I've been thinking a lot of about the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts lately. Just yesterday as I was walking under them to get to our office in Chinatown I ran into Vancouver-based professional skateboarder, Rick McCrank, standing in their shadow in the Skate Plaza. We had a discussion about what might happen to the Plaza should they come down, landing on the likely outcome for this particular space being - how can I say this - not the best one for Rick and his interests. The skatepark would likely end up being disassembled along with the viaduct as the property would all of a sudden go from being an easy one for the City to loan, as its current value is quite low, to a piece of land that would have many vying over it. A huge opportunity lies in creating more than shady, fenced in piles of dirt (what many of the spaces under the viaducts - aside from the Plaza - contain right now) and it's sparked an interesting conversation from the City of Vancouver who are openly engaging all of the stakeholders in the city on the issue.
Professional skateboarder, Rick McCrank, often works under Vancouver's viaducts
Back in the late 1960's the viaducts were constructed because a freeway was supposed to meet them on the other side of Downtown but the residents of Strathcona and Chinatown rose up and opposed that paved thoroughfare that would have made our city look a LOT different some 40 years later, and it was obviously never built. Recently the City of Vancouver held a challenge inviting people to submit their concepts in 3 different categories: 1. A way to connect the core of the city if the viaducts weren't there 2. Changing the existing viaducts into something, anything and 3. The Wildcard for random ideas. There were over 80 ideas, from well thought out plans complete with renderings all the way to basic concepts involving My Little Pony. All of them were interesting. Click the image below to visit the site where they're presently being showcased.
Personally, I'd be happy to see them go and have some brighter space North of False Creek, perhaps more housing, green space and an urban trout pond (I should have submitted an entry to the challenge!). When I sat down for coffee with former City of Vancouver Chief Planner Brent Toderian last week I asked what he thought and his reply was "Take 'em down". City Councillor Geoff Meggs has been leading the charge on this conversation and I haven't talked to him about it directly but judging from all of the POSTS on his blog that concern the subject I'm fairly certain he's in favour of "total removal" as well. You can meet with him tomorrow at an SFU City Conversation event called Viaducts or Via-don'ts: The future of upper False Creek. Also speaking will be Urban Designer and Crosstown resident Frank Ducote, and Shirley Chan, whose family led the 1960s fight to stop the freeway I mentioned earlier in this piece. After they speak you're invited to ask questions as well as share your opinions and ideas.
Event details:
When: Thursday, May 17, 2012
Time: 12:30-1:30 pm
Location: SFU Harbour Centre, Room 1425
