Downtown Vancouver Updates

[osirisboy]

What's the rational for this again? A place for people to gather? Didn't they just built a brand new plaza on the other side for this?! Cars are not evil and having an open road makes much more sense. Not to mention the blocks on either side of here are weird. Instead of turning the curb lanes into parking they put plastic poles up

[jollyburger]

They're just going to stick pavers on top. Hopefully they find new contractors and not the idiots handling the north plaza.

[mezzanine]

The CoV report says it will ultimately be granite and concrete pavers, similar to the north square treatment.

[mezzanine]

Originally Posted by osirisboy

Not to mention the blocks on either side of here are weird. Instead of turning the curb lanes into parking they put plastic poles up

I find the plastic poles flanking the blocks around 800 robson to be useful for channelling bike and board traffic. the lanes also are useful for bikes/boards coming from west robson going to/from the hornby bike lane.

[Vin]

I saw them paving the north lane with asphalt in front of the art gallery on Robson this morning when I walked by the area. No paver stones apparently. Basically yesterday they simply laid down the base courses and today it's just straight black-top paving. Couldn't really believe what my eyes were seeing to be honest.

[csbvan]

Originally Posted by Vin

I saw them paving the north lane with asphalt in front of the art gallery on Robson this morning when I walked by the area. No paver stones apparently. Basically yesterday they simply laid down the base courses and today it's just straight black-top paving. Couldn't really believe what my eyes were seeing to be honest.

They're paving it and painting it as a temporary step before they start construction on the final product.

[Vin]

Originally Posted by csbvan

They're paving it and painting it as a temporary step before they start construction on the final product.

Why? Why not just wait for the final product? Too much money at hand?

I say spend the money hiring more people to clean up the streets and back alleys more often. They're always pretty filthy.

[LeftCoaster]

Probably to avoid trip and falls from the grade changes causing law suits.

Would be cool if they just left some chalk next to the pavement and let citizens draw art etc... on the new pavement.

[Vin]

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

Probably to avoid trip and falls from the grade changes causing law suits.

Would be cool if they just left some chalk next to the pavement and let citizens draw art etc... on the new pavement.

I guess CoV must be feeling pretty broke now with the piles of lawsuits from people who tripped and fell at this "sunken road plaza" for the duration of one whole year.

[officedweller]

Yup - it's been paved.

I do agree that with all the time they've had, they could have saved some money and either initiated the permanent surface earlier, or maintained the status quo a bit longer.

[LeftCoaster]

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

It is, though the design is not the same.

This one will be moving at light speed as they already have a tenant.

The news now seems to be public, though I don't think it was supposed to be yet. In one of the worst kept rumours in the RE world, Amazon is rumoured to be taking the entire building:
http://business.financialpost.com/real-e...wcm/40161b5f-799c-42c5-8489-3f12196c3c56

This one will probably need it's own thread soon.

[mezzanine]

Originally Posted by officedweller

Yup - it's been paved.

I do agree that with all the time they've had, they could have saved some money and either initiated the permanent surface earlier, or maintained the status quo a bit longer.

my guess is they want to see actual pedestrian flows before they do the final treatments. a curb can really effect crowd flows and things like where the buskers/food trucks/kiosks set up, especially in a never fully pedestrianized area. I think they are also paying attention to the block-end treatments as they go into some detail on it in their report.

I suppose the CoV did Jim Deva plaza quickly without a mock-up while they are doing a trial mockup of the Bute/Robson plaza. Both are really doing well, FWIW.

[Vin]

Originally Posted by mezzanine

my guess is they want to see actual pedestrian flows before they do the final treatments. a curb can really effect crowd flows and things like where the buskers/food trucks/kiosks set up, especially in a never fully pedestrianized area. I think they are also paying attention to the block-end treatments as they go into some detail on it in their report.

I don't see how a lowly curb can affect crowd flows unless all of us are on wheelchairs or rollerblades 24/7. In fact, the curbs provide a bit of safety for pedestrians when the odd maintenance vehicles or bikes go through the concrete road. Spending thousands on something so temporary doesn't make any sense to me.

[mcminsen]

Robson Street/Robson Square.



Aug.11 '17, my pics

[WarrenC12]

Thanks for the pics! From the comments before you'd think it was the worst disaster to hit this city since the great fire of 1886.

[s211]

Originally Posted by mcminsen

Walked past that the other day without realizing what it was supposed to be, and from your post I now discover my subsequent suspicions were correct. Another joke in the guise of "public art".

[mezzanine]

Originally Posted by s211

Walked past that the other day without realizing what it was supposed to be, and from your post I now discover my subsequent suspicions were correct. Another joke in the guise of "public art".

If you didn't read the sign completely, it's a stylized stage for buskers with planned performances and free for any other busker to use outside of those planned performances.

[VanK]

Originally Posted by osirisboy

What's the rational for this again? A place for people to gather? Didn't they just built a brand new plaza on the other side for this?! Cars are not evil and having an open road makes much more sense. Not to mention the blocks on either side of here are weird. Instead of turning the curb lanes into parking they put plastic poles up

Agreed. Cars sit idle on Georgia and trying to get from point A to point B. creates more smog. There are a few under utilized side streets (Bute/David & Bute/Robson) where they have closed for public plaza. I am not against those. but Robson was an extremely efficient and utilized thoroughfare and I know I am just copying and pasting what what just written but - Didn't they just build a brand new palace on the other side for this?

[csbvan]

Originally Posted by VanK

Agreed. Cars sit idle on Georgia and trying to get from point A to point B. creates more smog. There are a few under utilized side streets (Bute/David & Bute/Robson) where they have closed for public plaza. I am not against those. but Robson was an extremely efficient and utilized thoroughfare and I know I am just copying and pasting what what just written but - Didn't they just build a brand new palace on the other side for this?

Robson was a relatively scantly utilized 'thoroughfare' at the Robson Square section, I worked and lived downtown for years, and has absolutely no baring on Georgia St traffic.

[Vin]

Originally Posted by s211

Walked past that the other day without realizing what it was supposed to be, and from your post I now discover my subsequent suspicions were correct. Another joke in the guise of "public art".

The new asphalt surface IS the new public art display.