Four property owners are collaborating to create a cultural district near BC Place
Frances Bula
Sun
Computer-generated renderings show the changes planned for BC Place Stadium and the surrounding area, including a retractable roof and a waterfront site for a new Vancouver Art Gallery. Now property owners in the area are making plans for a cluster of mixed-use towers, hotels, multi-level walkways, green spaces, plazas and a ceremonial staircase to create an entertainment zone.
A Vancouver Art Gallery on the waterfront and a refurbished BC Place are only the first steps in what could be a new high-density urban entertainment/cultural hub on False Creek, the likes of which Vancouver has never seen.
The four property owners in the northeast sector of False Creek are collaborating to create a new district that would see a cluster of mixed-use towers, hotels, multi-level walkways, green spaces, plazas and a ceremonial staircase in the area around BC Place and the Plaza of Nations at the south foot of Georgia.
Those ideas have until now been working their way slowly through a high-level city planning review, with some uncertainty about whether city and developer visions for the district meshed.
The Plaza’s owner, Canadian Metropolitan Properties, commissioned the London firm that includes renowned “eco-skyscraper” architect Ken Yeang to come up with a design, one that startled city planners last October with its soaring angular towers, sky walkways and density. The developer was told to take it away until the review is complete.
But the province’s announcement Friday that the gallery will be built on the site of the old Expo 86 Enterprise Hall at the Plaza, which occupies a prominent position on False Creek, firmly orients the planning to the landowners’ vision. It will require city planners to design a district to mesh with such a prominent cultural institution, and it will also force them to adjust their planning for a cultural precinct higher up Georgia, around the Queen Elizabeth Theatre.
“We think the city now has the pieces to rethink this whole area,” said James Cheng, the architect working with Canadian Metropolitan, which sold the land for the art gallery for $1 as part of a complex negotiation with the province. “And we think it’s a very, very exciting vision.”
He has developed a plan for the Plaza specifically and he is part of the collaborative landowners’ team that has developed a plan for the whole area. Cheng said that plan will take Vancouver to a new level of innovation, beyond its current success with its podium-and-tower downtown that has achieved international recognition. The city was taken by surprise.
Deputy city manager Jody Andrews said staff only found out about the province’s decision Friday morning, hours before the announcement.
Andrews refuted the idea that the city was bypassed, but he did say the city’s two related planning reviews — of northeast False Creek and of the cultural precinct — will now have to be “re-reviewed.”
“There’s no question with this new announcement that we will have to factor that in. Staff are going to work very hard to fold that into the review.”
Besides Canadian Metropolitan, the other owners in the district are Concord Pacific, with land on either side of the plaza, with whom Cheng also works; the province, which owns BC Place and land around it; and Aquilini Investments, which owns GM Place and land around it. Cheng said there has also been some discussion about the idea of relocating the existing casino, now in Enterprise Hall, to a large new River Rock-style facility on the Smithe side of BC Place. All four developers want to build towers of some description and one of the biggest debates between them and the city is what mix there should be of office and residential.
The city has been pushing to get developers to build office space in downtown Vancouver. Many of them, who have become accustomed to the dynamics and profit levels of the residential market, say there’s not enough demand outside the central business district. The Aquilini group recently abandoned a project to build an office tower beside GM Place, saying it couldn’t make it pay.
Cheng said if the area is going to work as an entertainment and culture hub, it has to have a strong proportion of residential property or it will be a dead zone at night.
Another issue that’s being debated is how much activity to have on the waterfront, both on the private land and in the park that will be developed between the Plaza and Science World.
That’s something that an American public-space expert, Fred Kent, also said when he did consultation work for the city recently, said Cheng.
© The Vancouver Sun 2008
