False Creek’s Big Birds

 

WHEN IT CAME TIME for the developers of the Olympic Village to consider the public art that City Hall required of them, they simply cut a cheque and had the city take charge. Nine thousand hours of labour and $600,000 later, Myfanwy MacLeod’s installation dominates the village plaza, serving as the focal point for a series of buildings that will soon house 16,000 residents. Standing 15 feet tall, The Birds references the invasion of North America by sparrows introduced in 1852 by nostalgic Englishmen. “They’re beautiful,” says MacLeod of the interlopers, “but also frightening.” Now that these eight densely zoned city blocks have opened for business, another invasive species has appeared on the manicured shore of Southeast False Creek: us. VM