Central Waterfront District | Waterfront Station - CRAB Park

[racc]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

no the busses would be transit busses creating a downtown bus loop i believe not tourist busses

that area isn't that interesting anyway - the most interesting waterfront is to the west and there is a nice long sidewalk planned along the waterfront to make it easier than it is now to get to the west - as it is now its hard to navigate unless you know the ins and outs and shorts cuts

roads and traffic are just as much urban fabric as pedestrians are

The buses on Transit Street would be transit buses. That is the only street you need. Canada Place extension is where they want to park the tour buses.

There are plenty of streets all over the city with cars and traffic if that is what you want. Why not do something different and interesting here rather than waste space and money building roads that aren't really needed. I suggest you look at Docklands in London to see what can be done in a place like this. The dogmatic devotion to the grid is so 1990. It is time we trying something new. The formulaic approach to urban design in this city is getting rather tiresome. It is time for some bolder approaches that do take a bit more effort but produce far more interesting public spaces.

It would be a shame to have the view of the water blocked by tour buses or the air polluted by their exhaust.

[SpongeG]

meh

that side of canada place is gross and always will be no matter what they do - making it prettified ain't going to help

it is what it is and should be left to be a working business area - we have the parks and such to the west

this city hardly needs a concrete plaza when it has stanley park

[amor de cosmos]

Open houses for Waterfront Station hub, Thu Mar. 5 & Sat. Mar. 7

Come down to one of two open houses about the Waterfront Station hub in downtown Vancouver!

The City of Vancouver and TransLink want your feedback on a framework to guide future development around Waterfront Station — the Central Waterfront Hub.

This is the second round of open houses to be held (the first was in Feb 2007), so you’ll be able to see a draft framework that resulted from the earlier consultation.

Here are the dates and locations you’ll need:

• Thursday, March 5, 2009 - 3:00 - 7:00 pm
  Waterfront Station Concourse, 601 West Cordova St.
• Saturday, March 7, 2009 - 10:00 am - 2:00 pm
  Central Library Concourse, 350 West Georgia St.

As the City of Vancouver’s Hub website says, the main objectives of the Central Waterfront Hub program are to:

• Create a transportation hub which better integrates the many transit modes which converge in this area – Skytrain, Canada Line, West Coast Express, Seabus, Helijet and numerous bus lines.
• Establish planning and urban design guidelines for the various development sites which exist in the area.
• Introduce measures to enhance the public realm – streets and open spaces - in this important location.

The City of Vancouver’s website has much more info on the earlier open houses and the plans so far. Grab the open house flyer from the site too: you’ll notice it has a few pictures of Canary Wharf and Liverpool Street Stations in London as possible inspiration for the Waterfront hub.

http://buzzer.translink.ca/index.php/200...erfront-station-hub-thu-mar-5-sat-mar-7/

[Denscity]

I love all that retail they're adding with office above.

[Login650]

Originally Posted by mr.x2

FYI, the new Waterfront Station transit hub precinct does include a new plaza north of the transit concourse....i read somewhere that it could fit 5,000 people:

Please note that the master plan image you're referencing is from 2008. The latest concept plans have not yet been posted online. (And once they are, please note that it is just one example of how the area could be built out to meet the directions being set out in the draft Framework document that staff have written.)

[Login650]

Originally Posted by Locked In

Thanks for all the information Login650!
Your above comment left me wondering - assuming the stadium doesn't go ahead, what type of significant development is anticipated to the east of the proposed waterfront hub? Would this involve extending the street grid and developing above the rail yards/parking lots etc. to the north?
I'd be interested to hear if anyone knows whether the City (or the Ports) has a long term vision for that area (that envisions it as something more than rail yards/parking lots one day). Thanks!

Hi - as the quick answer I'll just give you the link to the policy that exists for that area: http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/Guidelines/C021.pdf I'll try to come back and respond properly later! (See page 14 for the amount of development.)

[metroXpress]

Anyone going to the open house today? Looking foward to reading more info.

[David]

ill be at the open house briefly as i go from sfu to the west coast express, ill defintitely stop by if there is anything interesting

[mrjauk]

I'll be stopping by as well today. I forgot to take my camera with me but I'll post about anything that I may find to be noteworthy.

[Locked In]

Originally Posted by Login650

Hi - as the quick answer I'll just give you the link to the policy that exists for that area: http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/Guidelines/C021.pdf I'll try to come back and respond properly later! (See page 14 for the amount of development.)

