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Originally Posted by djh
Connecting Robson Square to the Skytrain via an underground tunnel is a bad idea for SO MANY reasons.
a) It's nowhere near cold enough to warrant an underground tunnel.
b) Vandalism, muggings, criminal meeting place, etc. Nobody would feel safe down a long tunnel on a quiet night.
c) Wise city and urban planners have long had policies of moving eyes back onto the street, after seeing the urban disasters that happen when underground malls are built. They lead to deserted main streets and eventually the attraction of seedy shops at ground level.
d) A tunnel might not be able to go directly from Robson Square into the Mall, due to store configuration. (first wall you'd hit in an "as the crow flies" route would be the outside wall of Sears, and maybe even the underground car park would be in the way before you hit it). Sears may not want to be forced to have a thoroughfare through their store, so the route would have to be significantly longer to get to the actual mall itself.
e) The cost of building a long underground tunnel to connect to a faraway station would be prohibitive, serve little purpose (no actual need for it), and
would be political suicide for any level of government that is already cash-strapped. Can you imagine the hassle of closing down Robson or Georgia, or Howe or Seymour, for however many months, just to provide an unnecessary foot tunnel?!
f) What would be the political rationale? "We took $X million of taxes and you endured Y months of road closures to connect your skytrain station to...this plaza. Now I know you wanted an extension to UBC, or more buses, but hey, now you can walk to Robson Square without getting wet instead!" ?!?!?!
g) Wouldn't it be cheaper and more useful to raise the plaza to street level (and put classrooms/parking/whatever underneath) than to build a tunnel all the way to Granville station? Even that wouldn't be the best idea, but it would at least answer your point about "re-igniting" Robson Square
h,i, j, - there's plenty more reasons, I'm sure others can think of more reasons.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by David
I don't think it's that bad of an idea, and it was, after all, the original intention of having the sunken plaza at Robson Square, so maybe cut him a little slack...
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Originally Posted by SpongeG
would anyone even need to use it? if people aren't using teh sqaure now...
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Originally Posted by Rusty Gull
LOL. Travelled outside of Vancouver much? Rest assured, a short "tunnel" (or what I would refer to as a pedestrian retail experience) would neither be dangerous nor a threat to pedestrian life at street level. But it would inject some much-needed life into what is supposed to be our civic square.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by allan_kuan
I'm not talking about just a basic concrete tunnel... but rather an extension of Pacific Centre with potential connections to Skytrain?
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Originally Posted by SpongeG
that would make sense - let sears open up one of the closed down floors and give the mall level floor to the mall... have a robson entrance somehow
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Originally Posted by mr.x
^ perhaps demolish Sears, build an expansion of the mall underground and on the first few levels above ground and include an underground connection to the square.
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For all of you who reacted to my suggestion - and a number of you did - the idea was NOT to have a long, stark, dim tunnel to the subway station, lurking with muggers and drug dealers, but rather, as
Allan_Kuan pointed out, a connection linking the station AND the Pacific Centre.
Rusty_Gull gets the concept with no problem, either. It's quite straightforward: something well-lit, with shops and services along the corridor and / or a connection to the entire underground shopping complex.
I think the other suggestions, like opening up the bottom floor of Sear's, or even knocking it down, have potential, but are possibly a bit complicated.
As far as this phobia that people won't use the lower level of the Square, that's really because there's nothing appealing there. When it first opened,
there were restaurants with European style "sidewalk café" tables, and many people went down to enjoy a cappucino or beer in the warmer months, or an indoor meal in the off-season.
It's very possible there might be musicians playing down there, (there are chamber orchestras playing in central Paris Métro stations, the larger ones of which are gritty, dirty, and usually smell of urine) and that would be a terrific addition to the scene. Robson Square is still reasonably clean, has not (to my knowledge) become a haven for homeless people, and does not yet reek with the smell of urine.
And as far as the statement that "people aren't using the square now" . . .
I think they WOULD use it either as a destination once it regained something to offer, or even as a route home or to work, having disembarked from the Canada Line or on their way to shop at Pacific Centre or work.
And please tell me, until now, how many murders, muggings, assaults, drug-gang-arrests, or any other violent or civil crime has occurred in the lower part of Robson Square since it opened in 1979 ?
Are there police constantly on patrol at night on the watch for dealers and muggers lurking in the elegant shadows?
Surely making Robson Square an access / connection point, and a way to get home or to work would bring the people back.
They were already there once.
Perhaps some of you don't remember that.
At any rate, thank you for your interest and feedback.
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