When the owners of Roots Clothing Company in Vancouver wanted to leverage the 2010 Winter Olympics by setting up a swanky hospitality room for VIPs in the city’s tallest skyscraper, they knew just who to call to add the right decorative touch – Riverside’s very own Higgins Glass.
Architect Diane Bald, who designs the company’s stores, created a 1960s-style pad in a condo on the 58th floor of the Shangri-La Hotel, complete with Saarinen furniture and an open plan.
The centerpiece to the design is a Higgins Glass “rondelay” screen hade from 130 brightly colored fused-glass disks, each measuring six inches in diameter. Jonathan Wimmer, co-owner of Higgins Glass said he received a call from longtime Higgins collector Jim Budman, whose brother, Michael, owns Roots Clothing, which at one time had a contract to outfit the Canadian Olympic team.
Michael’s wife, Diane Bald, was working on the VIP room design and needed something to tie it together. The rondelay separates the main living area and a more intimate sitting area. It surrounds two 52-inch flat panel TVs, which are placed back to back for viewing in either area.
The rondelay is a rainbow of colors, though red predominates, for an obvious reason – the main color of the Canadian flag.
“They asked us to do it heavier in red, but other than that, we did what we wanted,” Wimmer said. “We tried to keep it bright and use blues, because the condo looks over the bay and mountains.”
Wimmer personally traveled to Vancouver to install the rondelay screen, packing the quarter-inch-thick disks in a 17-by-17-inch box, checking it in like a normal piece of luggage.
“Thank God, it came through unscathed,” Wimmer said. “I flew into Vancouver, took a cab to the hotel and started working right away.”
It took about nine hours to hang the disks, which are joined together by small brass rings. Wimmer brought 120 disks with him, but it wasn’t enough. He later made 10 more (one bearing five brass rings in the shape of the Olympic logo) and sent them to Vancouver to finish the piece.
According to Wimmer the 130-piece rondelay would have retailed for $7,800.
