Making a place for art!

LEES+Associates prepared the final concept and construction drawings for a proposed new town square in the Town of Lake Cowichan on Vancouver Island. The community wanted to include a place for public art within the square, but by the time the project went to construction, what that art would be had not yet been determined.

The strategy was to provide a flexible landscaped space within the central roundabout of the square. In-ground lighting and a removable cobble surface were installed to permit a future installation.

That installation took place in November 2015, with the ceremonial raising of a stunning, monumental totem pole. Carved by Hupacasath artist and historian Ron Hamilton, the pole was presented to the Town of Lake Cowichan by Chief Livingstone as a gift from the Lake Cowichan First Nation:

“’Our pole will reflect the past, present and future of our community,’ said Chief’s Livingstone’s wife, Hakuum. The top of the pole features three faces. Hamilton explained that one face represents Ts’uubaa-asatx people of the past, the ancestors.”

And it was for this face that the new square was named, Ts’uubaa-asatx Square.

Quote from Ha-Shilth-Sa article covering the ceremony.