Vancouver Magazine
Burdock and Co Is Celebrating a Decade in Business with a 10-Course Tasting Menu
The Frozen Pizza Chronicles Vol. 3: Big Grocery Gets in on the Game
The Best Thing I Ate All Week: Crab Cakes from Smitty’s Oyster House on Main Street
The Grape Escape for Wine Enthusiasts
5 Wines To Zero In On at This Weekend’s Bordeaux Release
Recipe: Make Your Own Clove Simple Syrup
If you get a 5-year fixed mortgage rate now, can you break early when rates fall?
5 Things to Do in Vancouver This Week (September 18-24)
10 Vancouver International Film Festival Movies We’ll Be Lining Up For
Dark Skies in Utah: Chasing Cosmic Connection on the Road
Fall Wedges and Water in Kamloops
Glamping Utah: Adventure Has Never Felt So Good
On the Rise: Meet Vancouver Jewellery Designer Jamie Carlson
At Home With Photographer Evaan Kheraj and Fashion Stylist Luisa Rino
At Home With Interior Designer Aleem Kassam
photo credit: Lucas Finlay
1. Cary Pinkowski (founder of Astur Gold) met his wife, Katya, in Moscow (where she took degrees in public relations and municipal politics). The two were married in Salzburg, Austria, and now travel constantly. They bought this West Van home from Intrawest CEO Mo Faris in 1999 (realtor mom Donna helped with the sale). Dog Chelsea, named for the soccer team, was born in Moscow, too
2. The view was originally obstructed by a palisade of 30-foot pine trees (the remaining few have been bonsai’d over 10 years); the slope was dominated by cotoneaster and laurel. Dad Rudi, designer of the Mediterranean-inspired garden, spends 20 hours each week tending the grounds for his son (Cary’s busy developing a gold mine in Asturias, Spain); he lives just up the hill
3. The garden, as well as being a welcoming respite, exists for two reasons: to shock visitors (“We don’t all live in igloos with dog sleds parked outside!” says Rudi with glee) and to remind them of a larger world beyond these shores. Rudi, who retired after 40 years expanding his hair salon chains (His & Hers, Expressions, Waves Hair Design), admits gardening is “a hobby that has come to control me”
4. In 1988, Rudi—as president of the Pacific Northwest Palm & Exotic Plant Society—approached Hermann Christian, then the city’s park supervisor, with a proposition: a trial planting of 16 palm trees, paid for by a $25,000 donation, at English Bay. The idea for such an adventurous planting began when sister city Odessa gifted Vancouver five palms in the late ’60s. (One of the originals survives near the aquarium.) There are now well over 100 palm trees along Pacific and Denman streets—all donations