for the new place. I had spent many months researching green building supplies, counter tops, flooring etc and had done some preliminary drawings and sketches. Catherine was very open to working with our ideas, enhancing and making permit worthy our designs and basically telling us when something wouldn’t work.

Meanwhile Traschet started the demolition work on the old building and after tearing it down and digging out the foundation, they uncovered 7 huge round alluvial quartz boulders. They presented a bit of a problem for the builders as several were too big to remove from the site without splitting. Eventually they were trucked off for landscaping stones on another building site. We thought that this must be a good sign, an indication that this would be a good spot for us to bring our stones to, a spot that had been the resting place of giant quartz boulders for hundreds of thousands of years.

As the building began to take shape we watched with growing impatience the building of our new gallery. Sometimes it looked huge, other times it looked tiny. All the while we planned and sketched and researched to make our gallery as green as it could be. We knew we wanted to use the concrete slab as our finished floor so the builders agreed to finish it carefully and run conduit for our electricity in the floor. Around this time we had a civic strike and the building slowed right down. The concrete lay open to the elements for month and months (which was a good thing as it hardened it very slowly and gradually making the perfect floor for our new gallery.

When we first hired Catherine we asked her who she used a general contractor and she told us of several of her contacts but the one that stood out for us was a company called Raceway construction which is run by a woman named Vivian. Unfortunately when it came time for us to look at contractors she was too busy. As it turned out the civic strike lasted so long that by the time it was over, Vivien was available to bid on the contract. When the bids came in we looked them over carefully and the winning bid turned out to be Raceway construction.

Catherine had several talented mill workers who were available to bid on the job but there seemed to be much concern over the kind of ‘green’ materials we wanted to use. Through a series of referrals we located a millwork company called Ornamentum run by Grant Wylychuk who had much experience working with eco-friendly renewable resource materials and when the bids for millwork came in, his was the lowest and most complete bid. Grant and Catherine were both a joy to work with. They took our ideas and drawings and made them in to workable pieces for our gallery. Everyone took part in giving their opinions and ideas.

When the civic strike finally ended it was near to Christmas so the permitting process was again delayed. We had hoped to move in by fall but now it was apparent that we would not be able to move until the spring at the earliest. Meanwhile people started to move in to the apartments above the gallery. We opened up a back wall to move some electrical and came in one morning to discover that a pipe had burst and that there was a sewage spill in our gallery space. Thank-goodness we were delayed in obtaining our permits! If it had not been for that, we would have had our millwork fully installed and we wouldn’t have known that a pipe had burst for a long long time. Never before has there been such a good time for a sewage spill. Shit happens became such a joke for us. Although the next few weeks really stunk we couldn’t stop laughing about it.

One of the last things to be installed before we moved in was the security bars on the windows. Kyle Bibbs of Molten Metalworks did an amazing job. We were watching the bars evolve (final fittings and details were made on site). We didn’t realize how much the flowing shapes would look like waves or fish and it seemed perfect to incorporate an element of water. Feng Shui elements were something we incorporated in our design and the only element missing was water. Just after he finished, we had the outside windows cleaned and the window washer fell into a hole revealing that the water main had become dislodged. Water gushed out over the sidewalk, a crew was sent from the city to dig a big hole and close the sidewalk to traffic while they did the repair. This was the week of our big move so luckily it didn’t cause a disruption in our business (as it would have had it happened a week or 2 later.)

Although our build took 29 months instead of the predicted 6 months, all of the delays had a reason, the expenses aside, everything happened at the right time and even having a sewage spill and a water main break seemed appropriate. In the end we are so pleased with how our space turned out. It is a sanctuary, a perfect spot for our crystals and an example of how a retail gallery can be built with “green” building materials and “green principles”. We would like to offer thanks to all of those who made this place what it is today. The building of it taught us many lessons in patience and understanding and we are grateful for all of it.


	Crystalworks Designs Ltd., 1760 West 3rd Avenue, Vancouver BC V6J 1K4 l 604.732.3870 l email