Yaletown

Vancouver is just days away from opening its new rapid transit system, The Canada Line. It’s a big deal here, one decades in the making, and remains unpopular in some circles, a landmark achievement in others. There has been much debate about this line—where to locate it, how to build it, who should pay for it, the impact of construction on businesses along it, etc. etc. Add to that the many recent station open-houses and photo opps, and one can’t help but feel the official opening is somewhat anti-climactic.

It’s hard to pinpoint precisely where the firsts are here. The Canada Line is functionally a SkyTrain (something we’ve had since the mid-’80s), but serves a denser, more urban swath of Vancouver than either of the two SkyTrain routes, and the Vancouver portion of the line is entirely underground. Our first subway! It’s certainly the biggest construction project in the city’s—and the province’s—history, at least in dollar figures. $2.05-billion in all. And if nothing else, it comes at a time when few other cities are building transit projects of this size and scale; it’s the equivalent to a 10-lane highway and expected to remove 100,000 cars from the daily downtown commute.

Yesterday, at the Yaletown-Roundhouse station (pictured above), construction crews were busy restoring brick and concrete outside the new building; essentially righting a landscape obscured by construction fencing for nearly three years. I’d set out to review the design of the individual stations, starting with this one. I soon realized why there hasn’t been much written about them to date: they’re designed to blend seamlessly into their surroundings. Here, glass panels on four sides offer clear site lines from every angle (a safety measure, to be sure), while concrete and wood lend structure. Though different architecture firms worked on different groups of stations along the 19-kilometre route, they all look and feel pretty much the same. Dull? Maybe. But they’re also simple, streamlined, and self-explanatory. A nice premise. The real disappointment is the way-finding signage, which looks to be designed to the exact specs of other TransLink projects. The aim there, as with the stations themselves, seems to be to fit into an existing system, an existing context.

After the ribbons are cut on Monday, the question will be how that context—i.e. those streets in the immediate vicinity of the stations—will change. This question was at the heart of the debate that took place in Cambie Village, the section of Cambie Street between West Second and King Edward Avenues. Businesses in that area were particularly vocal about the negative impact the line’s cut-and-cover construction method had on their livelihoods. They sought compensation. At least one judge ruled in their favour. So, why didn’t Yaletown or Richmond Centre merchants respond similarly? Launch their own lawsuits? Because the identity and fate of those areas was decided long ago. The Yaletown station sits amongst historic brick warehouse buildings that have already survived major redevelopment; it looks like it’s been there for years, providing an obvious and needed rapid-transit link for a populous neighbourhood. Anti-climactic indeed.

Cambie Street, specifically Cambie Village, has a far different story. It grew up along very different lines, and is comprised mostly of its original low-rise, “six-pack” apartment buildings and single-storey mom-and-pop shops. Aside from a few big-box developments that have recently sprouted near Broadway and Cambie, many of the sites have never been redeveloped. That will soon change. The zoning along Cambie Village allows for multi-storey residential buildings with commercial storefronts on the main floor (picture the Olive condo development at Cambie and West 16th). When will the landowners redevelop? Which businesses will stay? Which will go? Which will come? Stay tuned.

Image credit: Rosemary Poole