SpongeG
Mar 4, 2007, 10:38 PM
Bridge tops endangered list
Development, neglect threaten heritage sites
Don Luxton can't understand why the City of Vancouver wants to spend millions of dollars to make the Burrard Bridge ugly.
The bridge is regarded as an art deco marvel because it has such clean, elegant lines. But Luxton argues a proposal to add two "outrigger" lanes for cyclists on either side of the structure will destroy the bridge's symmetry and balance.
"It's like wearing a hula-hoop or girdle on the outside," says Luxton, Heritage Vancouver's president.
"They sound really light and delicate -- 'We'll just hang little outriggers on it' -- but actually they're nine feet wide, and probably solid concrete. It's an enormous amount of structure that will be added to the bridge. And the railings would be moved out, making it look like a 22-lane freeway going across. It's just so wide, it's going to look ridiculous."
The proposed changes have landed the Burrard Bridge at the top of Heritage Vancouver's annual list of Top 10 Endangered Heritage Sites.
This year's list is quite wide-ranging, a reflection of the real-estate boom that is drastically changing the face of Vancouver. Historic neighbourhoods like Japantown and the South Granville Apartment District are on the list, along with historic streetscapes in the 900 and 1000 blocks of Main Street and the 100 block of West Hastings, which is suffering from what heritage activists call "demolition through neglect."
Many of Vancouver's heritage schools are in danger of being knocked down because of the high cost of seismic upgrading, so they made the list as a group. Stanley Park's small stock of heritage structures is also included, mainly because Malkin Bowl looks like it will be knocked down.
The list is rounded out by St. Paul's Hospital, the Vogue Theatre and the 2400 Motel on Kingsway, which all face an uncertain future.
The estimated cost of the outrigger lanes on the Burrard Bridge has risen from $13.5 million to $20 million, but Luxton thinks the real figure would be closer to $40 million. Heritage Vancouver thinks the city should look at other options, such as putting the cyclist lanes on the Granville Bridge or building a cyclist and pedestrian bridge across False Creek.
The schools needing seismic upgrading include Strathcona, Kitsilano, Secord, Carleton, Gordon, Kitchener, Nelson, Queen Mary and Begbie. A Vancouver school board report states "almost all of these schools will likely have partial or full replacement as part of their seismic upgrading."
"Every one of these is a multi-million dollar decision that the school board has to make," says Luxton.
"We're also concerned that this seems to be an excuse to do a lot of other work on the buildings, other than seismic, and that's where the cost estimates go out of control. We're talking about potentially hundreds of millions of dollars worth of construction, any number of schools being demolished and our neighbourhoods being devastated by it."
The South Granville Apartment District is a neighbourhood of small apartment blocks roughly located between Broadway and 16th, and Oak to Fir. Most of the buildings are rentals, and the sites would be worth far more as condos. Few of the structures have heritage status, so Luxton fears it's only a matter of time before the three-storey apartments will start to come down.
"South Granville has some of our best apartment buildings from the 1910s and 1920s," he says.
"Very high-quality buildings, very beautiful. As a district it's very refined, very sophisticated. That's going to change. We're just going to see tower development.
"Ultimately the land is very valuable, the area is desirable, and we're going to see a change in character there, for sure. And it's not going to be affordable housing, either."
Another neighbourhood on the verge of redevelopment is Japantown, which runs from Main to Campbell and Hastings to Alexander. It contains some of the oldest buildings in the city -- on Alexander alone, there are houses from 1888, 1889 and 1897. But none of the houses are on the city's heritage register, a common problem in the long-forgotten neighbourhood on the eastern fringe of the Downtown Eastside.
"It's a mess, an area that seems to have fallen between the cracks of planning policy because of the social issues in the area," he says.
"Once it was fairly intact, and now there's an erosion to the area, building by building. We're seeing deterioration, we're seeing things all of a sudden disappear. Essentially we're starting to lose the character and fabric of the area."
Luxton thinks the city's heritage register needs to be upgraded to identify historically significant buildings that were missed when the register was compiled in the mid-'80s. He also thinks the city's heritage incentives program should be expanded to Japantown, which is actually as old as the designated historic districts of Gastown and Chinatown.
But even the heritage incentives haven't been able to spur any restoration projects in the 100 block of West Hastings, a street of beautiful 1900-era commercial buildings that is literally being left to rot.
"Until the Woodwards development [across the street] gets completed, those buildings are on hold," says Luxton.
