Blog | Transcend Design

Gingerbread 2020: Waterfront Station

January 18, 2021January 18, 2021
by brucen

In 2009, I received The Gingerbread Architect as a gift. It’s a great book, and it comes with recipes and ingredients for 12 different gingerbread masterpieces. Since then I’ve made a number of gingerbread houses, including 2011’s Urban Brownstone, the Canuck Place Children’s Hospice in 2012, the Stewart Farmhouse in 2016, the Hotel Europe in 2017, the Vancouver Art Gallery in 2018, and the Woodward’s Building in 2019.

Waterfront Station, photo taken at Granville and Cordova

This year, for the sixth time, I decided to make my own designs for a gingerbread structure. My inspiration is Waterfront Station, located at the foot of Seymour, on West Cordova.

There were some late nights trying to get this one completed. This project took over 10 pounds of gingerbread dough to bake all of the pieces. I used isomalt (a sugar substitute) to pour all of the the windows this year. The only issue was that the windows did melt away after some time due to the humid winter rain we’ve had.

Originally the Pacific terminus for the Canadian Pacific Railway, Waterfront Station is now the last stop on Translink’s Expo Line, Canada Line, as well as the West Coast Express, and the Seabus.

The original building opened in 1914, and was designed in neoclassical style, with a distinctive red brick facade, and ionic columns. When our family moved from Port Alberni to Vancouver in 1984, my parents ran the local newsstand, Western Confectionery. Legend has it that the building is haunted by many ghosts.

Thank you for following along with this one – this building holds a special place as I have many memories of the time spent there. It’s always fun to create something that people enjoy.

Gingerbread Creations

Gingerbread 2019: Woodward’s Building

January 17, 2020January 18, 2021
by brucen

This year, for the fifth time, I decided to make my own designs for a gingerbread structure. My inspiration is the Woodward’s Building, which brings fond Christmas memories for many people.

At one time this was the premiere shopping destination in Vancouver. The store was famous for its Christmas window displays, and the rotating “W” at the top of the building.

The original building was completed in 1903, and was one of the pioneers of one-stop shopping. In the 1960’s, Woodward’s decline began as people began shopping in suburban shopping malls. In 1993, Woodward’s went bankrupt. The closing of this store accelerated the decline of Vancouver’s Downtown East Side. Finally, in 2010, construction of a new mixed-use complex was completed. The brick facade is all that remains of the original building at the corner of Abbott and West Hastings.

I remember walks with our family around the holiday season, peering in the windows of all the Christmas displays. Still a wonderful time in our memories.

A huge thank you to everyone who follows along every year. Hopefully there are others that also have childhood memories of this historic landmark.

Gingerbread Creations

Gingerbread 2018: Vancouver Art Gallery

December 30, 2018January 17, 2021
by brucen

This year, for the fourth time, I decided to make my own designs for a gingerbread structure. My inspiration is one of the more recognizable buildings in the downtown area – the Vancouver Art Gallery.

The Vancouver Art Gallery is the largest art gallery in Western Canada. The building used to be the main courthouse in Vancouver. Due to the massive scale of the building, I did need to pare down the scale. I did manage to keep many of the original design features, including the central dome, ionic columns, stonework, and the main front portico.

Again, thank you to everyone who follows along every year. While there are some late nights in December (and sometimes January!), it’s always fun to create something that people enjoy.

Gingerbread Creations

Gingerbread 2017: Hotel Europe

January 30, 2018January 17, 2021
by brucen

This year, for the third time, I decided to make my own designs for a gingerbread structure. My inspiration came from a real heritage building in Vancouver’s famous Gastown area – the Hotel Europe.

Hotel Europe is a six-story heritage building located at Powell and Alexander in Vancouver, British Columbia. The building was commissioned by hotelier Angelo Calori and completed in 1909 by Parr and Fee Architects. The building is designed in the flatiron style.

This specific building style has only a few pieces, but each is quite large. The entire design has over 100 windows.

The baked gingerbread. I baked other pieces “on the fly” as it was difficult to measure in advance.

Trying out a brick design. The bricks are all cut from Sour Straps candy.

Each of the large side walls is at least 50 inches long. Lots of bricks!

Assembling the walls. This is easier with pins, which allow the icing to dry with the walls in place.

All of the walls are up, with some structural beams in the middle.

Roof is decorated with sanding sugar. Also added trim, and a Sour Gum sidewalk.

Added hand rail around the sidewalk – Popeye Candy Sticks with thin licorice rope.

Detail shot of the start of the road. Sour and regular Gummy Coke Bottles, cut into brick shapes.

Start of an idea for street lamps – pearlized gumballs with Blueberry Candy Sticks.

