Picture this: a community pool by day; cool on-the-water lounge by night. Or, a massive surf park under the big Science World dome.
These were the ideas that a local firm called Reviver Sport+Entertainment had envisioned for Vancouver several years ago.
In 2017 the company proposed a massive surf park adjacent to Science World, named City Surf.
The project included plans for a 200 by 100 metre pool and accompanying infrastructure (a deck lined with restaurants, shops, learning centres, and more), along with a geothermal heating system that would clean and filter the polluted ocean water.
Ultimately, the City of Vancouver and Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation said no.
Six years later, the massive surf park remains on the back burner, co-founder Colin Weston tells V.I.A. "City Surf is not dead. We're just working on some other things."
One of those other things included a giant floating pool called CityPool, also in False Creek, which the company proposed to the City in 2019.
Weston says the idea was "an offshoot of all the work that [Reviver] did with City Surf," only this time, they proposed refurbishing a barge.
"It's a public pool during the day," explains Weston. "Then you turn on the lights and crank up the music and it becomes the city's most fun outdoor lounge."
The multipurpose space would have also used the same filtration system as the surf park to use and filter water from False Creek.
'The pain point is still there'
During the time that the surf park made waves in local media, several polls were made to see how Vancouverites truly felt about the theoretical False Creek feature.
Out of over 7,000 respondents, shares Weston, approximately 83 per cent were in favour of City Surf, around a dozen were on the fence, and a single-digit percentage disliked the idea.
When CityPool was being proposed, Vancouver was in desperate need of more outdoor public pools, he notes. He says now the need has increased due to annually climbing temperatures.
"The pain point is still there," says Weston. "Vancouver has a lack of supply of public outdoor pools and a massive demand that only keeps growing as the city's population expands."
Vancouver is 'not very innovative'
If there is evident public interest and need, why does Vancouver shy away from such bold projects?
According to Weston, the City is "just not very innovative. They're not very outside of the box thinking of looking at other opportunities."
Because of the painstakingly complex and "restrictive" process, the Vancouver-based sports and entertainment company is forced to take business south. "In the States, it's so much more streamlined and they want you to do these things," says Weston. "Vancouver, sadly, is more resistant."
"We love, love, love Vancouver but there's a bit of a love-hate being here. For us to be successful, to get things off the ground, sadly we've got to go elsewhere."
Last month the City gave three million dollars in funding towards bigger, better, and a few new events and festivals. Around the same time, city council also showed unanimous support for a motion that will allow for more "unconventional" event spaces around the city.
Weston is hopeful that this new attitude will turn the tide on his ideas too. "If they're true about it, then I think CityPool would be perfect."
