If you haven’t checked out Vancouver is Awesome you should. My favourite section is Vancouver Was Awesome, and a recent post from Rhiannon Coppin documents a walking tour I did in January where we looked at the neighbourhood around Franklin and Commercial Drive. Mostly known for its chicken processing plants, this area was once home… Continue reading Vancouver is Awesome
Even though my next Continuing Studies course for UBC hasn’t started yet, the April course has now been set. Here’s the course calendar description. “Once just a trail cut through through the thick forest, today South Granville is a thriving commercial street surrounded by three distinct neighbourhoods. Part of the massive Canadian Pacific Railway land… Continue reading South Granville: Apartments, Commerce and Shaughnessy.
http://www.falsecreekwatershed.org/events.html#salmon. Something to check out. It looks like a great set of walks.
I was given this copy of the article about Hycroft by my friend Ken Campbell. To think that the average price of a Shaughnessy home in 1910 was $15000, this was extraordinary.
Great Beginnings (3) Originally uploaded by SqueakyMarmot Not just any neon sign, but something almost 50 feet tall hung from the Chinatown parkade at the corner of Quebec and Keefer. The official lighting of the sign takes place on Monday March 15, 2010 at 6:00pm. It’s gratifying to see my chicken scratches on paper show… Continue reading Chinatown gets a new neon sign
I think the one lost opportunity of the winter games was how we light the city. There were half hearted attemps with the LEDs on Hamilton and Cambie, but they really look like cheap sea side illuminations from Clacton on Sea, we should be able to do better.
During the Olympics the Yue Shan Courtyard is open for various arts events and evening walking tours of Market Alley. This is the roof constructed for the opening.
The lower end of Granville is a mess of poles, bollards, and other stuff, goes to show how reality never equals the perfect world presented in design renderings.
Here are the fire insurance maps from the late 1920s showing Market Alley between Carrall and Main Street. Market Alley was once filled with a variety of businesses including restaurants, laundries, pawnbrokers and merchants. Despite what some publications say, there was no general curfew in Chinatown imposed by the authorities. Alleys such as Market… Continue reading Market Alley in the 1920s
An illustration from the 1960s for a proposed redesign of the street. I find it interesting to compare this with the current redesign which is explained in detail here.
What Floats to the Top of My Desk 