Finished – lower angle photo from the front.

Thank you to everyone who follows along every year. While there are some late nights in December (and sometimes January!), it’s always fun to create something that people enjoy.

Canucks

Canucks Pumpkin 2017 – #Brocktober

October 31, 2017December 11, 2017
by brucen

The play of Canucks rookie Brock Boeser inspired this year’s pumpkin carving. Since it’s October and Boeser is having a great start to his rookie season, #Brocktober only seems natural!

I began with a photo of Brock Boeser. Using Photoshop, I modified the photo to black and white, then increased the contrast on the photo and repeated that process until only a few shades remain: black, white and some easily discernible areas of grey. From there, I roughly shaded the areas of darkness on the pumpkin.

Here I began carving the pumpkin. Remember that when carving, the thinnest areas will appear lightest, and the thickest areas will appear darkest. For the areas that will be the darkest, only a thin layer of the hull is shaven off. For the areas that are lighter, I carved deeper.

The carving process continues deeper. Each time I carved specific areas I would do a quick lighting test. A LED light inside the pumpkin is helpful. For the hair, I did not shave off any of the hull; instead, I carved lines that followed the sweet flow of Brock’s hair. More lines means more light could come through.

Here things are looking great. The only parts of the face that I did not carve the hull of the pumpkin are the hair, and the pupils of the eyes, which should be black. The only areas that are carved right through are the whites of the eyes. Everything else is a varying depth of carve that will determine the amount of light coming through.

The finished pumpkin as featured on Bardown and Sportsnet! No effects on the photograph, just a longer shutter opening to capture more light.

Baseball

White Rock 11U AAA Team – 2017 Provincial Champs!

August 8, 2017January 30, 2018
by brucen

The White Rock 11U AAA Tier 1 Tritons won the provincial title on the August long weekend in Cloverdale, capping off an amazing 26-1 season.

The tournament began on the Friday against Cloverdale, with the boys coming back to win a hard fought game 9-8. The game was highlighted by a 1st inning 3-run homer from Ben McKinnon to keep the game close, scoring Matty Ng and Vasya Seymour. In the 2nd, the hit parade continued, with Max Ross hitting a triple to score Austin Hexter. Consecutive doubles by Ben, then Jack Clayton pushed the score to 7-4 White Rock. Later in bottom of the 5th, White Rock found themselves down 8-7 when Vasya hit a game-tying solo shot on the first pitch of the inning. Tyson Craven had the go-ahead RBI on a double. Ben then entered the game in the top of the 6th to preserve the win.

Friday afternoon, White Rock had a statement game, shutting out Nanaimo 15-0. Zak Burden and Max Ross pitched a combined no-hitter, as the team played error-free defence behind them. Matty had a big day at the plate, going 3-for-3 with 2 doubles and a homer, good for 5 RBI on the game.

On Saturday morning, the team suffered their first loss of the season, losing to Abbotsford in a slugfest. The boys jumped out to a lead in the 1st inning on a RBI single by Garin Wickstrom, but found themselves trailing going to the top of the 6th. Jack hit a solo shot, and Sam Manship scored with some heads up base running on a passed ball to make it close, but the final ended up as 11-8 for Abbotsford, setting up a must-win game later in the day.

Saturday evening, the boys punched their ticket to the playoff round with a 13-2 win against Kamloops. Max Ross came to the mound in the 2nd inning, and pitched an efficient 4 innings, using just 51 pitches, and allowing just one earned run. In this game, Danny Berringer hit a long double off the fence, and had 3 RBI on the day. The game ended on a dramatic walk-off grand slam homer by Ben in the bottom of the 5th to put the mercy rule into effect.

Sunday morning’s semi-final game showed that this team scores from anywhere in the lineup. 9 different Tritons players had at least one RBI, and every single player scored at least one run in a 19-6 win. White Rock had 4 home runs in this game – Ben with 2, while Danny and Sam Persaud hit one each.

The final game was a back-and-forth affair, with White Rock coming back from 1-0 and 3-1 deficits to eventually tie the game and win the championship in extra innings. After Abbotsford took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the 2nd, with 2 outs in the top of the 3rd, Matty hit a long double off the top of the left field fence, scoring Zak to tie the game. Top of the 4th with 2 out, trailing 3-1, Jack launched a huge solo homer to straight away center, hitting the concession stand before it landed.

The Tritons were still down 3-2 until the top of the 6th inning, their last chance to tie. Matty reached on a walk, and advanced to 3rd on consecutive passed balls. Vasya Seymour then sacrificed on a grounder to the 1st base side, scoring Matty to force extra innings.

