All Aboard the Design Contest


Arbutus Corridor turns and runs beside 6th Ave ( SPEC building is right in the middle) to Fir St. before turning north towards Granville Island

SPEC sits beside the Arbutus Corridor at Maple and 6th Ave. We have taken an interest in developments along the corridor over our 35 year history. We encouraged the development of the Cypress and Maple gardens on the corridor (between Burrard and Maple on 6th Ave.) When Canadian Pacific railroad wanted to spray herbicides for weed control, we led a campaign to change their strategy to something less harmful to the gardens and to humans and animals using the corridor. When CP stopped using the tracks, SPEC hosted a series of community meetings to discuss the future of the corridor. In 2000 we commissioned a public opinion poll by Viewpoints Research Ltd in which 79% of Vancouver residents wanted to retain the corridor as a transportation right-of-way. We have consistently supported a view of the corridor as providing multi-use transportation/green-way corridor for community scale passenger rail along with bicycle and pedestrian traffic. We also advocate continuing (and perhaps increasing) urban agriculture as in Kitsilano (Cypress and Maple Gardens, shown in the above photograph) and in Kerrisdale (the historic Victory Gardens that have been cultivated since World War II.)

All Aboard the Arbutus Corridor Design Contest is the most recent example of our long history of advocating for the Arbutus Corridor. SPEC perceives the corridor as a unique regional resource. In the decades after WWII, many rail corridors across North America were bought up and re-developed by companies interested in promoting individual car ownership. Because of freight traffic to and from the old brewery near the Burrard St Bridge, there was continuing use of the Arbutus Corridor by the railroad until 2001.

In launching this contest, we wanted to hear the community's vision for the Arbutus Corridor. SPEC invited entries from students, professionals, members of the community, gardeners, cyclists, transit advocates and all who care about the future of the Arbutus Corridor. We urged entrants to use the City of Vancouver's Official Development Plan for the Arbutus Corridor: http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/bylaws/ODP/AC.PDF as a guide but also to use their own creativity and ingenuity in presenting design ideas for the contest.