Burnaby Updates

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by logan5

I love how the soffit areas are completely over exaggerated in order to give those towers some visual interest. More bland towers unfortunately.

That gold colour may even just be paint.

[Klazu]

I like how they look but man that is a lot of side-by-side balconies!

[officedweller]

Yeah, it's similar to a wraparound balcony, but the gap between them eliminates the need for a glass barrier (?)

[Vin]

Great for zoning there to call for retail along Dawson Street. This is the retail node concept where not only the main street is lined with retail. It will definitely help in making the neighbourhood become a vibrant town centre in the future.

[officedweller]

Dawson IS the designated "Main Street" retail high street for the Brentwood Town Centre area.
Lougheed Highway is an arterial, not a retail street.

[Lexus]

Originally Posted by officedweller

Dawson IS the designated "Main Street" retail high street for the Brentwood Town Centre area.
Lougheed Highway is an arterial, not a retail street.

Still Lougheed HWY 4400 Block has parking meters on south side at Solo towers. The only section of Lougheed with parking meters.

[officedweller]

That's weird.
They're probably a placeholder until Lougheed Highway can be widened through and across the Willingdon intersection.
They'll probably disappear when the Carter dealerhsip across Willingdon is redeveloped.

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by officedweller

That's weird.
They're probably a placeholder until Lougheed Highway can be widened through and across the Willingdon intersection.
They'll probably disappear when the Carter dealerhsip across Willingdon is redeveloped.

From the development application:

Street parking is also introduced to further buffer pedestrians from moving traffic and to provide the ncessary convenience parking for the commerical uses to be viable.

There's a provision for a landing on their site for an elevated pedestrian crossing across Willingdon south of Lougheed.

http://davidpereira.ca/wp-content/upload...7-Mixed-Use-Retail-Office-Apt-Towers.pdf

[officedweller]

Interesting, thanks.

[Klazu]

Originally Posted by officedweller

They're probably a placeholder until Lougheed Highway can be widened through and across the Willingdon intersection.

Widened? Didn't Lougheed Highway used to be 6 lanes through Brentwood before introduction of an unnecessarily wide bike lane and street parking? If anything, I expect Lougheed Highway to get even narrower as I am sure Burnaby traffic planners think 1 lane in each direction is being enough.

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by Klazu

Widened? Didn't Lougheed Highway used to be 6 lanes through Brentwood before introduction of an unnecessarily wide bike lane and street parking? If anything, I expect Lougheed Highway to get even narrower as I am sure Burnaby traffic planners think 1 lane in each direction is being enough.

It's okay Translink controls it.

[officedweller]

Widened to 6 lanes either side of Willingdon (excl left turn lanes). I checked Google and there's currently 5 or 6 lanes, but the curb lane in front of Solo is a right turn lane that lines up with sidewalk across Willingdon. I figure that'll be a "through or right turn" lane later. The parking is in the right turn lane, so there could be time of day restrictions in future.
Likewise, the westbound curb lane east of Willingdon looks to be a right turn lane lining up with sidewalk west of Willingdon.

[jollyburger]

This is cool you can get aerial photos of Burnaby from 1930-2017

https://www.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=9c64867c9aaa431fb281d6976e2b47dc

It seems like it was mostly two lanes with additional left turn/right turn lanes going east at Willingdon. The west bound lane in front of the mall was 3 lanes since the 1960s.

Seems like there's provincial aerial data here with Google Earth:

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/data/...ital-imagery/air-photos/index-map-viewer

[SpongeG]

so different

[officedweller]

I'm also using the width in front of Madison Centre (westbound) as the future road width.
There's an extra lane there that disappears before Gilmore.
If it is 6 lanes, I figure it would just be in the town centre for congestion.

[SpongeG]

I commute through there a couple times a week, if I don't take highway 1, and to me it seems much easier and quicker to get through the lougheed/willingdon area now than it did 10+ years ago. Maybe its because there is more buildings and stuff to look at lol or traffic is funneled through a lot better, it used ot be so painful to go through that area. I find it much better now than it used to be.

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by officedweller

I'm also using the width in front of Madison Centre (westbound) as the future road width.
There's an extra lane there that disappears before Gilmore.
If it is 6 lanes, I figure it would just be in the town centre for congestion.

Yeah I'm sure they'll get road widening dedications for new developments. But the east bound lanes might be constrained where the Skytrain crosses the road.

Gilmore Place gave up 28 feet on Lougheed:

Lougheed Highway has shifted slightly south towards the site. Dedications and lane adjustments enabled the total number of lanes to be increased to 6. By shifting Lougheed Highway southwards and enlarging the pedestrian zone on the southwest corner of Lougheed Highway and Gilmore Avenue, an intersection with a more conventional and safer alignment is produced.

[Vin]

Originally Posted by officedweller

Dawson IS the designated "Main Street" retail high street for the Brentwood Town Centre area.
Lougheed Highway is an arterial, not a retail street.

That may be so for designation. However in reality Lougheed is the "Main Street", from the past till now, and definitely for many years to come. It also will have two malls fronting it, and a bunch of big retail stores and markets, not to mention having two or three skytrain stations and bus stops at cross streets. What is planned for the Dawson high street?

[officedweller]

'High street' would have continuous storefronts meeting the sidewalk.
Lougheed doesn't have that and won't due to breaks for condo townhouses in places.
ie Robson or Alberni vs Georgia or Burrard.
But true that it's unlikely to have national retailers.

[Excel Optimization]

New state of the art seniors housing building near Edmund's Community Centre


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