Breaking Ground | shifting city spaces Joey Giamo
Infrastructural Expansion Current construction activity in Vancouver is redefin - ing spaces in the city as well as relationships between its inhabitants and visitors. The Canada Line is an extension to Vancouver’s rapid transit system, providing a north-south link from the downtown peninsula to central Richmond, with 16 new stations and connections to other existing lines, the SeaBus terminal at Waterfront Station and the Vancouver Airport. The new City Centre Station will be located underneath Granville Street, between Robson and West Georgia streets. One of the first blocks to be affected by the line’s construc - tion, it is part of a major retail and club district, bound on one side by the monolithic Sears store and on the other sides by small retail buildings and office towers. Site Observations This block is being prepped for a very large hole to ac- commodate the underground station. As a result, traffic has been stopped and fixed street elements have been removed. As the construction crew excavates below grade, fencing has enclosed the portion of the site adjacent to the Sears building. The remainder of the block is open to pe- destrians, prompting creative appropriation of public space. Partially severed from the retail strip, the block’s role as an urban connector to adjacent blocks has been reduced. Construction fencing along the Sears building has com- pressed the majority of pedestrian movement to the oppo- site side of the block, creating moments of intense density. This density has also prompted alternative movement pat- terns as cyclists, skateboarders, rollerbladers, walkers and joggers now use the whole street with liberty, in an act of involuntary and temporary appropriation. As part of the surface clearing, trees that lined the side- walks’ edges have been cut down leaving behind neon orange spray painted stumps to deter potential pedestrian casualties. These stumps mark an absence of verticality – like a phantom limb – tracing the outline of what once was. The loss of the trees has framed the block in a new and unexpected way, opening up vistas and exposing the road surface to direct light. It heightens attention to any remain- ing vertical elements, including the decapitated streetlights and smaller ornamental lights whose main role was to pro- vide sidewalk lighting below the trees’ extended branches.
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