Dingy laneways getting a little extra alley-oop
Stretch behind West Hastings will be first to trade garbage cans for glitz
Urban laneways may be indispensable infrastructure, but more often than not, they’re wastes of perfectly good space.
That’s the take of a team created to convert a back alley in downtown Vancouver into a more friendly public place. While many people tend to leave laneways to delivery trucks and garbage collectors, that need not be the case, said Charles Gauthier, president and CEO of the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association and one of the people working on the project.
“I think we’re going to change people’s perceptions and change their mindset about how to use alleyways,” Gauthier said in an interview.
The laneway south of West Hastings Street, between Seymour and Granville streets, is the first of what the partners hope will become a network of connected spaces, each with its own unique theme and identity. They’re intended to be spaces where people can mingle, play or even hold events.
The alley doesn’t look like much yet, but it’s still getting dressed for its official launch Thursday. Its walls are painted in bright yellows and pinks and crews are measuring and marking the alley as they prepare it for basketball hoops, street furniture and decorative lighting.
The theme of the alley is “play,” said Darryl Condon, a managing partner at HCMA Architecture & Design.
“There’s enough spaces for work in the area. I think we all need a break from that as well,” said Condon, whose company is working on the project with the business improvement association and the City of Vancouver.
Two other re-imagined laneways are in the works. The first is slated for east of Granville Street between Smithe and Robson streets and the second is destined for south of Alberni Street between Burrard and Bute streets.
The idea of using back alleys as public space is not a new one, Condon said.
“I think we’re seeing, globally, a lot of attention on using spaces that are already there in a different way,” he said.
“We looked to cities like Melbourne or Sydney, in Australia, that had a really concerted effort to rethink the alleyways and laneways in the city and think of them as public space. Some of the most interesting restaurants and cafes and art galleries in those cities are in those lanes and they’ve been highly, highly successful.”
But the idea is new to this city and it’s one that came out of the business improvement association’s Re-Imagine Downtown Vancouver process, which had 11,000 Vancouver residents kicking around visions of what a future downtown could look like.
“It’s timely for us in Vancouver. We know the cost of land. We know the challenge of creating more public space. Why not use the space that already exists?” Condon said.
Members of the business improvement association have chipped in $100,000 for the three alley projects and the City of Vancouver matched that with a grant.