More Benchmark Benches

The Benchmark program, introduced a previous blog (see here) , was initiated in 2005 with the unveiling of the first three benches themed onthe past, present and future of Liberty Village. The two which represent past and present are located near Lamport Stadium on Fraser near Liberty Street. They are benches B and C on the map.

I wrote about the bench representing future in the first Benchmark blog - as it was the more interesting of the 3. Today's blog is about the past and present benches - however there is a snag, which causes me to pause my discussion of the past and provide an explanation because the bench representing the past looks decidedly decrepit.

"The Past" - Benchmark Bench
However the past has disappeared! I photographed the bench representing the past several weeks ago, however the photo was so bad that I set out to do a new one the other week. This is what I found instead:


Gone! It looks like the boards have been stolen! Before you jump to conclusions, I suspect that it is simply being refurbished (I hope) as I have noticed other art benches are being repainted in the Village. The original work had faded and chipping paint and was badly in need of a facelift. In case it really is gone I will show the photos I had taken here earlier, with a promise that if a refurbished bench arrives in the coming weeks I will re-photo and update it in this blog.


The next detail to take care of, the bench representing the past is bench B on the on the map however it is positioned incorrectly on the map (the map is from the LVBIA site). If you look at the map, B is located to the north, kitty corner from bench C, not the reverse as shown on the map.

The bench titled The Past is by Mina Arakawa and represents the village, its streets and features from the past. I will gladly update this blog if they place a repainted bench here - other than seeing a few street names and a section marked "Dogs", I couldn't make out what this bench really was all about.








"The Present" - Benchmark Bench
Next is Bench C, located adjacent to Bench B, as mentioned above. It is titled "The Present" and is supposedly based on a Google satellite image of Liberty Village. To me, it was an interesting set of lines and colours and pleasant to look at, however it did not particularly remind me of a google map. However it is decidedly more modern looking than the bench beside it representing the past.