The game stayed tied until the top of the 8th inning. Then, as they have done all season long, the Tritons started a long rally – this time from the 8 spot in the order. After Sam Manship grounded out, Sam Persaud singled on a liner to left, Max Ross singled on a beautiful bunt, and Danny walked to load the bases. Persaud scored the go-ahead run on a passed ball, while Zak battled hard but popped out on an 8 pitch at-bat for the second out. With 2 outs and 2 on base, Austin Hexter hit a towering fly to right for a 2-RBI double, making the score 6-3 Tritons. Matty, Vasya, and Ben all singled to run the score to 9-3 when the inning ended on a strikeout.

Abbotsford rallied for 2 runs in the bottom of the 8th, but the game ended when Austin fielded a grounder at 3rd and threw to Zak at 1st base for the final out. Persaud and McKinnon had combined to pitch a great 8 innings, each of them striking out 7 batters.

This team went undefeated in all their tournaments, and all their league games throughout July. Their only loss on the season was to Abbotsford in the provincials. The hallmarks of this team are depth of pitching, and hard hitting from anywhere in the lineup. All 12 of the players on this team threw from the mound in a game, and all 12 had the power to hit the ball out of the park.

Huge thank you goes out to the great group of families that were so dedicated, and all of the players that put in the work, and were so determined to learn and grow throughout the season. Congratulations to all of the White Rock baseball teams this summer!

Baseball

White Rock 11U AAA Tier 1 All-Stars – Boulanger…

July 20, 2017July 20, 2017
by brucen

The 2017 White Rock 11U AAA Tier 1 All-Stars won the Boulanger Memorial tournament championship, capping a great weekend of baseball on the Canada Day long weekend.

In the round robin games, White Rock showed that they have a hard hitting lineup, and the rally starts from anywhere in the order. In Game 1 against Richmond, Jack Clayton hammered a 2-run shot, and Ben McKinnon launched 2 homers for 5 RBI. In Game 2 against Chilliwack, Sam Manship and Austin Hexter each had home runs. In Game 3 against Victoria, Austin Hexter hit his second home run of the tournament.

In the semi-final game, 3 White Rock pitchers (Vasya Seymour, Matty Ng, Garin Wickstrom) combined on a 3-hit shutout in a 10-0 win over Ladner. White Rock jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead in the first, which featured a 2-run homer from Max Ross. White Rock then extended the lead to 8-0 in the second inning on the strength of a 2-run homer by Tyson Craven.

White Rock prevailed 4-2 over Cloverdale in a tight final game, which featured some remarkable team defensive play, and timely hitting. Ben McKinnon pitched 4 solid innings as White Rock came back from 1-0 and 2-1 deficits to tie the game twice. In the bottom of the 4th inning, Tyson Craven doubled to drive in a run, and Garin Wickstrom followed that up with an RBI single to give White Rock a 4-2 lead. Vasya Seymour took the mound in the top of the 5th, striking out 1 and walking 3 batters to load the bases. Just when it looked like Cloverdale would rally, White Rock brought the infield in, and turned a gem of a double play going 6-2-3 (McKinnon, Ng, Burden) to put out the fire. Vasya finished the 6th inning by striking out the side to earn the save, and MVP honours.

So far, this team has gone 14-0 in combined tournament and league play. Good luck to all the other White Rock teams in July – here’s to a successful run for these boys of summer.

Canucks

Canucks Top 5 Surprises This Season

February 2, 2017February 2, 2017
by brucen

Bo Horvat started this season as the 3rd line centre behind Henrik Sedin and Brandon Sutter. Despite ranking 5th in TOI/GP for forwards this season, and with very little time on the power play, Horvat is leading the team this season in goals and points. He has been a professional through everything this season – good or bad. Horvat represented the Canucks at the NHL All-Star Game, and he did not look out of place, showing off his speed against Patrik Laine, and scoring 2 goals in the 3-on-3 tournament.

Nikita Tryamkin started this season in the press box. He refused a demotion to Utica, instead choosing to stay in Vancouver. Due to all the injuries on the blue line, Tryamkin finally drew into the lineup on November 3. He hasn’t relinquished his spot in the lineup since, ranking 4th on the team in plus/minus, and leads the team in penalty minutes. At 6’7″ and 265 lbs, Tryamkin’s size got him to the NHL, but he has shown surprising mobility for a big defenceman.

Everyone loves an underdog, and Richmond’s Troy Stecher fits the bill perfectly. Undrafted and undersized for a defenseman, Stecher had a great pre-season, but was sent down to Utica to start the year. Since he got the call to return to the Canucks, he has excited the fanbase with his play. He can rush the puck with his speed and leads all Canucks defensemen in shots on goal and points.

