CF Pacific Centre Developments

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

I was at PC on monday. I saw that they added a set of stairs next to the escalator near to the H&M store/Food Court area. when did they add those stairs?

I noticed that stair a couple months ago - but I hadn't been in the mall or such a long time that I don;t know when it was installed.
It may have been installed if/when both of those escalators were down for repairs and then made permanent.

[officedweller]

Pics by me today:

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by officedweller

I noticed that stair a couple months ago - but I hadn't been in the mall or such a long time that I don;t know when it was installed.
It may have been installed if/when both of those escalators were down for repairs and then made permanent.

The PC's escalator Instagram account:

https://www.instagram.com/pacificcentreescalator/

[SpongeG]

haha that's funny.

It's a weird-looking set of stairs, but they are handy cause that escalator does seem to not work a lot of times, and for some reason, I find it harder to walk on a non-moving escalator than just regular stairs so that's handy.

[officedweller]

[Spr0ckets]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

haha that's funny.

It's a weird-looking set of stairs, but they are handy cause that escalator does seem to not work a lot of times, and for some reason, I find it harder to walk on a non-moving escalator than just regular stairs so that's handy.

There's a reason for that.

Escalators by design usually have a higher riser (step height) than a stair
(as much as 8 or even 9 or 10 inches).
Standard stair design (for interior building stairs) is to have between 6.5 to 7.2 inches riser height by building code requirement).

So if you ever come across the choice of walking up a non-working escalator or the stair beside it....take the stairs.
Every time.

Unless you're in a hurry, in which case take the escalator which will get you up much faster (and more tired, or at least "fitter")


(*another factor would be the fact that the escalators obviously don't have landings in between the ascent - unlike stairs which will break the ascent into two with a landing in between that gives you a "rest". With the Escalator you climb the entire ascent in one long (and high) flight)

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by Spr0ckets

There's a reason for that.

Escalators by design usually have a higher riser (step height) than a stair
(as much as 8 or even 9 or 10 inches).
Standard stair design (for interior building stairs) is to have between 6.5 to 7.2 inches riser height by building code requirement).

So if you ever come across the choice of walking up a non-working escalator or the stair beside it....take the stairs.
Every time.

Seattle Transit doesn't allow passengers to use broken down escalators:

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle...led-escalator/

Seems more due to the tripping risk at the bottom/top than the 1 inch rise difference.

[dreambrother808]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

Seattle Transit doesn't allow passengers to use broken down escalators:

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle...led-escalator/

Seems more due to the tripping risk at the bottom/top than the 1 inch rise difference.

I don’t think we want to follow the lead of a nation where such decisions are based on litigation-happy dysfunction.

[Spr0ckets]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

Seattle Transit doesn't allow passengers to use broken down escalators:

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle...led-escalator/

Seems more due to the tripping risk at the bottom/top than the 1 inch rise difference.

Originally Posted by dreambrother808

I don’t think we want to follow the lead of a nation where such decisions are based on litigation-happy dysfunction.

I was just going to say, that litigation and liability issues would normally see the same case here as well whereby broken down escalators are closed off from public usage (and to be fair, some cases even in Vancouver they close them off immediately they break down until they get repaired), but you're right in noting and observing that Canadians are generally not as sue-happy as our southern cousins.

It's not just the tripping risk (people trip on regular stairs as well, and you won't have a case to sue anyone in situation like that. Besides which, most people aren't aware of the height difference in any case, to make an actual case out of it) that's the big concern.
There have been cases where people are using (read: walking up) a broken escalator and the emergency lock on the escalator fails leading to it rolling backwards along with subsequent injuries and some escalator companies actually have it in their contracts that the user firm has to close them off when they break down before the maintenance crew work on it, otherwise risk bearing all the cost of any litigation in a situation like that.

So that Seattle Transit case is not unusual and it wouldn't surprise me to learn that Translink themselves are required to do the same by their own escalator contractors.

You definitely see them closed off at (most) Skytrain stations when they break down.
At places where the building is owned by someone else (like Pacific Center at the Skytrain entrances, for example) it might get a but murky who's responsibility it is (and who therefore, would bear any liability risk.)

Also, places where you might observe them not being closed off for public use during a breakdown are more often than not places where there isn't a nearby alternative (like stairs) to use to get up and down and therefore even the broken escalator is still the default means of moving up and down.
It might explain why they were forced to build that (originally temporary, but now seemingly permanent) stair at Pacific Center shown above, because the alternative was forcing people to walk an entire block, practically, to get to the nearest stair.

