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Competitor

Bryan JL He

re:CONNECT : Visualizing the Viaducts

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Along Quebec Street

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Community along Quebec Street

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Hogan's alley memorial park

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Sculpture courtyard

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View towards the viaducts

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Exploded viaducts components

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view of the buildings below the viaducts

GENERAL INFORMATION ON THE COMPETITOR

Team	Bryan JL He
Doc. level	50%

Description

This proposal is for a nine year, two phase project. The first phase activates the area under the viaducts with a cultural hub. Meanwhile, green modes for downtown access will be improved, and cars on the viaducts will be re-routed and their numbers reduced. The second phase repurposes the viaducts as an elevated park that connects the eastern core to downtown and is accessible by walking and cycling.

The proposal for visualizing the viaducts is twofold over a period of nine years. The first phase activates the area under the viaducts with a hub for arts and culture, small commercial spaces for a cafe and a bookstore, and a safe public park and courtyard. The goal is to create a vibrant artist community that's accessible by all Vancouverites. Meanwhile, green modes for downtown access will be improved, and cars on the viaducts will be re-routed and their numbers reduced. The second phase presents a long term sustainable alternative, which repurposes the viaducts as an elevated urban park that connects the eastern core to downdown and is accessible by walking and cycling.

We have lost Hogan's Alley due to the construction of the viaducts. They were symptomatic of the car culture urban planners promised in the 60's. Today's viaducts are remnants of a rejected large-scale inner-city freeway project and that rejection reminds us of what Vancourites have always aspired to be: progressive, sustainable, democratic, and inclusive. To be progressive we need to see the positive side of undesirable conditions; to be sustainable we need to utilize the lifetime of the viaducts and adapt them for different purposes at different times; to represent democratic ideals we need to consider both pressing, short term, and long term needs of people; to be inclusive we need to create diverse and harmonized communities.

Hogan's Alley is a lost and often forgotten black community that was destroyed by the construction of the viaducts circa 1970. In commemorating Hogan's Alley, interactive steel sculptures that represent the abstraction of a group of small buildings are incorporated on the site. These sculptures have multiple storeys so visitors can climb higher than the viaducts and have an unobstructed view of the city once again. On the gallery's south facade is a large concrete wall that can be used for large scale murals. The park is made accessible by having a direct connection to the existing residential towers and made safe by having openings in the building facing the park to keep "eyes on the street".

(Competitor's text)

Jury Report

List of accessible documents

20 scanned / 15 viewable

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