Which projects should I make a point of seeing while I am in Vancouver?

[J21bird]

Greetings,

I will be on a tour of the northwest in a couple of weeks and after a stop in Seattle, I will be in Vancouver for a few days. Which projects should I make a point of seeing while I am in Vancouver?

I am a writer who covers construction and development news in Denver and am excited to be making my first trip to your city.

My publication:
http://denverurbanreview.com/

[red-paladin]

I moved this post to it's own thread, as these requests can lead to good discussions and they don't fit that thread.

There are so many possible points of interest, and it really depends what interests you the most.

I you were visiting me, and wanted to spend an entire day getting to know the city, I would say that walking on the seawall from Canada Place down to Stanley Park, all the way around to English Bay and beyond to False Creek would be the best.
I have taken several people on that route as the views are amazing. You can take the pedestrian mini-ferries across False Creek to Granville Island after that.

It also depends if you are just staying in the city, downtown, or if you are planning to visit the wider area.

I would recommend highly visiting Lonsdale Quay, Capilano Suspension Bridge, Cleaveland Dam and Grouse mountain on the north shore (you can do all in one day, with or without a car).

If you are interested in cuisine then there are many fantastic restaurants to visit, and for urban topics, architecture, of course many of our forum members can talk your ear off.

[logan5]

The revitalization of Vancouver's Chinatown is interesting to follow. There's a handful of projects happening there, and they are not the usual green glass condo's that you see everywhere. If you're an urban enthusiast, this is a great neighbourhood to watch being transformed. Lots of history to build around.

[Vin]

Originally Posted by J21bird

Greetings,

I will be on a tour of the northwest in a couple of weeks and after a stop in Seattle, I will be in Vancouver for a few days. Which projects should I make a point of seeing while I am in Vancouver?

I am a writer who covers construction and development news in Denver and am excited to be making my first trip to your city.

My publication:
http://denverurbanreview.com/

DOWNTOWN

Around the downtown peninsula, there aren't too many exciting projects currently underway, but I would suggest The Trump (Georgia and Thurlow) and Telus Garden office tower (Georgia and Seymour). These two are the largest downtown mixed-use developments currently near completion.

Perhaps you should also look at a couple of recently-built neighbourhoods that have contributed to the liveability of downtown: mainly the Vancouver Convention Centre/Coal Harbour and Yaletown neighbourhoods. Again not too exciting but these are major downtown residential neighbourhoods that make Vancouver so different from other North American cities. Check out how Gastown is slowly being gentrified, but a word of caution: if you happen to venture towards East Hastings street, it could be very shocking as a first time visitor to see how addictions and other abuses can do to people at such a large scale, something this city is trying to clean up for quite a while now.

Another notable new area close by downtown is the Olympic Village, but again not an exciting neighbourhood, but a pleasant place to stroll around, particularly by the water, which provides a nice vista for a good downtown view. Also, the style of construction is more 'European' here, meaning there are quite a few mid rise and short towers built really close to each other. Some of these buildings are aesthetically pleasing, but others outright cookie-cutter boring.


SUBURB

If you are more adventurous, try taking the sky train to the burbs (Metrotown, New Westminster, Brentwood & Richmond) and see how these municipalities are emulating downtown Vancouver by going highrise and bringing more people to live in dense residential centres near major transit routes. Transit ticket is valid 1.5hrs so that gives you some time to look around by hopping on/off trains at stations.


UP AND COMING PROJECTS

There are other larger and more exciting projects coming up but excavation hasn't even started for some of these. They include the Vancouver House, Burrard Place and the casino/hotel entertainment complex near BC Place stadium (all downtown). Others include Brentwood Mall/Solo District development (@ Brentwood), Station Square (Metrotown) and River Green neighbourhood (Richmond). All these are primarily residential/mixed used commercial and retail developments in the suburbs.

Just a little tip for your upcoming trip: hope that helps, and welcome to lotusland!

