The bluff above Lions Gate was one of the hardest hit parts of Stanley Park in the windstorm of 2006.
But it turned out to be an opportunity to rectify one of the ugliest parts of the park – the overlook at Prospect Point.
I mean, really: unrelieved asphalt and chain-link fencing. The sidewalks were too narrow, the parking too confused. So the Park Board came up with a plan to shift the roadway, rationalize the parking and redo the overlook:
There are still some months to go before completion, but the changes are apparent. Unavoidably, the roadway and parking lots get built to the standards of the traffic engineers, invariably looking wider, speedier and more accommodating than their predecessors.
But at least there are proper sidewalks, bike lanes and bus bays.
Best of all are the new planters, creating an optical illusion, rather like an allee, that pull the eye towards the viewpoint.
Expect a spring opening.
There’s nothing more tacky than the epidemic of fake stone veneer that has infected architecture over the past few years, so, it’s nice to see that stone they’re using in the last photo looks like real granite, and it’s being laid piece by piece by hand.
And there’s nothing more sad than what traffic engineers consider to be “bike lanes” in this city.
They ruined what could have been a huge conceptual shift in transportation for Cambie St, and now they are moving on to Stanley Park.
Terrible. When we they learn?
Oops, should be: “When will they learn?”
What happened to the policy of walking and cycling having precedence over cars? Obviously someone forgot to read the memo down there in the engineering dept.
I read in the newspaper that the Parks Board had wanted to reconfigure the Prospect Point area for some time, but didn’t proceed because it would have required the falling of a number of trees. Nature did it for them and the plan was allowed to proceed.
As for the granite cut by hand – I’m sure the City has no problem spending taxpayers’ money, whereas developer are more cost-conscious.