The One and Only....

Hi Arcangels, hope you all had a great Christmas, New Years and Holiday season!!! Here comes 2025!!! I got a hunch it is going to be a memorable gem!!! Fingers crossed!! : ) Bit of a long winded story here.... not mandatory reading...

I have some somewhat sad news here that feels like might just go well with a bit of an ARC history lesson. The main owner of Reliance, Jack Leshgold, died before Christmas at the amazing age of 98. His mission down here was finished and he was cut free to go chase after his wife!!! She had departed a few years earlier.

The last I saw him was a few weeks ago. He was at the office working... yes 98 years old and still working!!!??? Why was he still working??? Well... actually Jack was an artist and like most real artists he worked right up until he left. Most real artists will die with their tools in hand trying to finish that one last project.

Yes Jacks art form was slightly different than most. His art form was running a large company buying, building and rebuilding vintage buildings. If he were just in the business to just "get rich" he would have and could have "retired" decades ago. Trouble is real artists never retire and Jack was no different.... and... a serious thank God for that!!!

It is amazing the impact some people can have on our lives without us ever even knowing or realizing it. To anyone who loves the ARC Jack was one of those men. Keep reading if you want to know why.

You see prior to 1995 if you were an artist you were completely outa luck as far as finding or even affording a decent work shop. Unless you were well established and selling lots of work then it was between really tough and impossible. Since most could not afford to pay apartment rent, a workshop rent and art supplies they just could not do their art. Of course if you can't do your art then you could never get known or have any chance of living off your work. No matter how good your visions and ideas were! Thus the odds were hugely stacked against you!

This meant most artists caved in and got on at Walmart because of their great pension plan.... letting their artistic dreams slowly die to the wrath of time.

Now the seriously committed artists were not going to let that hold them back. They were the ones who said "screw this"!!!! They decided they would find a warehouse in some industrial area, rent a small corner of it off the owner and work there. Then, when no one was looking late at night, they would build some fake walls etc to hide a scrap of foamy to sleep on. As long as the warehouse had a toilet they were set. Yes there were rats and little to no heat but at least they could still do their art!!! Their passion for their art far exceeded their desire for creature comforts of the common folk.

Eventually this became the norm in Vancouver. The trouble is that guy who got picked on too much in high school..., well... he was now a city inspector. (most don't know it but bullied people often get highly motivated to become extremely rich or if they are lazy become city inspectors) City inspectors of course knew the bi-laws and section 5 chapter six specifically states no one is allowed to live, sleep or reside in an industrial zoned area other than when working with all their safety gear on......

This led to a huge cat and mouse game of artists vs city inspectors! This story is an extremely fascinating one that will likely get lost in time. One that is too involved for me to get fully into here.

The boil down of this game was the city was constantly trying to catch artists living in these warehouse buildings. All while the artists were trying to foil the city inspectors. Each side was pulling off all sorts of tricks.

The original building manger here told me a story of the building he was in. There were a few others in that same building. They had modified the outer padlocks on the building so it looked like they were locked from the outside but had cut the pins and actually had locks on the inside. In the middle of the night they would often hear inspectors coming around and checking the pad locks.

He told me one time the inspectors apparently faked a toxic chemical leak in the middle of the night. They got the fire department to put on hazmat suits and during the middle of the night came flying in their area with fire trucks, sirens and lights flashing with loud speakers saying there was a toxic chemical leak. Their hope was all these artists... like rats, would come running out of the building and they would catch them red handed. Turns out they all voted and decided to take the chance that the city was faking it just to flush them out so they all stayed put!!!! Hmmm...I wonder... is there anyone here now that is that committed to their artwork????!!!!! Yikes!!! : )

Now even though they never got caught apparently this was the straw that broke the camels back. The artists then decided to get together and as a group fight the city saying they wanted safe workshops where they could do any process they wanted. All without city inspectors bugging them all the time. This was never heard of before in Vancouver so the odds of it being futile was almost certain. The artists though were not giving up and persisted. Eventually they got the media involved and things started rolling. There were tons of news stories written about this battle. We had some clippings here that the original manager had saved but they got lost in a big flood years back.

Eventually a meeting was set up with the artists, the city and some building contractors... Yup you guessed it.... that was Jack over in the corner!!! Apparently there was a lot of screaming, cursing, fist fight and arguing but eventually a plan was made. The city would give any contractors willing and able, an exception to build a building full of workshops were the main focus was on artists being able to work and not as much on living other than the very minimal basics like fridge stove and toilet. The building had to be bullet proof as far as fire, pests, sound proof and safe as any group of workshops could possibly be. If an artist wanted to actually live here they could and at least do so with the very basics. (turns out "the very basics" were absolute luxury to these real artists!!!)