[Whalleyboy]

If you do make it out towards the suburbs and out to Surrey I'd recommend looking at Surreys city hall plaza area. The whole area was torn down and rebuilt which is now a library, City Hall, and a plaza. Currently they are adding a 54 storey tower which will house retail base attached to the plaza, office space(Which some space will be used as a university), residential homes, and a new hotel. It really is an all in one building.

Also if you got more time to kill there is king george station development going on in Surrey as well. Its the next stop on the skytrain line. which has a very unique looking office building being built right now.

[ozonemania]

I'd consider taking the Expo and Millenium lines just to see how transit-oriented development is shaping the city. Because they are largely elevated, you can see alot in a short amount of time, and have time to spare to get off certain stations and explore a bit.

Downtown is really where all the development fun is though. You won't need a car, but you could definitely rent one for a day or two to visit some of the further points of interest.

When you're touring downtown, it's useful to think of viewing the various neighbourhoods in terms of their development age. You have historic Gastown/Chinatown, Granville and Robson (50s to 70s), West End (60s to 80s), Yaletown (90s), Coal Harbour (00s), Olympic Village (10s), and how each area has adapted to development pressures today.

[officedweller]

Agreed with ozonemania that it's worthwhile to take a ride on the SkyTrain - in terms of unique development patterns, the transit oriented projects are worth seeing. See article here:

http://www.vancouversun.com/business...863/story.html

Unfortunately, of the malls listed in the article, only Brentwood is currently under construction (a large excavation pit with the start of foundations). The article fails to mention Metrotown, which is the original TOD area in Metro Vancouver.

I suggest riding the Millennium Line around the loop to pass by Metrotown, New Westminster and back through Brentwood. Or instead, you can also take the Expo Line through Metrotown and New Westminster and cross the SkyBridge to see downtown Surrey (a work in progress), and ride back to New Westminster station (and see it's integration of station and mixed use complex) transferring to the Millennium Line to continue the loop to Brentwood.

[csbvan]

I would suggest, of course, seeing the downtown core and its density from various eras: the 60's-70's West End, the 90's-early 00's Yaletown/Coal Harbour. The historic heart in the city is Gastown-area along Water Street which has a few interesting developments mixing the historic with the new (it is also where you will find the highest concentration of higher end restaurants and clothing stores in the city). Outside of downtown I would certainly check out Olympic Village, just across False Creek to see a very recent, planned neighbourhood on old brownfield land. As others said, taking the Skytrain to see the new transit-oriented developments in suburban Burnaby (particularly Metrotown), New Westminster (and Richmond to a lesser extent) is also worthwhile.

[Alex Mackinnon]

How about the Evergreen Line construction? If you have a car you can see quite a lot.

[PaperTiger]

I agree that a tour of the sea wall , by bike or foot, will give a great sense of our DNA. Personally a prefer to bike because you can see a lot more.

Skytrain tour is also a good idea if you wan to get a sense of what the larger region is like, outside the CoV.

Another project that is worth seeing is the Woodwards development in Gastown. It was completed in 2009 so there has been time to see the successes (many) and Failures (a few) of the project.

Also, I would keep an open mind and make your own judgments, as not all of us agree with Vin on what constitutes an "exciting neighbourhood."

[PaperTiger]

Hey! I just noticed that Woodwards has its own Wikipedia entry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodward%27s_Building

[red-paladin]

Originally Posted by PaperTiger

Hey! I just noticed that Woodwards has its own Wikipedia entry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodward%27s_Building

It's one of many Metro Vancouver related articles that really need updating and more photographs.

[Caliplanner1]

J21bird, you might want to explore Stanley Park and the Vancouver Aquarium......a little touch of San Diego's Sea World, but so close to Alaska!

[city guy]

Some of the best new buildings in our region are up at UBC....they don't get much airtime on this forum but are the most sophisticated institutional buildings around...I suggest walking down main mall and also the other main spine of university boulevard

the beaty museum by the patkaus, the belkin art gallery by peter carder and th anthropology museum by arthur erikson are standouts

[GMasterAres]

I would mirror many of the suggestions but the one thing I'd say is almost a must do if you're interested in developments is ride all the SkyTrain lines as vast majority of the region's large developments (outside of CoV) are along the SkyTrain lines. Just buy a 3-zone day pass ($9.75 I think) and hop on and off to your heart's desire. The day pass is good for the buses throughout the region too. You won't need a rental car then.

