Posts tagged with “viaducts”

A Vancouver time travelogue brought to you by Past Tense.

The now apparently doomed Georgia and Dunsmuir Viaducts replaced the old Georgia Viaduct that was built in 1915. The original purpose was to connect the east and west of downtown by providing a route over what used to be part of False Creek and a rail yard. The new viaduct initially served the same function but was also conceived as part of an ambitious freeway plan that would have wiped out much of Strathcona, Chinatown, and Gastown. Fortunately, neighbourhood activists made enough fuss that the rest of the project was permanently shelved.

Another legacy of the viaducts is that they obliterated what was left of Hogan’s Alley, which ran between Union and Prior, just east of Main Street (on the right in this photo). Hogan’s Alley was home to a lot of black Vancouverites and became notorious in the years before WWII for its speakeasies and gambling dens.

One of the more popular spots in the area was Vie’s Chicken and Steakhouse, where people like Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong would hang out when they came through town. Taken from the Cobalt Hotel, this is the only known extant photo of Vie’s. It was at 209 Union Street, the first house east of Main on the north side. It’s now a parking lot, but the small brick building beside it (which Vie’s used for storage) survives and now houses the Jimi Hendrix Shrine because Jimi’s grandmother once worked at Vie’s.

Source: Photo by Campbells Studio, City of Vancouver Archives #216-1.23

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>>>