Anicka Quin

Western Living's Annual Designers of the Year Awards, an influential annual package that celebrates the design industry in Western Canada.

"I don’t get it,” said one passerby back in 2018 as he walked past this home in its near-completion stage and checked out the boldly colourful shingles installed in their angled, pixel-like pattern on the home’s exterior. The general contractor started to explain the vision—a study in contrasts, the layers that start outside and make their way inward, the exploration of materiality that’s in everything from the design of the cabinet pulls to the precise patterning of those shingles. “Oh no, y...

Western Living's annual celebration of the foodies that shape the way we eat in Western Canada.

Editorial director Anicka Quin went to Yasodhara Ashram for the architecture, but a welcome dose of wellness found her there too.
My cabbie is thrilled that I’m heading to Nelson for the weekend. It’s 5 a.m., and I’m groggy and dragging myself into his backseat, headed to YVR to catch a puddle-jumper into the mountains. Small talk ensues and, inevitably, I share that I’m Kootenays-bound for a few days. “There’s an ashram there, you know?” he says. When I confirm that said ashram is, in fact, ...

When a client of designer Paul Lavoie spotted this home in Calgary, it was at a time when there wasn’t a lot of housing stock available—yet it had been sitting on the market for a while. The problem? Despite decent details like great moulding, baseboards and classic hardwood flooring, it was just… uninspired. “It suffered from builder beige,” says Lavoie, who was brought on board to liven up the space. “It was well constructed, but it was so boring.”
Lavoie and his team were tasked to “make i...

Editor's note for Western Living's April 2020 issue

Politics to real estate to activism to tech: it's our 19th annual ranking of the city's most influential power players.

What was 2019 in Vancouver? It was a year when a local politician affected the conversation, and the course of the national election. When we spent another year without Uber and Lyft. When our seemingly bulletproof real estate market took a dive, but our Port of Vancouver traffic soared. When a local telco became a major player in our national health-care scene. And when we ...

Editor's Note for Vancouver Magazine's Power 50 Issue

The first annual Made in Vancouver Awards, which I launched and executed with the Vancouver Magazine team in 2019.

At the world's largest conference for the health, rights and well-being of girls and women, which takes place in Vancouver this week, speakers stressed the significance of concrete data leading to policy changes when it comes to achieving gender parity.
At the world's largest conference for the health, rights and well-being of girls and women, which takes place in Vancouver this week, speakers stressed the significance of concrete data leading to policy changes when it comes to achieving gend...

I gave up wearing foundation a few years ago when, every time I wore it, someone would inevitably say, "Are you feeling ok? You look a little pale." I'd also find my combination skin (ahem, super shiny forehead) would inevitably get suffocated by mid-day and I'd feel even more slippery than usual. And how did I get so many eye wrinkles, I ask? Past attempts at using foundation seem to put a spotlight on y'olde crows feet, and I am not cool with that.
And so I've been BB Cream woman for years ...

You're a good man, Warren Chow.
Like a lot of those in the restaurant business in the city, when chef Warren Chow of Bauhaus quickly needed to close the restaurant for social distancing measures to battle COVID-19, they had a lot food left in their larders. “We froze as many things as we could, and we had a big staff meal to take care of people,” says Chow. “But there was a lot of perishable food to save.”
Chow has spent years volunteering for charity dinners, carving hams and turkeys at the ...

Editorial direction for Western Living's annual furniture trends spotlight, in 2018.

As Cambie says goodbye, Pronto, the West End says hello, Centro. Is it a fair trade?
As Cambie says goodbye, Pronto, the West End says hello, Centro. Is it a fair trade?
Yes, Cambie was devastated to lose neighbourhood favourite Pronto to the ongoing march of development. But the West End cheered the arrival of Centro, owner Angela Maida’s new neighbourhood spot transforming the former (and forgettable) Hub restaurant, in its wake. Though eyebrows were raised at how a sweet place like Pronto ...

In 2018, power isn't found just in the hands of boardroom bosses and high rollers: it's also wielded by Vancouverites who are moving the dial in quieter—but equally meaningful—ways
In 2018, power isn't found just in the hands of boardroom bosses and high rollers: it's also wielded by Vancouverites who are moving the dial in quieter—but equally meaningful—ways
Eighteen years into our annual power ranking, it’s clear that it’s not just the names on list that change and shift over time, but our ...