Canada Line will take you through all the Marine Drive construction and into Richmond where there is a lot of building along the line.

Millenium Line will take you through Brentwood and all the big developments right around there then through Lougheed and finally Brewery District.

Expo Line will take you through Metrotown, New West, and Surrey where there are equally large developments like 3 Civic (and others) in Surrey Central or the too many to name buildings going up in Metrotown.

And the bonus is that you'll get a good view of the region as a whole just riding all 3 lines and looking out the window between stops + you will have seen the major points in the region except Langley and the outskirts; Vancouver, Richmond, Burnaby South + North; New Westminster; Surrey. You'd be missing out on Coquitlam/Port Moody with the Evergreen Line not complete yet, but you could always just jump on a bus.

Definitely spend time downtown though and go through Gastown, China Town, then False Creek. A lot of nice things going on in those areas and you can (and should) do it all on foot.

If you want to see development I think that will get you the most bang for your buck. (1) ride all 3 SkyTrain lines and (2) Downtown+Gastown+China Town+False Creek on foot. If you have bonus time then take the Seabus over to North Van and do a little exploration there and/or jump on the 99B or a bus from downtown and head over to UBC. In additional to some nice development there, there are a lot of nice hikes and places to visit out at UBC and it is just a nice campus imo.

[GMasterAres]

As a follow up logistically if you do plan on riding all the SkyTrains, for Expo/Millennium I would suggest:

1) Catch an Expo to King George train from downtown to King George.

2) Main stops along that stretch would be Joyce-Collingwood, Metrotown, Edmonds, New Westminster, Surrey Central, and King George (end of hte line)

3) Once you do that stretch catch a train back towards Downtown then hop off at Columbia in New West (first stop heading to Vancouver once you cross the bridge over the Fraser)

4) Switch to the other platform and catch a Millennium Line to VCC/Clark.

5) Key stops along that stretch would be Sapperton (Brewery), Lougheed, Brentwood, then Broadway. Probably no need to go all the way to VCC/Clark, just get off at Broadway and switch back to the other line heading into downtown / or jump the 99 at Broadway out to UBC.

Canada Line can be done on its own as it is disjointed from the other two lines.

http://tripplanning.translink.ca/FIL...yTrain_Sys.pdf

Also for reference, a SkyTrain ride from Waterfront to King George (furthest point) is approximately 40 minutes and Columbia >> Broadway via Millennium is about 25 minutes so not a large amount of time and riding all the lines can be done in a day easy.

[vancouver604]

Originally Posted by jhausner

As a follow up logistically if you do plan on riding all the SkyTrains, for Expo/Millennium I would suggest:

1) Catch an Expo to King George train from downtown to King George.

2) Main stops along that stretch would be Joyce-Collingwood, Metrotown, Edmonds, New Westminster, Surrey Central, and King George (end of hte line)

3) Once you do that stretch catch a train back towards Downtown then hop off at Columbia in New West (first stop heading to Vancouver once you cross the bridge over the Fraser)

4) Switch to the other platform and catch a Millennium Line to VCC/Clark.

5) Key stops along that stretch would be Sapperton (Brewery), Lougheed, Brentwood, then Broadway. Probably no need to go all the way to VCC/Clark, just get off at Broadway and switch back to the other line heading into downtown / or jump the 99 at Broadway out to UBC.

Canada Line can be done on its own as it is disjointed from the other two lines.

http://tripplanning.translink.ca/FIL...yTrain_Sys.pdf

Also for reference, a SkyTrain ride from Waterfront to King George (furthest point) is approximately 40 minutes and Columbia >> Broadway via Millennium is about 25 minutes so not a large amount of time and riding all the lines can be done in a day easy.

Please make sure you take the Canada Line at 5PM to get the full Vancouver experience!