Area could be world-class development
Cheryl Chan
Province
Vancouver’s concept plan for the downtown waterfront includes transportation, restaurants, hotels and offices.
An ambitious vision of Vancouver‘s downtown waterfront area was on display to the public yesterday.
The concept plans of the Central Waterfront Hub, a major redevelopment of the area north of Cordova Street roughly between Granville and Richards Street, included a world-class transportation concourse and new developments chock full of retail and office spaces.
The goals of the plan are two-fold, said city planner Matt Shillito at the open house at the central library.
“The first goal involves the waterfront as a unique place in the region to bring all the transportation modes together,” he said.
The heart of the redesign is a concourse, a civic space located below street level behind the heritage Waterfront Station building.
It will have access to the SkyTrain, SeaBus, West Coast Express and buses as well as the future Canada Line and potential ferries and a downtown streetcar.
The concourse will have a glazed roof to let natural light in. Some of the proposed elements include airport check-in, cafes and restaurants, and a “bikeade.”
The second goal is to “extend the city to meet the water and to create new development sites in the area,” said Shillito.
Granville Street would be extended past Cordova to a new road, Canada Place Extension. A new seawall will be built on the water’s edge.
The plan also involves creating six new developments that would house hotels, restaurants, office towers and retail and recreational spaces.
Planners still need to conduct technical studies to examine the plan’s economic and structural feasibility and its impact on transit and traffic.
Derick McNeil, a Vancouver resident who came across the exhibit yesterday, liked the “exciting” proposal.
McNeil noted Vancouver has a lack of public spaces for concerts compared to other cities like Montreal and said he’d like to see a cultural space in the development plans. “How amazing would it be to see a jazz concert overlooking Burrard Inlet in the sunset?”
© The Vancouver Province 2008