Georgia Medical Dental Arts Building
by Zbigniew
“A few people know … that the decorations, including the nurses and the panels around the arch at the main entry, include symbols and pictographs of scientific medicine, Christian belief and faith, and medieval and ancient magic and superstition …. Does anyone know that at the entrance the caduceus, a rod with two snakes entwined at the shaft, is a symbolic mistake? A shaft with twin serpents is a symbol of Hermes or Mercury, gods of commerce, not healing or charity.”
Danny Boyd, Vancouver Sun, May 30, 1989
“… the old [building] has been there all this time and forms an important part of our collective civic memory. A city without a past suffers amnesia, and Vancouver is fast becoming a world-class center for architectural Alzheimer’s disease.”
John Davis, letter to the Vancouver Sun, May 11, 1988
Tip-of-the-hat to Johnny Drift.
It was really sad to learn they were going to destroy that building, picking off the exterior decorations to save for later when they threw up a reasonably hand-drawn facsimile in its place. I lived only a few blocks away at the time, but couldn’t have been arsed to go see them blow it up. People cheer so wildly at the spectacle, never caring how so much history and culture is turning to dust before their very eyes. From long before I was in school my parents used to take us every six months to the 11th floor I think it was, where Dr. MacDonald would look into my gaping jaw and say, ahhhh, perfect mouth, perfect mouth. Then I’d get off the chair and go to a nearby table upon which sat a tray, where I’d get to take my pick of a tiny, pure-white figurine made of chalk – a piece of railway track, a tiny engine, a bird…
I find the cheering crowd somewhat disturbing. Thanks for the personal anecdote Do you recall anything else about the place? Any impressions still left to you about the building?
I don’t have much more recall about the place, it’s been so long, and anything I say might be confusing the medical-dental building with others. For example, I still remember going to Eaton’s downtown and marvelling at that skywalk from the parking lot over the street into the store. It’s barely changed in 50 years. I also recall taking the Eaton’s elevator when they still had a lady calling out each floor stop with what you could purchase: ladies fashion, notions…. That must have been ’til ’64 or ’65 I guess, not sure.
that quote about the Caduceus it totally wrong, Hermes was often associated holding that symbol and in Greek mythology he may have been considered the God of commerce but was more often considered the messenger of the Gods. This came from Hermeticism, where Hermes Trismegistus, was the Master of the Ancient Arts. He held the Caduceus as a symbol of healing and the people that built that building knew that. They were not speaking of Hermes from the Greek myths but this Hermes. The Caduceus is the ancient symbol of the Kundalini, the rod is the spine and the two serpents represent the male and female, or positive and negative energies, coming from the base of the spine to the pineal gland meaning that spiritual growth has been achieved and duality is no longer seen, everything is one, the unification of male and female, sun and earth, two energies merged. Just thought you might want to know….
The God Asclepius commands you to read the Wikipedia entry concerning my Rod:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_of_Asclepius
That is all.
Thanks, God.