{"id":34130,"date":"2017-10-24T12:06:00","date_gmt":"2017-10-24T16:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.signmedia.ca\/?p=34130"},"modified":"2017-10-24T12:06:00","modified_gmt":"2017-10-24T16:06:00","slug":"illumination-recreating-sai-woos-neon-rooster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.signmedia.ca\/illumination-recreating-sai-woos-neon-rooster\/","title":{"rendered":"Illumination: Recreating Sai Woo’s neon rooster"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo courtesy Ocean Peak Studios<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Peter Saunders
\n<\/strong>TDH Experiential Fabricators recently designed, built and artificially weathered a vintage-style neon sign for Sai Woo, a restored restaurant in Vancouver\u2019s Chinatown. A faithful recreation of the site\u2019s iconic original sign, which depicted a rooster with flapping wings, the project was achieved based only on a few seconds of grainy film footage shot nearly 60 years ago of a Chinatown parade passing by the building.<\/p>\n

Restoring a restaurant
\n<\/strong>The original Sai Woo opened at 158 East Pender Street in 1925 and operated until 1959. When restaurant owner Salli Pateman recently took over the 557-m2<\/sup> (6,000-sf) space\u2014which had hosted a series of other eateries over the years since, including New Town Bakery from 1980 to 2010\u2014the only visual she had seen of its original appearance was a municipal archives photo from 1936. It showed a group of staff and customers standing on the curb in front of the restaurant\u2019s fa\u00e7ade, recognizable by the words \u2018Sai Woo Chop Suey\u2019 in the windows, but not including a main sign above them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat photo cemented the choice of this particular Chinatown location for me when I wanted to open my next restaurant,\u201d she explains. \u201cI named my new venture Sai Woo in honour of that legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

After finding the space in January 2013, Pateman signed her lease in May and began the long process of refurbishment to bring the heritage building up to code, working with Falken Reynolds Interiors, DoMain Creative Design Services and Milltown Contracting to turn it into a clean, modern facility.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat work took almost two years because the building was in such a state of disrepair,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was a huge ordeal that involved removing layers and layers of carpeting, linoleum and even sections of the wooden floor that were no longer structurally sound. We cleared out the asbestos and raised the foundation by two inches. In total, we filled 40 industrial bins with garbage that had to be hauled away before we could open.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Andrew Hibbs, who owns Endeavour Neon and works regularly with TDH, is reportedly Vancouver’s youngest neon bender. <\/span>
\n Photo be Jennilee Marigomen<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fortunately, a sufficient number of the restaurant\u2019s reclaimed Douglas fir floorboards turned out to be salvageable.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, when you walk into the restaurant, you\u2019re actually walking on the original floor from 1925,\u201d Pateman says.<\/p>\n

Tracking down a design
\n<\/strong>The new Sai Woo opened in March 2015 to strong reviews for both the interior design and the menu\u2014but without the iconic sign, as Pateman was still trying to find some hint
\n as to what it actually looked like.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had been unable to find any other images of the restaurant, so I spoke to a friend in Calgary who\u2019s a really good researcher,\u201d she says. \u201cJust a little while later, she sent me a YouTube clip of the footage of the parade\u2014and there was the rooster. She said, \u2018look, it\u2019s your building!\u2019 I was so excited, I knew I had to bring that sign back.\u201d<\/p>\n

She offered $500 to anyone who could find the lost sign, but while many responses came in with related information, it was ultimately to no avail. She gave up four months into the search.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a bit bummed out about it,\u201d she says, \u201cbut then I learned about TDH, which had been doing neon signs forever, including some in Chinatown.\u201d<\/p>\n

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TDH has seen demand for neon lettering increase in recent years. <\/span>
\n Photos courtesy Ocean Peak Studios<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Keeping neon alive
\n<\/strong>Indeed, TDH has created some of the most recognizable signs in Vancouver, including a Kit and Ace outlet\u2019s neon letters spelling out \u2018time is precious\u2019 in Gastown, a neon sign for Chinatown\u2019s Bao Bei Brasserie and light-emitting diode (LED) illuminated channel letters for the Vancouver Aquarium\u2019s 2006 rebranding project.<\/p>\n

Pateman contacted the company after reading an article about Andrew Hibbs, owner and operator of Endeavour Neon and reportedly Vancouver\u2019s youngest neon bender. In addition to handling his own small-scale projects, he often works with his brother Troy and father David, who own TDH (formerly known as TDH Signs and named for their combined initials), on new large-scale neon signs, all despite today\u2019s wider industry adoption of LEDs.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur dad is a neon glass blower who worked out of a garage during most of our childhood,\u201d says Troy. \u201cThat\u2019s where we learned about the craft. You might say neon is in our blood! Andrew has really developed his skills to the point where he handles anything that\u2019s just neon, while I oversee all of our custom fabrication projects.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI started pumping neon at 13, then learned how to repair and bend tubes,\u201d says Andrew, who oversees TDH\u2019s neon department, which has seen an increase
\n in requests over the past three years.<\/p>\n

Pateman reached out to the company with only the YouTube clip for reference.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were excited about this request and our first approach was to study signs from the era, so we could apply similar techniques to make the new sign look more authentic,\u201d says Troy. \u201cIt was a chance to bring a piece of history back to life. Most people really appreciate neon signs as they are an art form. Each unit is hand-formed and -shaped; you can\u2019t just use a machine to make it. For a project like this, a lot of creativity is needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very important to me that it look 100 per cent like the original,\u201d says Pateman. \u201cI could see TDH had achieved similar effects with other projects. We got along really well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Raising funds
\n<\/strong>When Pateman found out it would cost $18,712 to recreate Sai Woo\u2019s early sign, however, the effort did not seem feasible, especially given all of the other costs she had already incurred in restoring the restaurant itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cost would be prohibitive,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, determined to try, she launched a 30-day Kickstarter campaign called \u2018Bright Lights, Van City,\u2019 which ran from Mar. 23 to Apr. 22, 2017. As word spread about her crusade to resurrect the rooster that once overlooked East Pender, the community around her came together to help raise most of the needed funds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe campaign was touch-and go,\u201d Pateman says. \u201cA week away from the deadline, I was $527 short. Funds were still trickling in, little by little, but on the last day, when the campaign ended at 4 p.m., I had exhausted all of the contacts I could think of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortunately, one of her neighbours on West Pender, Modernized Tailors owner Steven Wong, wanted to help out in loving memory of his late father Bill, a longtime Chinatown tailor himself, who had been fond of eating at Sai Woo.<\/p>\n

\u201cSteven donated the last of the money I needed for the sign,\u201d Pateman says. \u201cHe brought it in cash to me at my home. It was a very emotional moment.\u201d<\/p>\n