Good Bones, Great Potential: What is YOUR Vision for Downtown Vancouver?

Houses, yards and, of course, bodies have “good bones.” They provide form, shape and the potential of great things to come. “A city is no different,” says urban visionary Michele Reeves. “Its bones are its structures, its landscape, and its general environment.”

Michele Reeves

Michele is the Principal of Rethinking Urban Spaces in Portland. She has worked with the redevelopment of Portland neighborhood shopping areas like the Mississippi and Alberta districts. She has also consulted with the cities of Gresham and Hillsboro. Under contract with Vancouver’s Downtown Association (VDA), she has been studying downtown Vancouver with a focus on retail development. She shared her findings and recommendations in April at a special VDA. A video of her presentation is available here.

Let’s start with the bones. She talked about them at length at the April meeting and in an interview with ZEST, quoted below.

“Downtown Vancouver has a great stock of older buildings, and in some stretches, such as the blocks of Main Street between 6th and 11th, they are sufficiently interconnected so that they would be able to form a successful retail district quite easily if they were populated with retail tenants,” she reports. Having retail tenants on the first floor will be critical as downtown Vancouver re-develops.

Heritage Building at 6th and Main

This was certainly the case during the 1940s and 1950s in downtown Vancouver. Mid-century photos show a vibrant retail environment and active street life up and down Main Street. Our buildings were filled with shops and shoppers.

“Having a stock of existing structures that are attractive, historic, and provide a sense of place already in existence is a very important building block for a successful urban core,” Michele states. “These buildings can be more easily renovated and offered for lease at lower rents than structures that result from new construction.”

“Your structures make your downtown a unique place on earth. Take advantage of that.”

Historic Elks Building

Downtown Vancouver's 9th Street

Landscape is another plus. “Vancouver is located along the beautiful and significant Columbia River. The city’s ability and plans to reconnect with and reclaim its heritage as a great river city is vital to giving Vancouver a positive sense of identity and bridge between its past and its future.”

Turtle Place on a Snowy Winter's Night

Turtle Place Sculpture and Centurion Building

So how do we take advantage of our “good bones”? Michele recommends eight goals:

Short-to-Medium Term Goals
1. Focus on the Core – The six-block area from 6th to 11th Street on Main Street where retail space is available is “low-hanging fruit.” North of 11th, the current focus is employment, which should be strengthened. Attract those employees down Main Street to eat and shop.
2. Adopt a new paint policy - Create historic district painting requirements, including four-color palettes on older buildings, that use color to bring vibrancy and interest to downtown. “Beige is not a color!” Michele emphatically says.
3. Adopt new awning policy – Many awnings are too large, are architecturally inappropriate and create shadowy areas.
4. Activate key vacancies – Focus on bringing retailers, particularly from 7th to 9th street where there are openings
5. Join VDA – More people should get involved with Vancouver’s Downtown Association (Hear, hear! As a member, I totally agree! Click here for a VDA brochure with membership form.)
6. Activate sidewalks – Planter boxes, sidewalk seating, public sculptures, etc could encourage people to walk from block to block and add visual interest

Medium to Long Term Goals
1. Improve storefronts – remove awnings to restore transom windows, replace aluminum facades with period appropriate storefronts
2. Activate building second-floors – renovate second floors of buildings for living spaces and offices to create a mix of retail, residential and office uses.

2nd Story Opportunity

“Vancouver is a successful edge city that is a part of a larger regional economy that should fair strongly in the decades ahead,” Michele reports.

Downtown Vancouver has a strong history, committed business community and the “good bones” to continue to attract more retail businesses and residential spaces. With the new Vancouver Community Library opening in 2011 at Evergreen and C, more small businesses moving downtown and improvement in the economy, Michele’s recommendations are not pie-in-the-sky. What would you like to see in downtown Vancouver? Please comment!