Granville Loops

(Updated May 4, 2011) Major developments are slated for the “Granville Loops,”  the area near the off-ramps at the north end of the Granville Bridge in Vancouver. Much of this is reportedly city land. As the human experience of people approaching the downtown core is significantly affected by the views from bridges,  the height, density, and design of any structures that go up here are defining factors for the very character of our City. In January 2011, City Council approved staff recommendations on the “Vancouver Views” policy, and we can soon expect development applications in this area. Citizen oversight of activities here is important. Comments are welcome.

Official staff report on Granville Loops is here:  http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/20101007/documents/penv4.pdf

Note that the Bridgehead Guidelines should apply here. Bridgehead Guidelines, Vancouver, 1997. People should watch to see how the Planning Department deals with them in the context of the Granville Loops tower proposals.

These images are modeled on information contained in the Nov 29, 2010, policy report to council by Vancouver’s Director of Planning, released December 11 (titled “Implementation of ‘Vancouver Views’ and Opportunities for Higher Buildings in the Downtown.”). Captions with heights, etc., will be added in due course. Locations depicted here are the “Granville Loops,” that is, the area of the off ramps on the north side of the Granville Bridge.

To view and control this 3D model of the sites in your own computer, please download this file, change the filename (change the hyphen to a period, then delete the dot pdf suffix), and then open using Google Earth (free download on your computer). (This method is just a workaround to make this available for you to download it. )
GranvilleLoops-kmz