Thanks for the report! This policy is probably old news to a lot of people on here (it's a 1994 report), but I hadn't seen it before. It provides a very compelling vision for future development in this area. Plus, it deals with racc's concerns about open space! Development will provide for "a significant publicly-accessible open space of at least 0.4 ha (1 ac.) in the downtown-oriented area" (the area in which the waterfront hub is located, and immediately to the east of that). Here's the accompanying conceptual diagram from the report:

[jlousa]

Went to the open house, didn't see any of the forumers there what a surprise, but I forgive them, it was nice outside and they were probably riding a Ferris Wheel somewhere world class.
I expect Fever to chime in, he usally shows up to these things and probably attended as well.
There wasn't really anything new there, no mention of the whitecap stadium on the boards surprise surprise although a lot of people were asking about it and the answers ranged from vague to I'll have to get back to you. At least they're learning and not making up answers like last year.
All the new boards are now posted at

http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/currentplanning/whitecaps/presentationboards2.htm

As I mentioned nothing really new from last year. Translink appears posed to push ahead with it's idea for the hub before the city will with the rest of the project.

[fever]

Hah. I forgot about it. I'll check out the one on the weekend.

[fever]

Looking at the section, the entrances to the seabus are kind of odd. Not a big deal and just a concept but whatever. I threw the ramps I was wondering about on there as well. Also just to see if it can fit, the grade of a canada line extension. Not sure which is more accurate but it doesn't look like it fits under the skytrain platform as is.

[officedweller]

Thanks.
Looks like the transit walkway just has various entrances and exits from the street.

Background regarding the Granville St. Extension showing low level, mid level and high level options. The plans also show the extent of the Granville Square parkade structure.

http://vancouver.ca/fs/bid/bidopp/RFP/documents/Appendix6-GranvilleExtensionREPORT.pdf

[Lee_Haber8]

I am shocked by the amount of space devoted towards parking

Why??? Long-term parking is probably the most inefficient use of land imaginable and to put so much of it on a site that is the best served by transit in all of BC boggles the mind!

[Locked In]

Originally Posted by Lee_Haber8

I am shocked by the amount of space devoted towards parking

Why??? Long-term parking is probably the most inefficient use of land imaginable and to put so much of it on a site that is the best served by transit in all of BC boggles the mind!

What amount of space devoted to parking are you referring to? Are you referring to what exists now? I just flipped through the slides and the future plans heavily emphasize transit use over private vehicle use. The 'Land Use' slide talks about minimizing parking in new developments to discourage car use. The 'Challenges' slide points out that any Hub plan will require destruction of the Granville Street parkade, resulting in the loss of parking. All the slides hammer home how great the transit connections are at Waterfront, and how the site will be developed around transit.

Thanks for posting the link to the updated slides jlousa, and attending on SSP's behalf Those of us who can't be in Vancouver appreciate it. The concept looks great - I like that they refer visually to Potsdamer Platz repeatedly, and I would love to see our own (likely scaled down) version of that on the waterfront. It all seems very far away though - if the landowners/developers decide to proceed with this in 4 years (reasonable estimate?), it sounds like we'll see it built out around 2020.

Here are some of the flashier renders from the 2009 Open House slides jlousa linked to on the COV's website ( http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/currentplanning/whitecaps/presentationboards2.htm ):

[Hourglass]

Not bad at all. If they can capture a bit of the Circular Quay vibe in Sydney, it'll be a great addition to the downtown peninsula.

Strangely enough, though, it seems to me that it might be better if the ferry piers were relocated to the front of the convention center expansion and the seaplane base to the east side of Canada Place. There's more room for additional piers as demand grows, and would mitigate some of the noise concerns from the residents of Coal Harbour (and yes, I know that relocating the piers to the west side of Canada Place might mean a longer hike for commuters taking the Seabus).

[Rusty Gull]

^It'll never happen. The SeaBus is the lifeblood of Waterfront Station. It is also, in some regards, the de facto extension of the Skytrain.

[twoNeurons]

Originally Posted by Rusty Gull

^It'll never happen. The SeaBus is the lifeblood of Waterfront Station. It is also, in some regards, the de facto extension of the Skytrain.

This is true... and it would serve no function to connect that part of the waterfront with Lonsdale. In addition, the seaplanes were there before Coal Harbour.

[Login650]

Originally Posted by jlousa

There wasn't really anything new there, no mention of the whitecap stadium on the boards surprise surprise although a lot of people were asking about it and the answers ranged from vague to I'll have to get back to you. At least they're learning and not making up answers like last year.
All the new boards are now posted at

Hi Jlousa, there was a mention about the stadium on the first board:
http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/currentplanning/whitecaps/pdf/2009/Board1_Background.pdf

Which just gives the current status... which is that the City doesn't currently have a stadium proposal in front of them - the Whitecaps and the Port are still having their discussions about land.