Views from the Bridge—bleeding until they are all gone
City Conversation #118: Protected for all for decades, mountain views were being lost even before the current attacks
Some of the current threatened views to the east from the Granville Bridge
Future view if the city’s Real Estate Department has its way with False Creek South
We were supposed to be looking at the heretofore protected views of the mountains, the water and the city as we walked across the Granville Bridge—you know, the view cones that City Council has voted to have staff review in camera (out of the public eye). These are the views that Councillors appear to have already passed their judgment on, described by one Councillor as “fragments between bobbing boat masts” (the east end of False Creek South) and “a ten second moment while you’re driving across the [Granville] bridge”. This day we were looking at the latter.
Many folks are already writing about what might happen if City Council amends or eliminates the city’s decades old view cones—I’ve been worried about this issue for at least the past 2-1/2 years, since I first started City Conversations. Meantime, TripAdvisor recommends this walk across Granville Bridge because of its amazing views.
Last weekend as I walked across the Granville Bridge with a group of citizens worried about what will become of our experience of the city if existing view cones as seen from the bridge are lost, I became aware of the bigger, or rather, smaller and diminishing picture flanking us. Ironically, the city has just started a $50 million pedestrianization effort on the bridge, so the timing is excellent—our city’s own efforts and expenditures argue against the “ten second fragment” opinion.
As I crossed the bridge in fits and starts, frequently stopping to take pictures and calculate view impacts, I was again reminded that the view cones are not the unnecessary annoyances they are so often described as by some developers and their hand maidens. In fact, they are the last vestiges of our urban mountain setting experience—the rest may have already been surrendered, bled away a bit at a time.
“What do you mean surrendered and bled?” might be your automatic response.
Some may recall the city Real Estate Department’s assault on False Creek South some months before the last civic election. The City Council of the day (not the current more developer favouring Council) bowed to overwhelming citizen pressure and sent the planners back to the drawing board—note, they did not dismiss the idea of future development. The threats to False Creek South remain.
The first photo above was taken as I walked along the east side of the bridge. When False Creek South (FCS) was developed, it was an article of faith and zoning that no building would rise higher than the bridge deck. The red-orange walls in the foreground are the parapets of the existing housing co-op beside the bridge.
The Real Estate Department’s previous proposals for FCS called for that co-op and other similar height buildings to be replaced by much higher buildings at the east side of the Granville Bridge (also along the west side of the Cambie Bridge). The white out in my second picture above shows how much of the attractive views over Granville Island, False Creek North, False Creek itself and the mountains to the north and east will be lost to the public at the southern part of the bridge if development tops the bridge deck—all of it! As the higher building forms are at best notional, I’ve only whited out the existing buildings, water and mountains affected—how much of the sky is additionally obliterated will depend upon future high-rise details.
Now let’s consider the done deal Senakw’ development progressing to the west of the bridge:
Today’s view to the west of the Granville Bridge taken from the east sidewalk
What Senakw’ will cover
As with the view over False Creek, the post-Senakw’ view is incomplete, in the sense that the shortest Senakw’ towers will be half again as tall as the brown brick building at the extreme left of the pictures above—count the three Senakw’ cranes already in the background. Senakw’ models change frequently but are ever higher, so when you add in the actual buildings, the white out of view obstruction will be much higher than what I’ve shown just covering the mountains and water. What’s most important to note is that the Senakw’ white out obliterates virtually all of the mountains and water to the left of the Burrard Bridge buttress, shown cuddled up to the lamp post. Meanwhile, the view cones to the right of the lamp post, revealing the visible post-Senakw’ remainder of our mountains, are the ones now under attack by this City Council and staff.
Is it just a coincidence that the current attacks on view cones are happening before False Creek South and Senakw’ developments have progressed to the point of obliterating the white out areas? We might have otherwise been mistaken or misled about what will remain after some or all of the existing view cones are gone, replaced by yet more unaffordable high-rises stealing the public views and the light that used to belong to us all?
So when city staff and Councillors make light of the view cones as fragments and momentary experiences, they are actually proposing to make off with that public light bit by bit, along with the remaining mountain and water views that should remain in the public domain forever and for all.
There will be a third in walk and talk about the view cones on November 12th. Details here.
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Brian Palmquist is a Vancouver-based architect, building envelope and building code consultant and LEED Accredited Professional (the first green building system). He is semi-retired, still teaching, writing and consulting a bit, but not beholden to any client or city hall. These conversations mix real discussion with research and observations based on a 45+ year career including the planning, design and construction of almost every type and scale of project. He is the author of the Amazon best seller and AIBC Construction Administration course text, “An Architect’s Guide to Construction.” and working on a book about how we can accommodate a growing population in the cities we love.