Urban Planning

A brand new Patullo Bridge will be constructed within the next 5 to 10 years and it will most likely be tolled. Translink has started the preliminary public consultations and construction could start as early as 2015. The new bridge will be six lanes. Not all lanes will be for all vehicles, four lanes will be multi-purpose while the other two lanes will be dedicated to truck traffic only.

TransLink has presented a few options (see below) for replacement of the existing bridge. 

Yesterday evening was the first open house for the soon to be developed Rogers Arena towers. The site comprises of two office/residential towers, one residential only tower and one to developed in the future over the existing Skytrain line. It also looks as though the development is anticipating the viaducts will not remain as they don’t interact with the viaducts, except for the West Tower. We’ll know the fate of the viaducts in the near future.

If you live in Metro Vancouver, I hope you are aware that we live in a period of time that will define what our region becomes in the next 30, 40, 50 years. Will it be a thriving metropolis for all to enjoy or a haven for only the rich and old?  It’s important for us as citizens of this great place we call home to voice our opinions and let policy makers know what we value when it comes to urban planning. So take 10 minutes ( I took it last week and shouldn’t take too long) out of your day and take the Urban Futures Survey. Your opinion does matter, take the survey here: http://www.urbanfuturessurvey.com/

Here is a neat 3d model of downtown Vancouver that includes buildings that have either been approved or in the proposal phase. Credit goes to Dleung (via SSP) for taking the time to put this together. In total there are currently 25 + high rise projects (low rise were not included) in the downtown core, not including crosstown, Gastown and Chinatown. Furthermore, you can see there is still plenty of room for redevelopment within the downtown peninsula, which is reassuring as more and more people pile continue into Vancouver.

I did a double-take reading BBC News when I thought our beloved new stadium design was the featured image for a report on soccer. But without hesitation I sprung to find answers, and I learned there’s some “inspiration” in BC Place.

The 2011 census population data is in and the trend of rapid growth in outlying metro areas seems to be continuing as Canadian’s everywhere search for affordability while wanting to  remain somewhat close to the main econonomic and cultural hub. Montreal has Laval, we in Vancouver have Surrey. In the last 5 years there was one clear winner, in terms of population at least and that is Surrey (outlying metro area), which added 73,000 people. It’s population boomed 4 times the rate of Vancouver, the economic and cultural hub of the lower mainland, which only managed to add 25,000 new residents.