Continuing our celebration of a changing seawall …
Last week, the midwinter sun (remember it?) had a blinding intensity that makes Vancouver seem like a truly northern city. Something Scandinavian.
Down to the seawall, of course, to explore. The tide was low, the ledges exposed. Yet even with thousands of strollers on the path above, the highrises looming beyond, there was solitude at the edge.
Why we love the seawall. And sometimes forget something essential: it actually hasn’t been around that long.
Not until 1980 has it been in its current form. A continuous wall didn’t circumnavigate the park until 1971. By the mid-70s, it was conflicted space, suffering from its own success. (The Park Board had even tried banning cycling.) It was widened to accommodate both strollers and cyclists, thanks to a donation by the Calgary-based Devian Group of Foundations. Yup, Calgary.
That’s what is commemorated on this plaque at Second Beach. Opening September 1980. Vancouver unimaginable without it.
That shared affection for the seawall experience led to James Schouw’s online project, Seawall Chronicles. It’s his way of telling the story, with interviews and good production values – edited by Paul Whishaw, camerawork by D’Arcy Hamilton.
Click here to the home page, and then ‘onward’ to the interviews. (Disclosure: a lot of me.)
Anyway, back to the seawall:
A typical Vancouver promenade – except that this is still a construction site. The seawall from English Bay to Second Beach is being reconstructed, supposedly off-limits – if anyone was paying attention to the blue fencing. This is the soft opening – just let people discover it on their own, gathering their first impressions of another incremental change to the path that binds the city.
In particular, the granite facing is brilliantly unsullied, with the look of experienced stonemasonry – a much finer attention to detail and precision than its crumbling predecessor. Controversy accompanied the revelation that the granite was coming from China – this during the height of the economic storm. It still seems off-putting. Unless one considers the symbolism – though I’m not sure exactly what that is.
I remember when you had to scramble across the rocks to circumnavigate Stanley Park. And now you can bike on a continuous waterfront path along Coal Harbour, around Stanley Park, and all the way around False Creek as far as the Kits Pool. How great is that?
Hardly a day goes by when I don’t pay a moment of appreciation to the folks who stood up when I was young to nix the downtown freeway system.
What a fantastic place to live!
I love the seawall. I skate around it on my rollerblades 5 times a week when its nice out. So many people enjoy the Seawall, its one of Vancouver’s most popular features. They seem to be repaving it a little bit at a time to make it smoother!