Frances Bula header image 2
← →

Sears store at Robson and Granville to close: Your ideas for this key urban space here

March 2nd, 2012 · 106 Comments

The Twittersphere already bubbling with ideas for what to do with our “iconic” bathtub building at one of the city’s key intersections, which started life as Eaton’s, continued for a while as eaton’s, became Sears and will now be ???

Categories: Uncategorized

←  Older Comments
 →
  • Lewis N. Villegas

    You are only allowed to speak more than once, if you have something new to add to the proceedings.

    Here are some of the things that I see need to be addressed around the site:

    1. The TD/Eaton’s block would be treated as pedestrian precinct, opening thru-block links from Granville to the courthouse. The streets that bound the block on 3 sides (Hornby, Robson & Granville) would be treated as pedestrian priority streets (a la Water Street). Georgia would get a centre median with trees.

    2. Relocate the Canada Line stations off the public areas into the building mass. Finish the underground links from the Ericson courthouse and make the station connect to Robson Street. Complete the correspondance between Expo Line and Canada Line at Granville without requiring passengers to come up to the street.

    3. Wrap the ground level with street-oriented retail; provide sidewalks space for cafés. Take a tip from Miami and require silver and cotton tablecloths on the sidewalk. Plan the umbrellas and the outdoor space heaters to work together as an urban element.

    4. Add very slender residential towers (this is the right place to do it). Control the shadows so that they fall within the shadow already cast by TD/Eaton’s block.

    5. Do a significant amount street tree planting. The specimens that were removed from Granville Street are sorely missed.

    6. Re-plan the Granville Street Bus Mall. The best way to kill your main street is to turn it into a bus mall—haven’t we learned that yet? Perhaps a free-fare zone downtown might help us trim back the suburban lines from entering downtown. Traffic planners may complain about a second or third transfer. However, trips downtown should be encouraged to arrive on rail (transfer should be from suburban lines to rail).Trips from the suburbs (including Vancouver neighbourhoods) should be encouraged to walk the last 5 minutes. The design of the downtown core should make that walk a pleasurable one.

  • MB

    Being a Child of the Sixties I prefer free assocciation.

    According to VanMap the Sears building occupies a footprint about three times the area VAG currently occupies in the Rattenbury building (approx. 7,900 m2 vs. 2,700 m2). It is also a perfect rectangle taken to the lot lines on three sides, a layout that makes gallery flex space planning a lot easier. Moreover, such a large floorplate allows for the creation of some very large galleries for large shows or supersized individual pieces.

    Should the city through density bonuses acquire half of the volume of the Sears building for the VAG, then it could feasibly assume control over about 2.5 times the ground + upper floor area it currently has (15,000+ m2, assuming Sears has four above ground levels). Basement space is in addition to this total.

    I would argue that the south half of the Sears building would be the best in terms of creating an ideal public space because of its direct connectivity to Granville, Robson and Howe. These three facades would be great foils to explore the relationships between inside and outside, and all the intermediary spatial permutations possible.

    Bring the outside inside, and the art gallery to the sidewalk.

    It is very fortunate that, should this idea be taken seriously, the Sears building is not one that is loved by the people or recognized as anything other than an unfortunate intrusion into Vancouver’s heritage.

    If an architect like Richard Henriquez could be brought out of retirement, the site’s history as the former Class A heritage Second Hotel Vancouver would no doubt be factored into the new design in some way.

    I agree with Lewis that if Robson Square closes to vehicular traffic, then the additional block of Robson Street between Granville and Howe should close too. At the very least the Robson sidewalks could be widened into a unique pedestrian space adjacent to a new art gallery. The streets are a very important part of any urban design consideration.

  • Westender1

    With regard to Public Hearings Lewis, you are now not permitted to speak more than once. City Council has recently changed the rules of procedure for Public Hearings, and only one five-minute verbal submission is permitted. If you cannot share all of your important points in five minutes, then you are permitted to submit comments in writing, as long as they do not exceed two pages, or 1500 words.

    http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/20120228/documents/a2-appendixA.pdf

    Did you miss this item on the Council agenda? It was reviewed at Council’s new meeting time of 9:30 am last Tuesday.

  • Bill McCreery

    @ RH Zhang 97.

    Yes, it would be interesting to see a design competition, in fact, to see what the potential the naked steel frame has as a gallery/other uses/public space. The same needs to happen at the Post Office. It’s also a steel frame begging for a vital new life.

    Yes, Holt is the north anchor, but not a major anchor. So, now the Bay is the only major anchor, but off to one side and mid-spine (with a little help for London Drugs). Eaton’s was the south anchor, and before Holt the north anchor was a food court if memory serves. I think the original thinking for Pac Centre was that the strength of Eaton’s and the Bay anchors with the linked underground mall in the Downtown location was enough to make this retail venture work.

    Then came big boxes and the decline of the ‘department store’. This is still happening. Will the Bay be next? I’m not sure Nordstrom’s will be interested in this location, but I’d love to see some marketing analysis that I’m sure has been done. Even if they, Penny’s or Zellers might be, can they pay the rent such a location demands, and how much square footage do they need?

    This discussion makes me think about shopping centre planning. The 50s/60s model had a major tenant (department store) at the end of each leg of a mall with a carefully located mix of small retailers between. The majors usually got preferential rents because they were the big draws. Recently those majors are falling away one by one, or the Bay is replaced by Zellers… I need to have a closer look at some of the newer malls like Aberdeen and Yohan in Richmond. Do they have what qualify as ‘majors’?

    Speaking of big boxes, anchors and the street/pedestrian vitality of Granville Street, it’s interesting that in the Georgia/Robson east side of Granville we now have LD at the north end and Winners and Future Shop at the south. Maybe these big boxes can act as southern anchors and draw shoppers out from the underground mall onto Granville. Perhaps, instead of Nordstroms, there is one or two big boxes and the VAG with Lewis’ mid-block link to the Courthouse that will also give some retail and VAG street pedestrian frontage to offset what’s missing on Granville.

  • MB

    It’s interesting, Bill, to see the notion of “retail” turned on its ear purely through changes in economics over the last few decades, and to see a major public institutional anchor pop up in the rounds of ideas and an anchor.

    I won’t shed any tears if the Pacific Centre subterranean warren, was deadended at Georgia Street.

    I’m not sure the Post Office building would easily convert to an art museum. The building is very large, and even if VAG turned regional, I doubt it would be able to fill the cavernous volume of that building.

    Larwill is different in that it presents a clean slate to the incorporation of a plaza — kind of a ‘front yard’ — into the design, whereas the Georgia Street facade of the PO would probably have to be pushed back (presuming its modernist design is on the heritage registry) to accommodate even a mid-sized plaza.

    There are virtually no open space | plaza opportunities at Sears without removing buildings. But if VAG moved there, it could play with the open space of three different street frontages, and take advantage of Robson Square just across Hornby.

  • Michael Geller

    “If an architect like Richard Henriquez could be brought out of retirement…”

    Trust me, Richard is not in retirement!

←  Older Comments
 →