Today, I’m visiting West Edmonton Mall, home to Professor WEM’s Adventure Golf, Galaxyland and a whole lot more. We spent about five years at the mall, back in the late 90’s, re-theming the five-acre indoor theme park and the golf, and many other smaller projects. While much has changed in the mall and the theme park, the golf remains the same. The Marine Life area is still there, but most of the other projects we did through the mall have long since disappeared. The staff at the Mall has kept things well maintained, and it was a pleasure to see our work holding up after almost three decades of heavy use. As I walked around, memories flooded back of our wonderful crew and the good times we had. The work was challenging, but the team was up to the task and then some. Those were the days!
Around the back
All of the front yard painting is pretty much complete and so the crew continues working their way around the back of the shop as they layer on the coats of paint and blends. The building is looking better all the time.
Sugary delight!
A couple of decades ago, a local greenhouse owner approached me. My assignment was to design and build a sign or display that would entice people within a 100-kilometre radius to buy his beautiful flowers. We had created sugar cube castles in our art gallery as Christmas displays in years past, and they were always popular. I reasoned that if I pulled out the stops and built the largest possible castle, it would do the trick. The ceiling of the garden’s interior display space was just over 14 feet tall, which governed the final height. Because it was a public space, I welded up a steel frame, which was hidden inside, then began assembling the sugar cubes, one at a time. I used hot glue to fasten the cubes together. It took four days to complete the task and used more than 14,000 sugar cubes. The castle proved to be very popular and was even featured on national TV. People travelled many miles to get a look, and they did buy some poinsettias!
