Todd: The decision on highrise clusters: Not dangerous, however lack character

Article content material

Good views. Useful transit. Intense avenue visitors. Handy purchasing and providers. However bland character, at the least to this point.

Article content material

All in all, not too dangerous.

Article content material

That about sums up the decision of individuals interviewed who stay and work on the dense glass-and-steel highrise hub that has shot up prior to now eight years on the congested intersection of Vancouver’s Cambie Avenue and SW Marine Drive.

The cluster of tall residential highrises and workplaces is an instance of the best way Metro Vancouver is at the forefront of a development of compacting massive populations into tight city zones subsequent to rapid-transit stations, typically in neighbourhoods the place indifferent properties 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 vehicles converge.

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 retailers: Subway, T&T Grocery store, A&W and Neptune Palace Seafood Restaurant. The rental flats 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 virtually 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 stated, with the concept that 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.

Article content material

The mannequin has benefits by way of transit and purchasing comfort, stated Condon. However one drawback is “the tower-district life-style is totally completely different from the one loved in conventional neighbourhoods, like in Kitsilano and at Business Drive, the place you will note a lot of folks you come to know and there’s a common range of fascinating landscapes and buildings.”

“It’s a bit chilly,” Robert Teodoropol, 27, stated of the highrise hub. He works in an workplace tower at Cambie and Marine and was testing its flats. “I wouldn’t say it has a lot character. There may be not a lot of a lived-in really feel. All of the workplace workers go dwelling at 5 p.m.”

The younger engineer was nonetheless drawn to the place, nonetheless. 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 dear,” he stated, “however it’s luxurious.”

Article content material

Ricardo Mendes, 42, a Brazilian who had proudly obtained his Canadian citizenship per week earlier, stated he usually appreciates residing near so many facilities, together with the SkyTrain, banks, grocery shops, Winners division retailer, dental workplaces 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, a lot of the inexperienced locations he likes for a canine stroll are at the least half-a-kilometre distant. And why no elevated pedestrian approach throughout intimidating Marine Drive?

Scores of overgrown lawns within the low-rise neighbourhood of indifferent homes on the north aspect of the intersection of Cambie and Marine now sport “For Sale” or improvement indicators. The true-estate business is eagerly placing collectively land assemblies for extra towers. Council has already accepted two extra huge adjoining ones.

Article content material

“I believe it’s a pleasant place. I believe it’s getting its id, positively,” stated Meidy Liu, 21, as he grabbed a espresso at Starbucks, which is positioned throughout from the Dublin Crossing pub and the outside escalator to the Marine Gateway Cineplex Cinemas. Dozens of crimson Lunar New 12 months lanterns adorned the primary plaza.

The high-density Cambie and Marine hub favourably reminds Liu’s buddy, 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 enticing life-style options, reminiscent of “nice views, instant entry to the area by way of SkyTrain and industrial providers at your ft.”

Article content material

However they lack the fluid connection that extra leafy residential neighbourhoods have between colleges and industrial streets, the city design professor stated. Conventional neighbourhoods have “hundreds of homeowners who can select their ‘personal darn paint color.’” That’s completely different, he stated, from “the mandatory homogeneity of 1 apartment affiliation working an rigid glass, metal and concrete tower occupied by lots of of individuals.”

Condon tends to favour medium-density neighbourhoods, served by a community of floor transit techniques (reminiscent of European-style trams) which might be unfold extra evenly throughout a metropolis than SkyTrain traces. As a substitute of large highrise clusters which might be typically financed by offshore sources, Condon stated, a much less concentrated community helps small-scale builders occupied with serving the “lacking center” in housing.

[email protected]

@douglastodd

Assist our journalism: Our in-depth journalism is feasible because of the assist of our subscribers. For simply $3.50 per week, you may get limitless, ad-lite entry to The Vancouver Solar, The Province, Nationwide Put up and 13 different Canadian information websites. Assist us by subscribing at the moment: The Vancouver Solar | The Province.