"They're falling to ruin, even though they're available for the city's heritage incentives. There have been no takers in that block. The area is a disaster, an absolute disaster. There seems to be no plan to stabilize buildings, there seems to be no plan to make sure they remain long enough to actually be rehabilitated."
jmackie@png.canwest.com
604-605-2126
Heritage Top 10
1. Burrard Bridge
2. Vancouver schools
3. South Granville Apartment District
4. Stanley Park heritage buildings
5. 2400 Motel
6. 900 to 1000 block Main street
7. 100 block West Hastings
8. St. Paul's Hospital
9. Vogue Theatre
10. Japantown
http://media.canada.com/canwest/111/vs_%20burrard_bridge_020507_210.jpg?size=l
Art deco Burrard Bridge would be ruined by the addition of outrigger cycling lanes, Heritage Vancouver president says.
Photograph by : Mark van Manen, Vancouver Sun
http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/gallery/heritage_home/1a.jpg
Stanley Park Pavilion.
Ian Lindsay/Vancouver Sun
http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/gallery/heritage_home/2a.jpg
Lord Strathcona School.
Ian Lindsay/Vancouver Sun
http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/gallery/heritage_home/3a.jpg
Willingdon Lodge, a heritage building at 1591 W 16th Ave.
Ian Lindsay/Vancouver Sun
http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/gallery/heritage_home/4a.jpg
Malkin Bowl.
Handout/Vancouver Sun
http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/gallery/heritage_home/5a.jpg
2400 Motel, 2400 Kingsway.
Glenn Baglo/Vancouver Sun
http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/gallery/heritage_home/6a.jpg
901 Main Street.
Ian Lindsay/Vancouver Sun
http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/gallery/heritage_home/7a.jpg
Argyll House, West Hastings.
Ian Lindsay/Vancouver Sun
http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/gallery/heritage_home/8a.jpg
St. Paul's Hospital.
Bill Keay/Vancouver Sun
http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/gallery/heritage_home/9a.jpg
Vogue Theatre.
Ian Lindsay/Vancouver Sun)
http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/gallery/heritage_home/10a.jpg
414 and 412 Alexander are heritage homes. 414 at the left was built in 1889 and 412 was built in 1898.
Ian Lindsay/Vancouver Sun)
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=c09ab6eb-4db5-4021-b0d3-e6ee26d9c7c5&k=31636&p=2
Development, neglect threaten heritage sites
Don Luxton can't understand why the City of Vancouver wants to spend millions of dollars to make the Burrard Bridge ugly.
The bridge is regarded as an art deco marvel because it has such clean, elegant lines. But Luxton argues a proposal to add two "outrigger" lanes for cyclists on either side of the structure will destroy the bridge's symmetry and balance.
"It's like wearing a hula-hoop or girdle on the outside," says Luxton, Heritage Vancouver's president.
"They sound really light and delicate -- 'We'll just hang little outriggers on it' -- but actually they're nine feet wide, and probably solid concrete. It's an enormous amount of structure that will be added to the bridge. And the railings would be moved out, making it look like a 22-lane freeway going across. It's just so wide, it's going to look ridiculous."
The proposed changes have landed the Burrard Bridge at the top of Heritage Vancouver's annual list of Top 10 Endangered Heritage Sites.
This year's list is quite wide-ranging, a reflection of the real-estate boom that is drastically changing the face of Vancouver. Historic neighbourhoods like Japantown and the South Granville Apartment District are on the list, along with historic streetscapes in the 900 and 1000 blocks of Main Street and the 100 block of West Hastings, which is suffering from what heritage activists call "demolition through neglect."
Many of Vancouver's heritage schools are in danger of being knocked down because of the high cost of seismic upgrading, so they made the list as a group. Stanley Park's small stock of heritage structures is also included, mainly because Malkin Bowl looks like it will be knocked down.
The list is rounded out by St. Paul's Hospital, the Vogue Theatre and the 2400 Motel on Kingsway, which all face an uncertain future.
The estimated cost of the outrigger lanes on the Burrard Bridge has risen from $13.5 million to $20 million, but Luxton thinks the real figure would be closer to $40 million. Heritage Vancouver thinks the city should look at other options, such as putting the cyclist lanes on the Granville Bridge or building a cyclist and pedestrian bridge across False Creek.
The schools needing seismic upgrading include Strathcona, Kitsilano, Secord, Carleton, Gordon, Kitchener, Nelson, Queen Mary and Begbie. A Vancouver school board report states "almost all of these schools will likely have partial or full replacement as part of their seismic upgrading."
