Trans Am art of real stacked cars to be reinstalled at Granville Bridge's south end | Daily Hive

Trans Am public art sculpture of stacked cars finds new permanent home at Granville Bridge's south end

Trans Am Rapture at its previous location on Quebec Street. (meunierd/Shutterstock)

For six years, the “Trans Am Totem,” now renamed as the “Trans Am Rapture,” stood as a prominent landmark on the Quebec Street median in Northeast False Creek.

It has not been seen publicly since August 2021, when it was dismantled for much-needed cleaning, maintenance, and bird-proofing, and to prepare the site for the 2022 Formula E race track — an event that ultimately never took place.

Four years later, the 33-ft-tall public art piece featuring five real scrap cars, crushed and stacked on top of an old growth cedar tree trunk, is set to see a new permanent home at a highly prominent location.

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Early last week, Daily Hive Urbanized observed construction work on the open grassy area of the west loop at the south end of the Granville Street Bridge. Upon inquiry, the City of Vancouver confirmed that this southwest loop is indeed the new permanent location for the installation. Furthermore, the City notes the sculpture now has the new name of “Trans Am Rapture.”

Construction and reinstallation are expected to be completed by late Summer 2025, including the creation of new structural foundations for the significant public art piece, which weighed 25,000 lb at its previous location.

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New permanent location of Trans Am Rapture at the southwest loop of the Granville Street Bridge. (Google Maps)

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Construction progress on the foundation for Trans Am Rapture at Granville Street Bridge’s southwest loop, as seen on June 19, 2025. (Kenneth Chan)

trans am rapture granville bridge southwest loop

Construction progress on the foundation for Trans Am Rapture at Granville Street Bridge’s southwest loop, as seen on June 19, 2025. (Kenneth Chan)

The City noted that the sculpture was thoroughly decontaminated and cleaned of all remnants of bird droppings and nesting materials — an accumulated issue from its previous Quebec Street location. The cars are currently being repainted, and a new internal armature — a supporting framework to hold up the cars — is being designed and constructed.

This bridge loop is prominently located between West 4th Avenue and West 5th Avenue, and next to the Anderson Street entrance into Granville Island.

Its prominence stems not only from its location and the high volume of passing car and bus traffic, but also from its visibility near the Granville Connector — the new protected wide pedestrian and cycling pathways along the west side of the Granville Street Bridge. Adding visual interest along the route, pedestrians and cyclists will encounter the Trans Am Rapture as they approach the bridge’s elevated south end and follow the looped pathways leading to the Arbutus Greenway to the west. The Granville Connector is also slated to reach completion and open this summer.

Although the loop features a large, park-like setting with open grassy areas, landscaping, trees, and pedestrian pathways that connect to the bridge’s pedestrian underpass, it is not officially designated as a public park — though it serves that role informally. It should not be confused with Granville Loop Park, located on opposite side — the site of the bridge’s former southeast loop, which was demolished in the late 1990s and redeveloped with tennis courts, a water feature, landscaping, and other amenities as part of its formal conversion into a designated park.

The sculpture’s new specific location is also highly accessible to pedestrians, allowing for close-up viewing and photo opportunities. It is situated directly beside an existing pedestrian pathway that cuts through the loop’s green space.

Construction progress on the foundation for Trans Am Rapture at Granville Street Bridge’s southwest loop, as seen on June 19, 2025. (Kenneth Chan)

Looking north from the south end of the Granville Connector’s pedestrian and cycling pathways on the Granville Street Bridge, as seen on June 19, 2025. (Kenneth Chan)

The new pedestrian and cycling pathways around the Granville Street Bridge’s southwest loop, linking the Granville Connector and the Arbutus Greenway, as seen on June 19, 2025. (Kenneth Chan)

Up until about four years ago, during the City’s planning process for the Broadway Plan, the municipal government explored reconfiguring the roadway framing the southwest loop into a regular, square-shaped city block. The vision included developing this City-owned site with a tower of up to 25 storeys featuring residential, retail, childcare, and cultural facility uses, along with a public plaza anchored by a “gateway feature.”

However, this development concept for the loop was ultimately dropped from the Broadway Plan due to local resident opposition and growing concerns that the emerging area plan lacked sufficient new public parks and open spaces.

Under the approved Broadway Plan, the loop is to be “maintained and enhanced as public open/green space, including with a potential ‘gateway’ feature near Granville Street and West 5th Avenue.” The installation of the Trans Am Rapture at this location seemingly aligns with that vision, checking all the boxes — reinforcing the loop’s function as a public space while also serving as the intended gateway feature through the presence of a significant public art installation.

When the sculpture was removed from Northeast False Creek in 2021, City staff noted in an internal memo at the time that they were seeking a location where the piece could be displayed for at least 10 years. The site ultimately selected, however, is likely to serve as a more permanent home well beyond that timeframe.

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Trans Am Rapture at its previous location on Quebec Street. (meunierd/Shutterstock)

When the Trans Am Rapture was first installed in 2015 at its original location of Quebec Street, it was intended to be a temporary piece as part of the Vancouver Biennale’s 2014-2016 exhibition.

It was made permanent in 2019 when Lululemon founder Chip Wilson’s family donated US$250,000 for its retainment in Vancouver’s urban landscape. Through a $1.5 million donation, Wilson is also known for previously securing the Vancouver Biennale’s “The Amazing Laughter” (Laughing Men) statues at English Bay in downtown Vancouver’s West End as a permanent fixture.

In an interview with Daily Hive Urbanized in March 2018, Marcus Bowcott, the local artist behind the piece, said having Trans Am Totem sponsored by the Vancouver Biennale was “out of the blue – unexpected.”

“The Vancouver Biennale’s sponsorship has been great and there’s been tremendous public engagement, beyond anything we could have imagined,” he said at the time.

Dismantling of Trans Am Rapture at its original Quebec Street location on August 14, 2021. (Roaming The Planet)

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Dismantling of Trans Am Rapture at its original Quebec Street location on August 14, 2021. (Roaming The Planet)

Bowcott has emphasized the sculpture’s commentary on consumer culture and the symbolic role of automobiles in society. In a description on the Vancouver Biennale’s website, he wrote: “The automobile holds a unique position in our culture. It’s a manufactured want and symbol of extremes; practicality and luxury, necessity and waste. We can see this in the muscular Trans Am, the comfortable BMW, and the workhorse Civic. Trans Am Totem also questions the cycle of production and consumption.”

Trans Am Rapture will be situated just a few steps away from the loop’s other existing permanent public art installation — a seven-ft-tall “100” granite numeral text public art sign from the Expo ’86 World’s Fair that celebrates Vancouver’s centennial. This “City Centennial Marker” by Stonecoat Industries will backdrop the Trans Am Rapture.

“It was built to last a good long time,” Bowcott noted in a social media post last weekend, in reference to how the “100” remains standing four decades later.

“It will soon have another sculpture installed beside it… This new base [for Trans Am Rapture] will likely last a long time… but who knows how long the new sculpture will last before it is raptured to Heaven.”

Under a recent Vancouver City Council direction, City staff are also in the process of exploring a potential relocation of the “Monument to East Vancouver,” more commonly referred to as the “East Van” sign, to a more prominent site.

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The “100” or “City Centennial Marker” sculpture at the Granville Street Bridge’s southwest loop. (Google Maps)

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