“Flex boulevard” coming to Vancouver

About 11 blocks of Granville Street, historically one of the premier shopping streets in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, will get a $20.8 million (Canadian) ($20.4 million US) makeover, starting in September. The street’s retailing started declining economically in the 1970s when underground malls began pulling customers elsewhere. Five blocks were converted in 1974 to a transit and pedestrian mall with wide, curving sidewalks — a change that local businesses long fought to reverse. part-time parking After consulting with Cityworks, the San Francisco urban design firm of Allan Jacobs and Elizabeth Macdonald, the city has decided to widen the sidewalks and to straighten the sinuous ones. Three blocks will be converted into a “flex boulevard,” an innovative design permitting cars to drive over rolled curbs and park on some sidewalks, between trees, part of the time. At other times, parking will be forbidden, and the sidewalks will return to the pedestrian domain, says Andreea Toma, project manager in the city’s Engineering Department. One section of Granville will continue to be reserved for buses and pedestrians. A redesigned civic plaza at Granville and Georgia Street will accommodate city festivals. Business owners are hoping that the blank wall of a Sears store will serve as a screen for video or image projections, according to the Vancouver Sun. The Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association has proposed that neon signs — a conspicuous feature of Granville in its heyday — be assembled and remounted. The city is hoping that the transportation agency TransLink will pay half the cost of the overall project. After suffering for a long time, retailers have been faring better in recent years — in part because the city nurtured a new high-density neighborhood, with more than 15,000 residents, into existence nearby.