Opinion: Highrise hubs round transit stations have their conveniences, however may gain advantage from extra various road life, treed landscapes and fascinating buildings.
Article content material
Good views. Useful transit. Intense road site visitors. Handy procuring and providers. However bland character, not less than thus far.
Commercial 2
Article content material
All in all, not too dangerous.
Article content material
That about sums up the decision of individuals interviewed who dwell and work on the dense glass-and-steel highrise hub that has shot up up to now eight years on the congested intersection of Vancouver’s Cambie Avenue and SW Marine Drive.
The cluster of tall residential highrises and places of work is an instance of the way in which Metro Vancouver is at the forefront of a development of compressing massive populations into tight city zones subsequent to rapid-transit stations, usually in neighbourhoods the place indifferent houses predominate.
There’s a lot packed into the brand new tower cluster on the south foot of Cambie, which its industrial operators name “Marine Gateway on the Canada Line.” It’s on the often-jammed intersection at Marine and Cambie, the place 20 lanes of vehicles and vans converge.
Commercial 3
Article content material
It options the SkyTrain Marine Drive Station, which hyperlinks downtown and past with Vancouver Worldwide Airport. It has eight concrete towers, some hovering 30 to 40 storeys. Panoramic views. Chain shops: Subway, T&T Grocery store, A&W and Neptune Palace Seafood Restaurant. The rental residences and condos include granite kitchen counters. The daycare has high-tech safety.
The highrise hub is like many others peppered throughout Metro Vancouver. A College of B.C. city panorama specialist, Patrick Condon, says native politicians have embraced, like nearly no others in North America, the planning mannequin based mostly on organizing high-density initiatives round rapid-transit stations.
The mannequin emerged in North America within the Eighties, Condon mentioned, with the concept the intense-population nodes would counter the issue of suburban sprawl. Throughout Metro Vancouver, even greater agglomerations attain into the sky at Oakridge in Vancouver, Metrotown, Brentwood and Lougheed in Burnaby, the waterfronts of New Westminster and North Vancouver and in Surrey Centre.
Commercial 4
Article content material
The mannequin has benefits when it comes to transit and procuring comfort, mentioned Condon. However one drawback is “the tower-district way of life is totally completely different from the one loved in conventional neighbourhoods, like in Kitsilano and at Business Drive, the place you will notice plenty of folks you come to know and there’s a normal variety of fascinating landscapes and buildings.”
“It’s a bit chilly,” Robert Teodoropol, 27, mentioned of the highrise hub. He works in an workplace tower at Cambie and Marine and was trying out its residences. “I wouldn’t say it has a lot character. There’s not a lot of a lived-in really feel. All of the workplace employees go residence at 5 p.m.”
The younger engineer was nonetheless drawn to the place, nevertheless. He had simply completed a tour of a Nineteenth-floor view suite, measuring 490 sq. ft, that was renting for $2,650, with parking. “It’s a bit expensive,” he mentioned, “however it’s luxurious.”
Commercial 5
Article content material
Ricardo Mendes, 42, a Brazilian who had proudly obtained his Canadian citizenship per week earlier, mentioned he typically appreciates residing near so many facilities, together with the SkyTrain, banks, grocery shops, Winners division retailer, dental places of work and locations to eat.
Though Mendes finds Marine Gateway quiet in evenings, he was taking his Boston terrier out for a stroll subsequent to the truncated Canada Line bikeway and didn’t thoughts that, aside from tiny Ash Park, many of the inexperienced locations he likes for a canine stroll are not less than half-a-kilometre distant. And why no elevated pedestrian manner throughout intimidating Marine Drive?
Scores of overgrown lawns within the low-rise neighbourhood of indifferent homes on the north facet of the intersection of Cambie and Marine now sport “For Sale” or growth indicators. The actual-estate trade is eagerly placing collectively land assemblies for extra towers. Council has already accepted two extra huge adjoining ones.
Commercial 6
Article content material
“I believe it’s a pleasant place. I believe it’s getting its identification, positively,” mentioned Meidy Liu, 21, as he grabbed a espresso at Starbucks, which is positioned throughout from the Dublin Crossing pub and the out of doors escalator to the Marine Gateway Cineplex Cinemas. Dozens of crimson Lunar New 12 months lanterns embellished the principle plaza.
The high-density Cambie and Marine hub favourably reminds Liu’s good friend, Mike Wong, 30, of rising up in a conglomeration of house towers in China. “I just like the model. It’s like an actual metropolis. A metropolis shouldn’t have low-rises. It ought to have highrises. I do know some folks like the liberty of residing at floor stage, however I like a view.”
UBC’s Condon appreciates that tower districts like Marine Gateway supply engaging way of life options, comparable to “nice views, instant entry to the area by way of SkyTrain and industrial providers at your ft.”
Commercial 7
Article content material
However they lack the fluid connection that extra leafy residential neighbourhoods have between faculties and industrial streets, the city design professor mentioned. Conventional neighbourhoods have “1000’s of householders who can select their ‘personal darn paint color.’” That’s completely different, he mentioned, from “the required homogeneity of 1 apartment affiliation working an rigid glass, metal and concrete tower occupied by tons of of individuals.”
Condon tends to favour medium-density neighbourhoods, served by a community of floor transit programs (comparable to European-style trams) which might be unfold extra evenly throughout a metropolis than SkyTrain traces. As a substitute of huge highrise clusters which might be usually financed by offshore sources, Condon mentioned, a much less concentrated community helps small-scale builders excited about serving the “lacking center” in housing.
-
Douglas Todd: Housing’s ‘lacking center’ fights for its place
-
Douglas Todd: Vancouver’s huge Oakridge luxurious challenge bodes badly for reasonably priced housing
-
Douglas Todd: The hidden local weather prices of B.C.’s burgeoning highrises
Help our journalism: Our in-depth journalism is feasible because of the help of our subscribers. For simply $3.50 per week, you may get limitless, ad-lite entry to The Vancouver Solar, The Province, Nationwide Submit and 13 different Canadian information websites. Help us by subscribing immediately: The Vancouver Solar | The Province.
