Bill MacEwen / Blog

Over There., originally uploaded by MacEwen.

I took a photo of Pigeon Park yesterday.  I’ve done this before and its been a bit awkward but manageable.  Yesterday it wasn’t.  Three dudes who were more likely on the supply end of things were pretty pissed.  “You better not get my face in that photo **** ” etc.  I walked away from it and one guy threw his lunch at my back.  Another guy comes up to me and tells me to delete the photo (i shoot film, he didn’t get it), starts tugging at my camera…

“I live here man” he says, and gives me a cracked out shove.

I leave, it’s only a block to my house from here.

WTF?

My business and more recently my home have been within a two block radius of that spot for over a year now.  I chose this neighborhood because I like it and the supposed sketchiness of it does a good job of filtering out the pretentiousness that exists in other parts of town.  Gnarly events have been going on here for a long time.  The only difference is that the real estate has become valuable enough to attract mainstream developers and buyers.  Until then there has been a fairly distinct boundary between where you go and where don’t. People tell the tourists to “stick to Water St. and don’t go past Carrall.  Don’t walk down Hastings past Cambie.  Pender’s okay though, that’s Chinatown.”  So fine.  We go to our movies at tinseltown, shake ass at Honey, but you do not chill out on park bench at Hastings and Carrall.  That boundary is being erased, and the tribes are butting heads.

The Woodwards District, Paris Block, Koret Lofts, Smart Gastown.  These developments are encroaching on turf that was previously out of bounds.  The mainstream is moving in.  Every other day I see moms in lululemons pushing baby strollers by crackhouses on E. Cordova.  The cops turn a blind eye in these areas.  The place governs itself.  What makes us think a Chip Wilson-Yoga-Mat-Karate-Chop is going to keep junky away from baby?

(Dave O.)

The Carrall St. Greenway and $120 000 for Pigeon Park will fix the aesthetics.  But broken window theory does not do much to help you kick that heroine addiction.  We are glossing over the real problems here.  They need to be addressed, not just moved east.

What about the next generation of users?  What are we doing to prevent people from getting in these situations in the first place?  What about the people down here with mental illness?  Why can’t we be providing them with proper care?

Where do we go from here?  Why not answering some of these questions and taking action.  If anyone has any suggestions please comment!

I’ve often wondered what would happen with this empty lot across from Shangri La, and I had heard about this project some time ago…but not much since.  Regardless it does look like the 59 storey, 600 foot Arthur Erickson Tower will move ahead.

The model looks incredible, but the more recent rendering looks much less attractive.  The balconies have become curved rather than rectangular, rounding out the edges of the building and making the distinctive twist (which was so cool) fade into an vague ellipse instead.  Obviously when you twist a perfect circle nothing appears to change.  The more they move away from that original right angle design, the more regular the building will look. The other thing is that in the model it appears as though the glass runs uninterrupted right to the top.  Now on the new illustration it stops short.  Not sure what the considerations were for these changes…probably wind resistance or something else to do with ‘physics’. boo.

More info at pacificmetropolois.com

As I was googling vancouver building height restrictions, I came accross an 2004 article on an 800 foot tower that was to be designed by Arthur Erickson.

“What’s 800-feet tall, occupies a full city block, has a titanium clamshell theatre at the base and thousands of feet of high-tensile steel cable running at an angle from top to street-level to make it look like a harp?” [article]

Only a dream, only a dream…

I am dissapointed to see the look of the new False Creek development.  More Yaletown, all over again.  The market, unfortunately, appears plopped in the centre of the space rather than as the anchor that it could have been.  As Ward pointed out in the comments, the city has applied some aggressive LEED requirements on the site, which is really great to see.  But from an aesthetic standpoint, we could obviously use something a little different.

Thanks to pacificmetrolpolis.com for  giving me something to talk about.

I read Pacific Metropolis from time to time. The writer does a good job of covering development in Vancouver, and today they tried their hand at justifying Olympic spending. Check this out…maybe it’s just me, but it’s quite an awkward justification:

“So, during the 2004-2010 period (during which most of the $580 million in taxpayers’ money will be spent), the federal government will also spend $204.6 billion on interest payments on the national debt, and $72 billion on social assistance programs.” [see post]

Basically the author is spreading the “580 million” over the six year period in which it’s being allocated, and comparing that to six years worth of debt interest and social assistance spending. Regardless of whether the data is accurate, you can’t compare a one time expense (for a two week event) with six years of on going costs.

I’m not going to argue for or against the Olympics, but I do think that our opinions need to be based on some seriously sound ratios.

Maybe it’s just me, but all the innovative projects seem to go up in the middle of nowhere. From time to time yeah there will be some cool stuff happening in dense residential areas, but my impression is that most architectural and environmental innovation is occurring on really cheap pieces of land. Not much is happening in Manhattan, not to mention Robson & Burrard. Again, this is because innovation is risky. Even though the project might prove to have low capital cost and great appeal…(see the Loblolly House) it’s still different. I guess no one wants to risk being different on a proven piece of real estate.

Yesterday I was frustrated that we are all always having to put up with poor and mediocre design, so I started a post about it.  It quickly got out of hand and I got hungry so it was put off.  I’ll have to get back to it with a full stomach and big ‘ol coffee to keep me going.

Maybe the people at Yale will come up with a more succinct answer.

My Favorite Alley.

Originally uploaded by MacEwen.

I have plans for this little piece of real estate…