This bit of pavement doesn’t rank as “New Stuff” quite yet: it’s the southern end of the Carrall Street Greenway (design here) – a critical link between the False Creek seawall and, eventually, Burrard Inlet and Coal Harbour, completing the loop around the Downtown Peninsula. Eventually, thousands will be biking, blading and walking on this connecting link every day, joining up Gastown, the Downtown East Side, Chinatown and Concord Pacific Place.
Indeed, Concord Pacific has placed the Presentation Centre, where they market their current projects, right next to the Greenway:
Now, if you look carefully (and I have), you’ll notice something very odd: there’s no bike rack. Regardless of the traffic flowing by on the seawall and already using the greenway, Concord has made no accommodation for cyclists at all.
In fact, the whole lay-out of the Presentation Centre site has been designed purely for drive-in traffic. There’s no pedestrian entrance on the seawall, and even the berm that surrounds the site on the north side avoids providing a pathway for bikes and peds directly to the entrance.
The assumption: if you didn’t drive to get there, you don’t count.
Now here’s what I find odd. Not that they designed the site only for cars, not that they have don’t have a bike rack, not that they’re ignoring the traffic on the seawall. What I find incomprehensible is that they failed to take advantage of one of the best marketing opportunities available today – one that they paid millions for, and that they could lever to make millions more.
It was Concord, after all, that paid for the seawall on the North Shore of False Creek; it is Pacific Place that pioneered a more pedestrain-friendly urban design. Concord already has the brand!
And as I’ve written elsewhere about bike sharing, “green” makes green. Sustainability is, as any strategic thinker realizes, the wave of the present, not just the future. Whether it’s peak oil, climate change, smart-growth or resilient planning, any company that has an opportunity to position themselves for the future – when disruption can turn into opportunity – has the opportunity to put money in the bank. “Gas expensive? Live without a car.” “Reduce your carbon footprint – and your weight. Live in a walking-friendly community” “Smart growth? It starts here.”
And Concord, apparently, is oblivious. Forget ‘good intentions’ or even the city’s bylaws that require bike racks. To not take advantage of what you’ve already paid for, to fail to market your legitimately green credentials, to ignore your potential customers walking and cycling by, is leaving money on the table.
That’s what the absense of a bike rack really means.
yes it’s quite awkward to bike around there
thanks for writing down what i felt without realizing it; namely that their’s zero “bike feng-shui” 🙂 about this development
The old location at the foot of Homer street didn’t have easy connections to the front side of the building either. There was a back porch fronting the seawall, but it was usually chained up. Ditto when they were located on the site of the Elementary School.
Wow. I’ve only ever seen that from the seawall — I had no idea there was a lawn or even a nice entrance on that building.
I wonder whether Concord is doing their own marketing? Or if have they hired another (clearly clueless) specialty group? Sometimes the developer’s vision gets lost in the translation to the marketers, who over the past few years have been able to get very lazy — it hasn’t been hard to sell Vancouver area real estate for top dollar.
You mean like Rennie – who must be marketing a tower as “Yaletown’s last opportunity” for the 5th time by now….
“Gas expensive? Live without a car.”
I don’t think that slogan will work for a target market of people willing to spend $800/sqft. Hence, the pressure of Vancouver’s expensive real estate. Spend $5000/month on a mortgage in the city. Or, $200/month on gas to the suburbs. For most people, that’s not even a choice. With False Creek at these prices, they’re not filling up the buildings with local employees looking to walk to work.
An optimist could say the bike racks are ordered and just haven’t arrived yet. But even if they’re intentionally left out, I can fully understand why. This is a purposeful condo sales centre for serious buyers and investors with intentions to spend money. I doubt Concord wants this to be a tourist site for walk-in looky-loos.
It would have been easy for them to tie into the seawall community – lots of people with money ride bicycles anyways. They don’t understand their brand is what this shows I think. They should have integrated with their surroundings.
I actually wonder about Concord often – I have lived in (and owned) multiple dwellings made by them. I have never been surveyed, questioned, or in any way connected with by their designers or market researchers. Not sure if they even do this.
There are numerous things they do over and over again in buildings that always have to be fixed by strata council(s). Things like double gated garage doors, proper surveillance systems of the parkade, elevators and common areas are left out. The stuff they put in is invariable ripped out (more waste) and then new stuff put in. Of course – these points have little to do with the post. Or maybe they do.
The building I live in has a regrettable labyrinth of doors, hallways and corners to get from the P1 elevator to the garbage/recycling room. It makes zero sense. Good luck with it if you are in a wheelchair. Or I guess, you could come out from main lobby and risk the steep ramp. They have stairs exiting the inner courtyard to the outer public path (between Beach Crescent and Pacific) – not sure how wheelchairs would work there either. The public path I allude to also has little concessions for people with limited mobility.
They always put the same lower mid range crappy appliances into the suites, plus the bland berber carpeting that most people rip out and replace. The kind of beige that shows dirt immediately.
Anyways. I like my place I guess – I just find not enough attention to detail has been paid. Details matter.
To All:
Just to let you know that we offically moved to our new Presentation Centre on Mar 15, 2008.and we are proud to be open in our spacious location.
Our bike racks had been on back order to be put in place close to our move in date. Our intention has always been to provide the ability for customers and clients to bike right up to our front door. They have been in place for some time already.
We also have direct access from the seawall to the our entrance facing the water for anyone who would like to come in directly off the seawall and view our Presentation Centre.
We look forward to everyone dropping in to see our fabulous location and experience our next 10 years of future development in the best Master Planned Community in North America.