Main street & 28th. A street scene from a simpler time built at the speed and scale of pedestrians hopping on and off the streetcar. How much longer until these buildings are replaced?
Article Categories
Archives (2003-13)
Recent Articles
Recent Episodes
- Podcast
- Events
- Support
- About Viewpoint Vancouver
- City Elections 2022
- Climate Change
- COVID Place making
- The Livable Region
- Transportation
- Urbanism
- All The Livable Region
- Business & Economy
- Energy & Resources
- Governance & Politics
- Housing
- All Transportation
- Cycling
- Infrastructure
- Motordom
- Public Transit
- Walking & Mobility
- All Urbanism
- Architecture
- Art & Culture
- Design & Development
- History & Heritage
- Policy & Planning
- Nature & Public Spaces
- Podcast
- Events
- Support
- About Viewpoint Vancouver
- City Elections 2022
- Climate Change
- COVID Place making
- The Livable Region
- Transportation
- Urbanism
- All The Livable Region
- Business & Economy
- Energy & Resources
- Governance & Politics
- Housing
- All Transportation
- Cycling
- Infrastructure
- Motordom
- Public Transit
- Walking & Mobility
- All Urbanism
- Architecture
- Art & Culture
- Design & Development
- History & Heritage
- Policy & Planning
- Nature & Public Spaces
http://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/uploads/r/null/8/8/881702/7d81cac8-41e3-48a3-b0e1-2032e698481d-A04455.jpg
Main Street (then named Westminster Avenue) x King Edward with streetcar, circa 1912.
Many of these buildings still stand, including the Walden Block. The Millinery is now the front half of Helen’s Grill. 105 years later the District Main building appeared just across the street from the old shingled general store building on 28th, very similar in scale to the Walden Block. About a dozen of these 4-5-storey buildings have been built over the last 15 years within a kilometre either way of Main x King Edward. Some are well-designed, others quite boring architecturally. But the scale and multi-use zoning nail it, and the community has benefited immeasurably.
It’s worth noting that the Windsor Theatre used to stand at the NE corner of Main and King Ed. I really lament the demise of neighbourhood theatres. They can really anchor a neighbourhood and provide adjacent businesses with increased traffic. IMHO W.10th in Point Grey died as a commercial strip when the Varsity fell to condos. The only reason I ever go to Dunbar is to see a movie at one of the last single screen holdouts. I suppose the economics don’t really work any more but truly liveable neighbourhoods need entertainment options.
I have fond memories as an energetic young single of whipping over to see the double features at the venerable Ridge Theatre on week nights, cycling back to my cramped apartment at midnight, and doing it all again the next night after a full day at work. Years later and mated up, we got to know one of the projectionists who often invited us as guests on Friday nights, and we always visited her in the projection room after the intermission. There’s nothing quite like the experience of wolfing a big slab of Ridge carrot cake while watching an outdated but still raunchy Passolini flick. The Ridge wasn’t the same after Ray Mainland died, and it was sad to see it insidiously outcompeted by vids and the Internet, and then with great finality, the real estate market.
Life goes on, but it feels just a little less three dimensional.
So are those buildings standing in the way of progress and smart density, or do they represent a history and neighbourhood culture that needs to be protected – what is the competing interest here??
You mean the progress and smart density that preserves the single family homes in the neighborhoods behind in exchange for block busting, condo developments void of pedestrian scale on noisy arterials? Why not preserve these historic human scale retail strips and densify in the adjacent blocks like was prescribed for Kerrisdale (41st) and Davie Village?