Tanden Launder, The Mayor of Fifth Street

BY JEFF FIJOLEK

At 32 years old, Tanden Launder is just old enough to remember things that no longer exist in the local landscape of Coeur d’Alene.

He's also the right age to be investing in the next chapter of the rapidly-growing city.

The best fishing in Coeur d’Alene used to be in and among the floating logs by the old DeArmond Mill, where the Spokane River meets the lake. Now it’s all part of the North Idaho College campus. When he was a child, artist, entrepreneur and Coeur d’Alene native Tanden Launder would be chased off the property. Trains whistling their way down Main Street through the city’s core were part of the soundtrack of his childhood.

“I grew up old-school,” Launder says of his connection to the history, art and outdoors of North Idaho. “We didn’t have a TV and spent all of our time outside. When I was inside we had a rad arts-and-crafts room that was well-used.”

Anecdotes like this aren’t uncommon in North Idaho these days; celebrity sightings in Coeur d’Alene are becoming almost as normal as the “Don’t California My Idaho” bumper stickers. Stories of urban growth and development aren’t unique, but such rapid changes to the landscape of his hometown play a significant role in Launder’s creative expressions and his vision for the future.

“I love Coeur d’Alene. But I’m also the very last generation who remembers the old Coeur d’Alene,” notes the 32-year-old Launder. “If you’re 29, you don’t remember some of the things that I will.”

So while some of his contemporaries are likely to have taken a trip down memory lane by taking in a showing of The Super Mario Bros. Movie at the Village at Riverstone, Launder is nostalgic for the days when he waded through the tall grass where the development’s movie theater now stands.

This summer, Launder debuts a solo show featuring a collection of his Western-inspired mixed-media works at Spokane’s Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture. Working out of a studio space in the Rockford Building on Lakeside, just off of Coeur d’Alene’s main Sherman Avenue, Launder’s art combines an admiration for these forgotten landscapes and icons of the past, layering elements of 20th-century American pop culture with found objects from history. The all-black building houses galleries and workspaces for up-and-coming local artists, an interior design studio, a vintage resale boutique and a full-service barber shop.

A look through the windows into his studio on any given day and your eyes may wander to large-scale collages featuring Tony Soprano, sculptural light fixtures made from decommissioned Cold-War era bombs, or Launder standing on a stool, his head among a collection of vintage boots hanging from the rafters that he jingles like leather windchimes. But Launder isn’t just a tenant at 504 E Lakeside Ave. With an eye on preservation and a desire to reinvest in the city, Launder purchased the 1952 building from its previous owner when they retired; then working alongside his father, a general contractor, the two restored the building into the community hub it is today.

“Coeur d’Alene has a lot to offer, but I think its greatest value is a tight-knit community and friends that make it fun and interesting and helpful,” Launder remarks about some of the positive changes that come with urban growth.

But his local influence comes from more than just working with concrete, copper or canvas. With the support of the Coeur d’Alene Downtown Association, Launder and his wife, Nicole, recently took over duties as directors of the new 5th Street Farmers Market–in addition to welcoming their third child.

“For me, the 5th Street Farmers Market is about keeping the romance of a market downtown for small businesses, small makers and creatives.”

In its first months, the market has seen upwards of a thousand attendees flock to the streets of Downtown Coeur d’Alene each Wednesday afternoon from 4 to 7pm.

“There’s enough people here now to support small businesses. To support small endeavors. If you were here 15 years ago, you could say there was not enough of anybody to support anything.”

Launder spends most of his time bouncing between his studio downtown and his historic, 1904 farmhouse in Midtown Coeur d’Alene. He can be frequently found patronizing other small and independent businesses including Evans Brothers Coffee, Chalice Brewing and The Bluebird, where patrons can enjoy a menu filled with locally-sourced dishes and walls covered with Launder’s locally-created art.

“Living on Fifth Street, having a business on Fifth Street, owning a building on Fifth Street, running the market on Fifth Street. I think that the fun thing is to take possession of something and say, ‘Hey, let’s do our part to make this town as good as we can.’”