In 2014-15, Luca Sbisa was everyone’s favourite scapegoat. In 2015-16, injuries kept him out of the lineup for half of the season. Finally this year, Sbisa is getting a chance to consistently show why the Canucks signed him to an extension through 2017-18. He looks far more comfortable on defense, making solid contact to gain possession of the puck and make a good first pass out of the zone. He has stayed healthy, and leads the team in plus/minus and hits. Solid.

Markus Granlund came to Vancouver via a trade with Calgary for Hunter Shinkaruk. There were a lot of armchair GM’s out there that called for Jim Benning’s head, but at this point in time, the Canucks are the clear winner of that deal. On Brandon Sutter’s left wing, Granlund has provided the Canucks with some much needed secondary scoring, playing in every game and potting 12 goals so far. Shinkaruk on the other hand has spent most of his season in the AHL. He has played 7 games for the Flames and has 1 assist.

Gingerbread Creations

Gingerbread 2016: Stewart Farmhouse

January 8, 2017January 17, 2021
by brucen

stewart-farmhouse This year, for the second time, I decided to make my own designs for a house. My inspiration came from a real heritage building, right here in Surrey.

The Farmhouse at Stewart Farm was built in 1894 by John and Annie Stewart. The house has that Victorian style and features a veranda and bay windows at the front and side of the house. It is a picturesque site, and one of the most photographed landmarks in Surrey because of it’s romantic old world charm.

Plans are cut from card stock and labelled in a way that makes sense (to me!)

All the pieces are baked. I keep them wrapped with the card stock template.

The external walls are easier to decorate when they’re flat on a table.

Beginning assembly on the board. Royal icing, heavy mugs, and pins hold everything in place.

External walls are all up, and porch floor is also assembled.

Roof assembly nearly complete. Gingerbread needed to be trimmed to make a good fit. Looks like a real construction site.

Beginning roofing. Alternating rows of shingles made of Bubble Tape, and Sour Power Belts.

Roof is complete! Barely had enough material for all the shingles.

Porch is done, complete with stone work detail made from Necco wafers.

Veranda mostly complete, working my way from front door to side of the house.

Railings. I made these by cutting Popeye Candy Sticks in half, and gluing with royal icing.

The veranda is complete, and the railings are assembled and attached.

Finished house, front left view. This shows the detail over the front door.

Finished house, front right view. This shows the detail on the veranda.

Finished house, front view. Light can pass through the windows.

Thank you to everyone who follows along every year. While there are some late nights in December, it’s always fun to create something that people enjoy!

General Randomness

The Canucks Preview for the Casual Fan

October 11, 2016October 11, 2016
by brucen

tryamkin

As the success of the Canucks comes and goes, so do the fans. For the casual fan that’s still on board, you may not recognize the team, and for good reason. Initially billed as a retooling, this is a full rebuild. Remember the 2011 run to the Stanley Cup final? Only 6 of those Canucks are still around: Alexandre Burrows, Alex Edler, Jannik Hansen, Chris Tanev, and Henrik and Daniel Sedin.

This will be the second year in a row that there is no goaltending controversy. Miller is the starting goalie and Markstrom is a backup that is more than capable. What’s more is that the plan for the future is clear: Markstrom may be the starter next year but the future is Thatcher Demko.

On defence, Edler and Tanev now make up the Canucks shutdown top pairing. Both can move the puck, and both are solid in their own end. The Canucks added size and toughness on defence by acquiring big defenceman Erik Gudbranson from Florida for Jared McCann which solidifies the second pairing behind the shutdown top pair of Edler and Tanev. Gudbranson is a former 3rd overall pick from the 2010 draft, and he’s a big, right shot, stay-at-home type. His style should make a good fit with the freewheeling left shot of Ben Hutton. Luca Sbisa should be a lock as the fifth defenceman, but the sixth man spot is anyone’s guess. The Canucks know what they have with Alex Biega, but also love the raw potential of Nikita Tryamkin, who is 6’7″ and 228 pounds.

The Sedins are destined to retire as Canucks. Hansen and Burrows are the other forwards that remain from the 2011 run to the final. They are both versatile, both can still skate, both can play up and down the lineup, and in any situation.

The Canucks lost Radim Vrbata during free agency, but the twins received scoring help in the form of Loui Eriksson. The hope is that with a healthy Brandon Sutter the Sedins will get some second line scoring support, leaving Bo Horvat to continue his development on the third line, along with linemates Sven Baertchi and Jake Virtanen. The 4th line would feature Mikael Granlund and Derek Dorsett. Emerson Etem has not had a great training camp, and after a standout MVP season in Swedish Hockey League, Anton Rodin could also make the roster.