A lush green mountain volcano that shrouds B.C. Place Stadium and Rogers Arena was just one of the concepts submitted to the city's viaducts and Eastern Core re:CONNECT ideas competition.
But it wasn't one of the 15 concepts selected by the public or the professional panel.
The only unanimous choice of the jury was for a proposal to "darn" holes in the street network of the city's Eastern Core with three pedestrian and bicycle bridges that would better link Strathcona, Mount Pleasant and False Creek.
"They liked the connection to the core's industrial heritage and landscape," said Brent Toderian, the city's director of planning. "They felt that it gave new life to underutilized land and it had ideas of green-collar industry, a food alley, art and music venues, adventure sport amenities. So it reflected the job focus and the economic focus but it added synergistic pieces."
The city announced Dec. 1 the top choices by the jury and the public for ideas for the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts and the Eastern Core, an area that stretches from Northeast False Creek to Clark Drive.
The panel and the public recently voted on 104 submissions from residents and design professionals from 13 countries, with 75 per cent of the entries originating in Metro Vancouver. Both general and professional applicants entered ideas in three categories: Connecting the Core, Visualizing the Viaducts and Wild Card.
While the jury favoured the synergistic proposal of the locally based Hapa Collaborative group in the Connecting the Core category, the public chose a submission from Turkey that focused on green space and another from Poland that included a grid of canals.
Four thousand voters cast 15,000 votes, and some ideas attracted more than 100 comments, Toderian noted.
The panel selected four submissions of equal merit in the Visualizing the Viaducts category and the public chose one of the same entries, which was devised by team of prominent local firms: DIALOG, PWL Partnership Landscape Architects, [Larry] Beasley and Associates and Jim Green and Associates. The submission saw the viaducts removed and Pacific and Expo boulevards redesigned with enhanced park space. It didn't win outright because panelists felt the proposed tall towers created a wall between the historic precinct and the waterfront.
Judges chose an entry that envisioned a major new park and wetland system that would extend from Station Street to the base of Grandview Heights in the Wild Card category. The concept reintroduces habitat and natural storm water management to the area and lays out three distinct employment districts that accommodate industrial, artistic and artisanal production, and urban campus-style office and research activities.
The public chose a concept that proposed eight kilometres of shoreline and a sandy beach in a 90-hectare park.
It's the first time the city has held an ideas competition as part of a specific work program. Toderian couldn't say what mounting the contest cost the city overall. But with 104 ideas received and $10,000 awarded in prizes instead of more costly consulting fees, Toderian said it was money well spent.
He noted ideas, such as decorating the underside of the viaducts with fluffy clouds and blue skies, could be used elsewhere, such as on the underside of the Granville Bridge at Granville Island.
"Our work is definitely being inspired, not just by the winners, but by the totality of ideas," Toderian said.
Not all of the preferred ideas proposed removing the viaducts, but many of them envisioned ways of beautifying them in the short term.
Toderian said the city's initial study on the viaducts and Eastern Core identified traffic problems if the viaducts were removed in the near future. But all or a portion of the viaducts could be removed when the UBC Line and other transit infrastructure are completed in 15 to 20 years, he said.
"Some have interpreted the question such that [the viaducts] could be torn down tomorrow," Toderian said. "What phase one showed is there were negative implications to that option, but that things got better over time and that it worked from a transportation perspective in the medium to long term."
A city staff report on policy directions for the Eastern Core is expected to go before council next summer. Options for the viaducts will feed into the public consultation on the city's downtown transportation plan.
Twitter: @Cheryl_Rossi
