Surrey City Centre Redevelopment Plans

[nickinacan]

I started this thread since it seemed like much of the information regarding the City Centre plans was getting lost in the thread regarding the proposed Central City Phase 2 (City Hall) Development. This thread is meant to facilitate discussion regarding the overall design plans for the rejuvenation and development of the Surrey City Centre into a metropolitan centre.

From what I gathered at 'The Next Great Metropolitan Centre' presentation at Central City (February 28), the City of Surrey and Bing Thom Architects are both being very ambitious. The renderings and concept designs were absolutely fantastic, better than anything I could have expected. The major theme of the plans seemed to be "mixed use architecture". This theme was carried over in virtually all areas of planning. Some major design elements were:

- The development of the mirrored civic plaza across from the current Central City plaza to create a civic plaza. As discussed in a former post, it included a variable use element that could be a fountain (waterpark?), performance stage and ice rink. Again, 102 Avenue would be closed off to accommodate events.

- The redevelopment of three of the former lakes that were formerly in the area, protection of the creeks, and introducing the "green fingers" that will (some already exist) would run into the City Centre via multiple locations.

- The calming of King George Highway by redistributing some of the traffic to other main north/south routes in the area. These new connecting streets have already been planned, but have not been implemented.

- The intersection of King George and 108 Avenue will be turned into into a large roundabout intersection, planting a giant fountain in the middle of it. It would look and feel something like a smaller version of Columbus Circle in New York and act as a "gateway" to the city.

- The beautification of all the streets in the area with multiple types of trees, flora, street furniture and lighting. With the development, space was taken into account to allow ample light during the daytime.

- Focus all the tallest (Highest FAR) development along the King George corridor and around the Skytrain stations, most within a 10 minute walk of each Skytrain station. All development will taper to low rise as it reaches the edges of the City Centre.

- The Gateway area is slated to be more of a residential based area in kin to the West End.

- The Surrey Central area will become the major corporate and business centre of Surrey, with some residential highrises thrown in the mix.

- The King George Station area will be transformed into a mix of both commercial and residential.