Drifting high among the towers of downtown Vancouver, looking along West Georgia Street across Granville: a crowd in the crosswalk, a terracotta balustrade below, mountains at the street's far end

Project 15 of 17

church: untitled

Churches · Vancouver, British Columbia

Five aerial takes. Eight minutes and forty-two seconds.

church: untitled is a church in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, that meets at 110-668 Seymour Street, in a storefront under the glass canopies of the Parkwell Plaza parkade.

Atom2Adam Studio made five aerial takes around it in eight minutes and forty-two seconds, every one from the street and not one from inside the doors. The story starts on the two words and the colon on the fascia, climbs Seymour Street to Harbour Centre and the harbour, then rises over the rooftops to Holy Rosary Cathedral's 66-metre steeple. The colon, the storefront, the parkade, Seymour Street, the city.

Subject: church: untitled, 110-668 Seymour Street, Vancouver, B.C. — a church that says it “was born” on May 28th, 2017, and meets on Sundays at 10AM in a storefront at the foot of a parkade.
Intent: Give two words on a storefront the attention a steeple gets: start at the name, end on the city that walks past it.
Seen: A white fascia reading church: untitled, a DOLLARAMA sign, PARKWELL PLAZA in red over glass canopies, a skybridge spelling P A R K beside its $11.00 and $5.00 rates, the signals at West Georgia, Harbour Centre, a cathedral steeple and the harbour's cranes.
Made: Five aerial takes in eight minutes and forty-two seconds on the camera's clock, a minute and forty-nine seconds of footage, every take used whole at half speed — and not one frame from inside the doors.

I

The colon

The white fascia reading church: untitled under a glass canopy on Seymour Street in Vancouver, the end of a DOLLARAMA sign to its left, PARKWELL PLAZA in red letters above, a passer-by below — Two words and a colon, black on white.

church: untitled writes its name in lowercase with a colon in the middle, and its own story marks the day: on May 28th, 2017, it says, “church: untitled was born.” The fascia under the canopy on Seymour Street spells it exactly that way. So the story starts on those two words and the colon, and climbs from there to the city.

No steeple. No bell. Two lowercase words and a colon, under a glass canopy on Seymour Street.

II

The storefront

A quick pan right to left along the glass canopies on Seymour Street, settling on PARKWELL PLAZA, a DOLLARAMA sign and the white fascia of church: untitled while people pass on the sidewalk — The pan settles on the name; the sidewalk keeps moving.

The church's story starts smaller still: “On a Tuesday night in October of 2016, about twenty-five of us gathered in an apartment in Burnaby, BC.” It later met in “an old, shut down nightclub in Downtown Vancouver.” Now its door is on Seymour Street, next to a DOLLARAMA, and its service is Sundays at 10AM. The camera never goes in; it holds at canopy height while the sidewalk walks past, the way you would find the door on foot.

Sideways along the glass canopies of a storefront row on Seymour Street, past a green neon sign and a PhoneBox, to PARKWELL PLAZA in red letters, DOLLARAMA and the church: untitled fascia — Sideways along the canopies until the name arrives.

III

The parkade

A glass skybridge across Seymour Street in Vancouver spelling P A R K with an arrow, its signs reading EARLY BIRD RATE $11.00 and EVENING SPECIAL AFTER 6PM PARK ALL NIGHT $5.00 — Across Seymour Street: $11.00 early bird, $5.00 after six.

The church's service page tells drivers exactly where to go: “Free Parking on sundays” and “Rooftop Parking 655 Richards St - Diamond Parkade.” 655 Richards is the Parkwell Plaza Garage, Diamond Parking's Lot 4905 — the name that runs in red letters along the canopy over the church's own. On Sundays the congregation is sent to the roof of the building it meets under, so the camera climbs from the canopy to the parkade and the skybridge that spells P A R K across the street.

From the red signals at Seymour and West Georgia, north along Seymour Street between glass canopies and white terracotta, toward a skybridge spelling PARK over the road — From the lights at West Georgia, up the church's block.

IV

Seymour Street

Past the parking skybridge and on up Seymour Street, rising until Harbour Centre's Lookout, the harbour water and the North Shore mountains close the end of the street, BCIT's sign on the left — Up Seymour Street to Harbour Centre and the harbour.

Up Seymour Street, the view ends at Harbour Centre, 555 West Hastings, whose Lookout was officially opened on August 13, 1977 by Neil Armstrong; its observation deck is 168 metres above the street. The camera starts at the red lights at West Georgia and follows the street past the skybridge until the Lookout, the harbour and the mountains share one frame.

V

The city

Along West Georgia Street past a terracotta block and a London Drugs sign, then turning and rising over the rooftops until Holy Rosary Cathedral's steeple, the harbour's cranes and the North Shore mountains appear — Up from West Georgia until the harbour and a steeple arrive.

Behind the parkade, across Richards Street, stands Holy Rosary Cathedral: opened on December 8, 1900, its taller steeple 66 metres high, its eight bells reinstalled there in 1906 for change ringing. church: untitled describes its work as “creating moments with Jesus that become the movements of Jesus.” The page is built the same way: one moment under a canopy, then the whole city around it.

It starts as a moment under one canopy. It ends as a whole city in motion.

Detail → Whole

From the smallest element to the entire place.

The white fascia reading church: untitled under a glass canopy on Seymour Street in Vancouver, the end of a DOLLARAMA sign to its left, PARKWELL PLAZA in red letters above, a passer-by below — 01 · Detail

Seymour Street in Vancouver looking north over its 600 block: white terracotta on the left, the parkade's glass canopies and PARKADE sign on the right, the skybridge ahead, Harbour Centre's top beyond — 02 · Fragment

The north end of Seymour Street in Vancouver from above: Harbour Centre's Lookout, the harbour water and the North Shore mountains beyond, BCIT's building on the left, blue glass on the right — 03 · Place

Downtown Vancouver from above: Holy Rosary Cathedral's two unequal towers at Richards and Dunsmuir, office towers around it, the container cranes across the harbour and the North Shore mountains under cloud — 04 · Whole

The storefront row at 110-668 Seymour Street, Vancouver: PARKWELL PLAZA over the glass canopies, the DOLLARAMA sign, the church: untitled fascia, someone pulling a pink suitcase along the sidewalk — 110-668 Seymour Street, Vancouver. Sundays, 10AM.

Direction, aerial cinematography, edit: Atom2Adam Studio
Capabilities: Aerial · Film · Post-Production
Subject: Churches

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