[zahav]

Daily Hive posted a retrospect on the old PC atrium that housed the food court. I remember it well as a kid, it is always where my dad took us for lunch if we ever visited him at work on a Pro-D day or something (we'd take the bus in from West Richmond). The atrium used to really personify "downtown" for me, it seemed so grand and big cityto me as a kid. This article really speaks of it quite nostalgically..

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/paci...frew-vancouver

[connect2source]

Originally Posted by zahav

Daily Hive posted a retrospect on the old PC atrium that housed the food court. I remember it well as a kid, it is always where my dad took us for lunch if we ever visited him at work on a Pro-D day or something (we'd take the bus in from West Richmond). The atrium used to really personify "downtown" for me, it seemed so grand and big cityto me as a kid. This article really speaks of it quite nostalgically..

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/paci...frew-vancouver

Thanks for this, seems like 1000 years ago. The atrium, for me, was always kind of a logistics mess, tons to dead-ends, steps, odd angles, never seemed to flow very well. It looked ok when it first opened in 1989 but by the early 2000's the materials, colours, tiles, railings and lighting all looked very dated. I was actually glad when I first heard about the Holt's expansion from a staff member there a few months before the announcement went public as the previous Holt's ( roughly where H&M is now ) was also a jumbled mess due to it's constant hodgepodge expansions over the decades. I think, in the end it was a good decision as today it's Holt Renfrew's most productive store, the atrium-feel is somewhat preserved within it and the remainder of Pacific Centre functions much better.

[zahav]

Originally Posted by connect2source

Thanks for this, seems like 1000 years ago. The atrium, for me, was always kind of a logistics mess, tons to dead-ends, steps, odd angles, never seemed to flow very well. It looked ok when it first opened in 1989 but by the early 2000's the materials, colours, tiles, railings and lighting all looked very dated. I was actually glad when I first heard about the Holt's expansion from a staff member there a few months before the announcement went public as the previous Holt's ( roughly where H&M is now ) was also a jumbled mess due to it's constant hodgepodge expansions over the decades. I think, in the end it was a good decision as today it's Holt Renfrew's most productive store, the atrium-feel is somewhat preserved within it and the remainder of Pacific Centre functions much better.

Yes I agree, it was certainly the right thing for the mall to do, the atrium added no value in the $PSF sense, it is just kind of a feature all the big malls have dating from the 80s/90s. But as a kid it made it seem grand, obviously not thinking as a businessman then lol! There just isn't the space at PC to have big spaces like that, it isn't so big that it can afford some atrium openness (ie. Metrotown). PC has to fit in every inch of space. But sometimes I wish the mall was a bit grander, it is really quite claustrophobic sometimes down there when it's crowded. There aren't any really marquee sections to it that would give it more heft

[connect2source]

Originally Posted by zahav

Yes I agree, it was certainly the right thing for the mall to do, the atrium added no value in the $PSF sense, it is just kind of a feature all the big malls have dating from the 80s/90s. But as a kid it made it seem grand, obviously not thinking as a businessman then lol! There just isn't the space at PC to have big spaces like that, it isn't so big that it can afford some atrium openness (ie. Metrotown). PC has to fit in every inch of space. But sometimes I wish the mall was a bit grander, it is really quite claustrophobic sometimes down there when it's crowded. There aren't any really marquee sections to it that would give it more heft

I wish they had at least originally made the first and second levels exposed and open, vertically, from Georgia to Dunsmuir. It would have created a much more open feel especially given that the rest of the mall is basically a tunnel with shops.

[officedweller]

Pic by me today:

[Lexus]

And another one by me today

C97ECB17-21A3-40D0-9436-451EB175476C by Lexus, on Flickr

[trofirhen]

^ Given that the former Four Seasons Hotel will be refitted rather than replaced, it will be interesting to see how and to what extent.
The big holes punched in the window space look like major surgery.

[teriyaki]

Color me excited to see the finished product. Lots of potential with this one, especially the lobby and connection to the mall.

[Vancouver_Highrise]

External elevator to a restaurant/bar?

[red-paladin]

I assumed they were punching those holes so they could set up an exterior construction elevator?

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by Spr0ckets

There's a reason for that.

Escalators by design usually have a higher riser (step height) than a stair
(as much as 8 or even 9 or 10 inches).
Standard stair design (for interior building stairs) is to have between 6.5 to 7.2 inches riser height by building code requirement).

So if you ever come across the choice of walking up a non-working escalator or the stair beside it....take the stairs.
Every time.

Unless you're in a hurry, in which case take the escalator which will get you up much faster (and more tired, or at least "fitter")


(*another factor would be the fact that the escalators obviously don't have landings in between the ascent - unlike stairs which will break the ascent into two with a landing in between that gives you a "rest". With the Escalator you climb the entire ascent in one long (and high) flight)

ah interesting thanks