December 15, 2009

BRADLEY FEHR

The crane at Jameson House is one of a handful of decorated cranes in downtown Vancouver this year.

Fewer cranes will light Santa’s path through Vancouver

JEAN SORENSEN

correspondent

VANCOUVER

The downtown Vancouver skyline won’t be as festive this year, as fewer cranes will be decked out with Christmas cheer.

Construction companies, known for decorating their cranes at key construction sites, just don’t have as many cranes in the downtown core, after several years of a building frenzy.

Dominion Construction, Scott Construction, Bird Construction, PCL, Stuart Olson and others advised the lights will not be going on this holiday season.

A month before Christmas, there was only one lonely construction crane bravely blinking out Christmas cheer.

“One on the skyline of Vancouver isn’t much,” said Tom DeWolf, operations manager for Dominion Construction. You don’t need economists or the Conference Board of Canada to realize there’s not much industry action, he added.

In past years, Dominion has teamed up with the trades and crane crews to add a little Christmas cheer to the jobsite and the city as a whole. This year only Ledcor, Bosa Properties, and ITC Construction Group have plans to light up their cranes in the downtown core.

Those few decorated cranes this Yuletide season will carry on a tradition in the industry that goes back nearly 40 years in Vancouver. It started when a new crane company operator wanted to publicize his business.

“It was how I got known in town,” said Val Coupal of Coupal Climbing Cranes Ltd. He was inspired one December night to string up hundreds of lights to perk up the winter gloom. “It was the best advertising that I ever did,” he said.

Those shimmering Christmas lights over the city drew not only industry attention, but also media and local residents. He became known for staging Christmas lights on his cranes and local residents would even call in December asking when the lights could go up.

Other companies followed suit, lighting up their own cranes. Friendly competitions occurred with the height of the rivalry about eight years ago, Coupal recalled. There was a range of decorations, multicoloured and patterned lights, trees hoisted onto the top of the crane. Coupal was known for his galloping Santa sled, a landmark on the horizon.

“The one that spent the most money would usually win,” said Coupal, adding that today it can cost up to $5,000 to string up lights. “Right now there are not too many cranes left in time for Christmas. No one wants to start during those weeks around the Olympics, when they might not get access to the site,” he said.

Coupal said times have changed and construction companies or the project owner, rather the crane companies, are the driving force behind decorating.

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