Sponsored by the City of Vancouver, the two-day working session allowed local decision makers to utilize international best practice

Partner and CEO Helle Søholt was invited by Vancouver City to participate in a 2 day working session on the future strategy for the city’s Eastern Core including considerations for removal or partial removal of the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts.

Like Boston many years earlier, and taking a more recent cue from Seattle and Oslo, Vancouver  is engaged in public dialogue to consider removing these highway barriers of the 60′s.  City officials are aware of the value, economically, socially, culturally and economically of prioritizing people rather than cars in prime sites. This is great news!

In Oslo they are one step ahead, taking down Bispelokket as of this moment, forever changing their city for the better by reconnecting citizens to the water.

Left: The Elevated highway cutting through Boston's central business district. Right: How the area looks today after the Rose Kennedy Greenway replaced the highway.

The Rose Kennedy Greenway at eyelevel

In other cases working with the barriers might be the solution. Life has returned to the area under the 36 arches of the railway viaduct in Zürich West. Controlled use of signage, high quality shops, simplicity, transparency and openness as well as a sensitivity to the historic structure and industrial surrounds have created a really special new place in Zurich.

Helle recommended Vancouver city to stay true to their values as an innovative city region.  Emphasizing the need for a value based transformation rather than a simple ‘plan’, Helle gave insight into how the City can ensure a dynamic design process to best take advantage of this opportunity in the face of great economic uncertainty. Helle focused on inviting for diverse uses and users to the sites in the future Eastern core, enabling the existing neighborhoods to re-connect to each other and the water front after the infrastructure is removed.