Sustainable Waterfront and Downtown Master Plan actually is a misnomer. While Plan ought to mean a reasoned - yes, sustainable - attempt towards a goal - these 198 pages are part brick-by-brick inventory of Nelson-as-is (bits of possible use as reference down the line - inessential now) and part vague visions of Nelson-as-could-possibly-be in misguided attempts at significance. The latter mistaken for plan(s).
For instance: Waterfront. If you want to - finally! - find building-height limits locked-in (see Kutenai Landing): not here! If you're concerned with how much lake the City can sell to the highest bidder (see Kutenai Landing): not here! The
confusion at City Hall originates with out-of-town experts having got Nelson hooked by causing temporarily disorienting euphoria with injecting generic big-city concepts. Nelson's drug of choice always for a smallish-town mind. Manipulating Nelson reality.
Justifying their price with the level of euphoria reachable - according to them. Of course this drug is expensive. But the buyer - City Hall - got that handled: tax-payered. Upping rates: always a good one!
To be able to look at this Hall-connector-with-the lake concept realistically - we need to back away a bit from this "vision".
Bad Trip Down #1
Pages 46 and 47 of the Master Piece show a computer-generated full/double-page of small children spilling out onto the sidewalk - directly at Ward/Front - from a playground in front of City Hall. And a young couple - with stroller! - stepping off the same sidewalk to cross the street - here the notoriously most dangerous in Nelson - on a diagonal yet! Not on the crosswalk a bit farther up. But in front of City Hall!
Page 47 is the opening-page of the Master Plan as such, announcing itself there.
With everybody at City Hall swallowing it all in a swoon - accepting this as kingdom come. How much plainer could weirdness be than as a picture like this. Still - nobody is saying: Eh, wait a minute, where's the reality of Nelson here, and how much time did you M&Ms actually spend with us!
Also see:
Nelson: Waterfront and Downtown Plan, Pages 46 - 47
7 March 2012
Specifics of the Hall-redo devised by a group of experts from Kelowna - land of malls and car-dealers.
This fantasy: sort-of like a cable-car ride in San Francisco leading to the Bay - here a drive along Hall leading from Baker to the lake. No difference. Attempting to entice locals/tourists to walk/drive along Hall to the water: with an unobstructed view: once some old trees are cut down, and the very pleasant gazebo at the dock is removed. The latter already promised! Going on about sight-lines. Even though one doesn't see this particular bit of lake until dipping downhill from Vernon - where drivers had better pay attention to the steep aspect.
There now is talk of green spaces, artsy diversions, traffic-upgrades - all along pokey Hall to the lake - where promptly inaccessible to the general public!
Oops!
Between Vernon and Front: Hall has to be one of the most boring streets in Nelson. There is absolutely nothing of interest - except for the commemorative Chinatown rock at Vernon, with its green space stretching downhill somewhat. Past that it's all a back-alley/wrong-side-of-the-tracks feel.
Prisoners of given architecture no amount of sidewalk upgrading, greenery, benches and sculptures will liberate!
The other side has just as little to recommend it - even less once the Visitor Centre moves. Walking along either side is strictly according to need only. And the highway from hell declaring a stop to any voluntary walking past it.
The intersection - by configuration and volume of traffic-plus-noise - can't be denied as the end of Hall Street. Considering that Front is a provincial highway, cutting through at 40km per instead of the general local 30.
Regardless - when those at leisure drive towards the water as far as they can - they have 3 choices.
All equally tempting:
1.
Turn left into light-industrial.
2.
Turn right towards the mall parking-lot.
3.
Cross Lakeside and park - if there's space - where dog-owners park.
Walking-choices from there:
1.
Follow dogs along dusty-smelly Dog-Dump Lane.
2.
Walk out on the short dock with a nice view and then what.
3.
Hang-out at the hotel with the embarrassingly pretentious name.
4.
Then - finally! - take a short stroll along the lake to - the mall.
Aah nature!
Bad Trip Down #4
This masterly Hall Street plan offers no improvements over the given reality. A few more trees at the dock parking-lot, a few benches at the very busy, noisy, dusty Hall-Lakeside artery - and that's it. Little space for anything else. The consultants ask for public input: This may mean they haven't a clue (no wonder - nothing to work with!), or - with decisions made already - they toss a telegenic bone to the public to make them feel included!
You need some pipes fixed at the bottom - so fix them, but don't use that as an opportunity to slip in a half-cocked vanity-project such as this only and direct Nelson gateway to nowhere.
Images:
Stephen St. John
Thomas Winz
Richard Cummins
Pierre et Gilles
I agree , this is madness. Interesting that they have to import madness as there seems to be an adequate supply in Cormack's office!
ReplyDeleteI agree that there isn't a whole lot to recommend Hall Street right now, but it is the direct connection between downtown and the waterfront, and that is something that needs work.
ReplyDeleteUsually the plan with something like this is long-term, as in, you clean up the street and it will inspire development that will radically change the area.
The corridor reminds me of the area in Vancouver around the Olympic Village, once a low-industrial wasteland, now in transition to urban residential space. This could be in the cards for Hall Street, though I wouldn't bank on it happening in the next 5 years.
Would you just leave Hall Street exactly the way it is? Are there any parts of the plan that you like? What about the section at the top of Baker near Bibo?
It's worth noting that the firm isn't from Kelowna per-say, though the operation working on Hall Street is based there. They are in fact an international design and engineering firm with loads of experience. That's why they would have picked them I imagine, unless you know of a local architectural and engineering firm with experience redesigning streets of downtown cores?
ReplyDeleteHere's a list of the firm's projects:
http://www.mmm.ca/Projects/Projects.aspx