From Michael Alexander:
.
Vancouver’s cycle tracks are busy beautifying the Hornby and Dunsmuir corridors. I’m just delighted how they have transformed these streets, particularly that dead stretch of Dunsmuir and the southern blocks of Hornby, which don’t enjoy the wonderful double canopy of trees that I couldn’t resist photographing.
.
.
.
They’re just as lovely from the automobile side. It would be interesting to know the frequency and cost of their maintenance— far less than the thrice-annual replacement of flower beds you see in parks, is my guess.
.
Of course they’ve destroyed businesses on these streets, and created traffic nightmares. Notice all the empty outdoor tables at Caffe Artigiano.
.
.
So hats off to the powers-that-be at City Hall who had the courage to make a change, and the designers who made these streets far more beautiful than they were before, and made them work for everyone.
Awesome. Imagine how some of our car clogged shopping streets like Robson, Denman, Davie, S-Granville, 4th, Broadway, Main, etc. could look like without cars as pedestrian zones !
Thomas, I agree with you about Robson and Denman, certainly. They are already heavily-used pedestrian areas that could be further enhanced promenades for other cities to admire if the cars were redirected. I once frequently travelled on them as a motorist, but now I avoid them when possible as they are slow and dangerous, with pedestrians crossing constantly all the way along.
One of the most stunning formal landscapes in Vancouver is the east side of Hornby Street between Nelson and Robson, flanking Robson Square. Cornelia Oberlander’s execution of this design– with the magestic allee that contains the sidewalk and the vegetation that cascades from Erickson’s terraced courthouse together with the small reflecting pond at the south end– is something very special. It is a linear natural oasis– neither urban nor wilderness but inherently serenly raw west coast– in the heart of downtown. The cycle lane with its flanking planter boxes has served as a welcome buffer from the automobile traffic, allowing one to really enjoy this wonderful space. Strolling along this block. I often feel so connected to what makes our natural and urban environments, and the interscetions of the two, unique.
And the vegetation on the mound grew back very nicely after being removed and replanted (in the original design) for the refurbishment of the membrane below (despite the howls of protest).
But some of the repaving on the plazas wasn’t done well. The concrete blocks are not strong and are chipping, and more problematically, they weren’t replaced in a consistently staggered pattern. There are now some joins where all four corners of the adjacent pavers meet. This might seem trivial, but those pavers weren’t staggered by accident. They were done so to emphasize one direction to make them feel more layered and horizontal. But apparently the renovators didn’t even notice and didn’t replicate this. Arthur Erickson and Cornelia Oberlander would not be impressed.