On an early morning run through the Palermo Woods, I came across a space that became one of my favourites in Buenos Aires – a series of storefronts and seating spaces under a railroad viaduct:
Initially I thought it was BA’s version of New York’s High Line, or more accurately Paris’s Promenade Plantee, with shops and galleries built into the arches of an abandoned railway line.
But no, as an overhead rumbling soon confirmed, this is still a main commuter line feeding into Retiro Station:
It’s also clearly a favoured hangout for runners and cyclists, moms and nannies, business people and hipsters, and, in the evening, gay and straight nighclubbers. The viaduct houses a great collection of unique stores, brewpubs, trendy restaurants and, of course, Starbucks – which is as common in BA as it is in Vancouver.
Best of all are the seating spaces nestled into the park-like spaces on either side of the viaduct.
Why can’t we do this in Vancouver?
There are some local urban designers who believe there is only one legitimate form of rail transit (trams on the street) and who vociferously slam SkyTrain as “that train in the sky” and for the “blight” SkyTrain supposedly brings to communities — while ignoring the very real and far larger blight and deathly externalities brought by cars. I wonder what they would make of this train in the sky?
The photos illustrate one way to intelligently integrate rail transit into a community by offering architecturally pleasing retail amenities under guideways while maintaining the efficiencies of transit grade separation. TransLink should pay attention because, if a similar treatment was built over fairly large stretches in the heart of a city, the rental revenue would be significant and long-lasting. There was a captive market of almost 80 million people in 2014 on the interlined Expo and Millennium lines. Surely more retail has its place on these routes.
Unfortunately, much of the SkyTrain routing leases land from railways and Hydro. Moreover, TransLink imposes extraordinarily strict regulations on development over and under the guideways. Just ask VanCity how onerous that was when they built their head office over the Main Street Station guideway. However, these are not insurmountable challenges, and negotiation along with careful engineering and architecture and a cooperative city approving authority could go a long ways to contribute to some great urbanism.
Some early examples from London:
https://blackcablondon.net/2013/06/11/secrets-of-the-viaducts-walking-the-london-to-greenwich-arches-part-one/
What? Creative use of space under a viaduct?? This is unacceptable! They should spend millions to demolish the viaduct to ‘reconnect’ the city below!
#sarcasm
The viaducts are at least five times the width of a two-track railway. One moves people, the other moves cars. No comparison. No sarcasm.
Exactly. Rather than the easy politically motivated Vision decision to remove the viaducts there was a real chance to do something creative to provide covered outdoor public space. I’ve criticized here before the tendency to push for things that work great in sunny tourist destinations for our soggy burg. Has nobody at city hall ever noticed how well used the skate park under the viaducts is rain or shine? Compare it to the usage of the trendy little roadside parklets, which sit empty and sodden for half the year!