The removal of the viaducts results in more public parks, new connections to Downtown and Vancouver Eastside, social and cultural installations and improved sites for private development. PWL Partnership, Dialog, Beasley & Associates, Jim Green & Associates
Downtown Vancouver’s Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts have carried traffic across CPR rail yards and industrial lands into the downtown core for the greater part of the last century. Rebuilt in the late 1960s under their current configuration, the viaducts were the first components of a never-realized freeway that was to run through the downtown neighbourhoods of Chinatown and Gastown. While the abandonment of the downtown freeway is arguably one of the most important urban design decisions ever made in the downtown area, the viaducts remained transportation workhorses as Vancouver continued to develop.
Yet, with time, surrounding industrial uses declined, transportation needs evolved, and citizens recognized the need to better utilize the valuable land beneath and adjacent to the viaducts. In 2011,the City of Vancouver sponsored the Re:CONNECT competition as an idea generator for the future of the viaducts and the surrounding neighbourhoods. The competition challenged the public and design community to devise new strategies for this area that would continue to provide diverse modes of transportation for people and goods, but also improve the public realm and allow for expanded land uses and community spaces.
PWL collaborated with Dialog, Beasley & Associates, and Jim Green & Associates to create our submission in the ‘Visualizing the Viaducts’ category, - Viaducts = Parks +. This was one of the few submissions to visualize the complete removal of the viaducts, allowing the reconnection of eastside and downtown communities via a series of extensive green spaces, efficient and elegant multi-modal transportation routes, and a range of cultural facilities. Our submission earned both an Award of Merit and People’s Choice Award in the Visualizing the Viaducts category, and we are excited to have contributed our ideas to the ongoing planning of the False Creek Flats neighbourhood.