Posts tagged with “false creek flats”

You may have heard recently that the City of Vancouver launched an ideas competition to brainstorm future possibilities for the Georgia and Dunsmuir Viaducts and the False Creek flats, named re:CONNECT.

The competition is divided into three categories. The first, Connecting the Core (“THE BIG SCALE”), seeks high-level ideas to make the most of the Eastern Core (including the False Creek Flats), focusing on sustainability and Vancouver’s green economy. The second, Visualizing the Viaducts, looks for ways to rethink the viaducts, whether that means tearing them down, keeping them as they area, or finding a new use (you may recall some of the recently renewed debates about what to do with the viaducts. For more background, check out this audio tour we told you about in March.) The third category, The Wildcard, is for those who have ideas so big they just can’t fit into the other two categories.

Now I know some of you know exactly what you’d like to see happen to the viaducts and False Creek Flats, so here’s your chance! The best part? Submitting an entry is FREE!

Photo: Modified Enzyme

There are two streams to the competition. One, with an entry fee of $65, is geared towards professionals working in the industry and offers cash prizes (a total of $10,000). The other stream is completely free to enter and while it won’t add some padding to your wallet, it will give you a pile of publicity and urbanist street cred.

re:CONNECT comes on the heels of a number of recent, well-publicized design competitions in Vancouver.

In 2008, the Vancouver Public Space Network, noting the lack of a central focal point for civic life in the city, asked us to locate Vancouver’s grand gathering place with Where’s the Square?. Out of 54 entries, 3 were selected as the winners (jury selection and 2 people’s choice), but I’ll bet you everyone who entered felt a bit more excited/optimistic about the future of public space in Vancouver, whether or not they went home with a prize.

Photo: Where’s the Square People’s Choice #1, Hapa Collaborative

While Where’s the Square? was still open for entries in early 2009, FormShift asked us to rethink the approach to urban planning in the city, with a particular focus on sustainability and Vancouver’s new EcoDensity Charter (adopted in 2008). Architects, designers, planners, and ordinary citizens submitted 84 different ideas, hoping to get a shot at some of the $12,000 in prize money. Each of the winning entries was …READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

Every day we share a single photo from our Flickr Pool shot by one of our faithful and talented readers (that’s you!).

Okay, a quick show of hands: how many of you know of a street in Vancouver called Atlantic Street? All right, I see a few hands up. How many of you have ever seen Atlantic Street? A few less hands up than before. Last question: how many of you know what Atlantic Street was called prior to 1915? Just me and a tumbleweed?

Before I go any further, a photograph is in order. This is from kwn! and is titled 008.

This photo was taken from the corner of Thornton Street at Malkin Avenue, and the houses in the background behind the bushes are on Atlantic Street. Atlantic Street is a tiny stretch of road, and can be found by following either Jackson, Princess or Heatley Avenues south of Prior Street.

While these houses currently have a view of the light industrial area of the False Creek Flats, it wasn’t always that way. Prior to the filling in of the eastern portion of False Creek in 1915 (which we touched on briefly already), these lots would have been waterfront property. After the land was reclaimed, however, the city decided that the street’s original name was no longer appropriate and changed it. It’s former name? Bayview Street.

A quick little aside: after I had decided on this photo for today’s post, I looked a little further into kwn!‘s photostream and recognized two other photos – but where had I seen them? I had seen them hanging in a cafe around the corner from my work, and printed fairly large. So if you find yourself near Alberta and 8th, drop in for a snack and check out some prints!

Gary