Now since the artists could be doing some "industrial" processes the building would have to be built in a industrial zoned area. Since people are not allowed to live in a industrial zoned areas anyone who was going to rent one of these work shops would have to sign a waiver first. This waiver basically said they knew the building was in a dangerous and toxic area. If they did live here they would be doing so at their own risk and could not go back on the city if they experienced any negative consequences. So that is why we all had to sign that waiver we did.

The city also put a two person per studio limit on these shops. The goal was to keep out the families and thus protect the building from slowly evolving into a typical family oriented apartment. Which of course there are thousands of already. That and going back to the waiver not all "family" members would be able to make the decision on that risk themselves. Artists though who were willing to agree to the potential health risks etc living here would be a little more secure knowing this will always be an artist building.

So as it turned out Reliance already owned this building and Jack figured out it might just work for this exact thing.

Jack has often told me the story that when they started rebuilding this place into the ARC they knew there was almost zero chance it was going to be anything other than a total failure. He said they could not imagine who would ever want to live in a dark, smelly, noisy industrial area in a work shop of all things!!!

That said because Jack was into the arts and such a committed "artist" himself he decided to go ahead with it against all odds. Yes a ton of builders with incredible intentions were planning the same but virtually all could not or would not risk it financially. Of course as we all know the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Though luckily for everyone who loves living here at the ARC Jack was bulling ahead anyway!

Thus the ARC was built!!! 79 of the absolute worst apartments in Vancouver!!!.... but 79 of the sweetest studios that most artists back then could not even dream of!!!! (this was back when the studios here had dirty oil stained raw cement floors, no granite hallways, no granite counter tops, no dance floor, almost no shop tools.....)

Yes it is true... all those other builders could have built a far better place... but you know what?... they didn't. Everyone has their opinions and intentions but Jack was an artist who actually got the job done! It is a story as old as time... Ironically everyone that said they could have done it better... those were the ones didn't or couldn't do it at all!!!!

I am not sure Jack ever really realized the positive impact this building has had on the art community. He would always ask me if there really were that many serious working artists here. I was constantly reassuring him there were and lots of them! Yes not everyone here is that serious and yes some are just living here. But the ones that do really need it... they REALLY NEED it. Those that weld, have wood shops, run kilns, do glass blowing, or work with smelly paints and solvents etc etc. Were they to try and do what they do here in a normal apartment they would be hauled off to jail!!!!

You see you can "live" anywhere but you can't do what we can do here anywhere! This is why the original dream of the ARC has to be maintained. It is easy to take what we have here for granted especially when we are focusing on what we don't have here vs what we do. If not it will just slowly evolve into another Yaletown loft with room service where no artistic processes are allowed... and once again the real artists in the crowd get the bum end of the stick!!!

I know of another precious "class B" (class B studios like the ARC are really rare) live/work building like the ARC that was taken over by families. The last artist there called me saying they were all trying to kick him out. He was surprised to hear from me that he was the only legal one in that building! I never heard back from him but do know when families with money want something nothing can stand in their way!!! My guess is they probably got their designer lofts and the last real working artist there was forced to moved on... though I hope not.

Anyway in all reality the ARC really does suck. It is noisy, dusty, real industrial, has no green space, people leave junk in the hallways, management here sucks, room service is worse, tools are often not working in the shop, we have no roof top deck, no balcony, no heated pool and it is expensive not to mention God knows what else.

The funny thing is I make all this clear on my website and in my tours, (and I do lots of them!,) yet still when I finish doing tours I see people welling up in the eyes because they want in here so bad! Why??? Because they are artists who NEED what this hole has to offer!!! I know exactly where they are coming from!!! Were it not for the ARC I could never live in this city!!!! Yes there are far nicer buildings in the city... but virtually none that give us the freedom to do what we can do here!!! The ARC is a whole new level of living. A place where you can do things you could never do anywhere else. Yes you may need a day job but at least your creative dream will be able to live on day job or not.

Jack along with his company Reliance has had an incredible impact on so many artists who have lived here over the last 30 years it is unreal. It also amazes me at how many artists have moved back here more than once!!! I think the move back record was four or five times!!! Yes there are downsides but the upsides are hard to beat which is why so many have came back more than once!!!

So if you love living here at the ARC as much as I do it's probably good time to give our favorite artist.... The one and only... Mr. Jack Leshgold... a standing ovation..., huge round of applause... and wave good bye!!!

CheerZ!!!

roy