"Every one of these is a multi-million dollar decision that the school board has to make," says Luxton.
"We're also concerned that this seems to be an excuse to do a lot of other work on the buildings, other than seismic, and that's where the cost estimates go out of control. We're talking about potentially hundreds of millions of dollars worth of construction, any number of schools being demolished and our neighbourhoods being devastated by it."
The South Granville Apartment District is a neighbourhood of small apartment blocks roughly located between Broadway and 16th, and Oak to Fir. Most of the buildings are rentals, and the sites would be worth far more as condos. Few of the structures have heritage status, so Luxton fears it's only a matter of time before the three-storey apartments will start to come down.
"South Granville has some of our best apartment buildings from the 1910s and 1920s," he says.
"Very high-quality buildings, very beautiful. As a district it's very refined, very sophisticated. That's going to change. We're just going to see tower development.
"Ultimately the land is very valuable, the area is desirable, and we're going to see a change in character there, for sure. And it's not going to be affordable housing, either."
Another neighbourhood on the verge of redevelopment is Japantown, which runs from Main to Campbell and Hastings to Alexander. It contains some of the oldest buildings in the city -- on Alexander alone, there are houses from 1888, 1889 and 1897. But none of the houses are on the city's heritage register, a common problem in the long-forgotten neighbourhood on the eastern fringe of the Downtown Eastside.
"It's a mess, an area that seems to have fallen between the cracks of planning policy because of the social issues in the area," he says.
"Once it was fairly intact, and now there's an erosion to the area, building by building. We're seeing deterioration, we're seeing things all of a sudden disappear. Essentially we're starting to lose the character and fabric of the area."
Luxton thinks the city's heritage register needs to be upgraded to identify historically significant buildings that were missed when the register was compiled in the mid-'80s. He also thinks the city's heritage incentives program should be expanded to Japantown, which is actually as old as the designated historic districts of Gastown and Chinatown.
But even the heritage incentives haven't been able to spur any restoration projects in the 100 block of West Hastings, a street of beautiful 1900-era commercial buildings that is literally being left to rot.
"Until the Woodwards development [across the street] gets completed, those buildings are on hold," says Luxton.
"They're falling to ruin, even though they're available for the city's heritage incentives. There have been no takers in that block. The area is a disaster, an absolute disaster. There seems to be no plan to stabilize buildings, there seems to be no plan to make sure they remain long enough to actually be rehabilitated."
jmackie@png.canwest.com
604-605-2126
Heritage Top 10
1. Burrard Bridge
2. Vancouver schools
3. South Granville Apartment District
4. Stanley Park heritage buildings
5. 2400 Motel
6. 900 to 1000 block Main street
7. 100 block West Hastings
8. St. Paul's Hospital
9. Vogue Theatre
10. Japantown
http://media.canada.com/canwest/111/vs_%20burrard_bridge_020507_210.jpg?size=l
Art deco Burrard Bridge would be ruined by the addition of outrigger cycling lanes, Heritage Vancouver president says.
Photograph by : Mark van Manen, Vancouver Sun
http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/gallery/heritage_home/1a.jpg
Stanley Park Pavilion.
Ian Lindsay/Vancouver Sun
http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/gallery/heritage_home/2a.jpg
Lord Strathcona School.
Ian Lindsay/Vancouver Sun
http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/gallery/heritage_home/3a.jpg
Willingdon Lodge, a heritage building at 1591 W 16th Ave.
Ian Lindsay/Vancouver Sun
http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/gallery/heritage_home/4a.jpg
Malkin Bowl.
Handout/Vancouver Sun
http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/gallery/heritage_home/5a.jpg
2400 Motel, 2400 Kingsway.
Glenn Baglo/Vancouver Sun
http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/gallery/heritage_home/6a.jpg
901 Main Street.
Ian Lindsay/Vancouver Sun
http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/gallery/heritage_home/7a.jpg
Argyll House, West Hastings.
Ian Lindsay/Vancouver Sun
http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/gallery/heritage_home/8a.jpg
St. Paul's Hospital.
Bill Keay/Vancouver Sun
http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/gallery/heritage_home/9a.jpg
Vogue Theatre.
Ian Lindsay/Vancouver Sun)
http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/gallery/heritage_home/10a.jpg
414 and 412 Alexander are heritage homes. 414 at the left was built in 1889 and 412 was built in 1898.
Ian Lindsay/Vancouver Sun)
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=c09ab6eb-4db5-4021-b0d3-e6ee26d9c7c5&k=31636&p=2