TOURING THE REGION
Gastown: a Fine Balance: Treading Between ‘ Hip’, ‘ History,’ and ‘ Heroin’
Gastown and the Downtown Eastside may include Vancouver’s poorest areas, but Alan Boniface, ULI’s B. C. chairman, says the area is undergoing major development pressure, while also being a bastion of social intervention. “It is a fascinating experiment in providing immense social services, which most North American cities don’t do.” The tour looks beyond the history and architecture of the neighbourhood to examine the issues and lessons learned.
Surrey: Creating the components of an Urban( e) City Centre: Civic, Development, Transit
By 2020, Surrey is expected to eclipse Vancouver in population. Much of that will be due to a three- way partnership between the city, TransLink and Simon Fraser University for Surrey City Centre, which will accommodate some of the residential density Surrey needs to handle an expected population of 500,000 by mid- century. The ULI tour is being billed as a “rare opportunity to see and discuss the transformation of a new 21st- century city as it literally occurs in front of us.”
From Granville Island to the Olympic Village: The Story of South False Creek
The dream to turn Granville Island from a dilapidated industrial site into a public market began in the 1970s. Four decades after the launch of that ambitious remake, which set Vancouver on a new course in urban redevelopment, the south side of False Creek is a dense, yet playful neighbourhood. “Granville Island has become the mixed- use urban commercial heart of the city,” says Boniface.
Vancouver’s Finest: A Look at the City’s Luxury Condominium Real Estate
Few who live here are unaware of how costly downtown real estate is, and how that has allowed Vancouver’s developers to build a luxury condo market. This “insider’s tour” looks at how the pressure of high land prices has led to the creation of fi ne luxury condominium real estate, taking advantage of views in what the ULI calls “a highly amenitized and livable public urban realm.”
Innovative Solutions to Transit- Oriented Development along the Canada Line, a $ 2- billion Airport- to- Downtown Transit Investment
The 19- km line has done more to spur urban and suburban redevelopment than any other major transit improvement in the region. But city planners are trying to focus the redevelopment upward, rather than outward, with projects such as the $ 1.5- billion Oakridge redevelopment, the $ 75- million Telus Garden project and the $ 370- million Marine Gateway campus.
Other tours
Also on off er are:
• Cascadia Experience: Seattle and Bellevue, including Microsoft and Amazon campuses
• UniverCity: Simon Fraser University’s Burnaby Mountain sustainable community
• Vancouver West End: its diversity, inclusivity and livability
• Whistler and the Sea to Sky Corridor and experience- driven development
• View From The Water, a tour of Vancouver’s dense urban development along False Creek and Coal Harbour.