1983:

“There’s no doubt that some day it will be the playground for all those people who live and work downtown.”
With these words, uttered by architect Norman Hotson, the Vancouver Sun kicks off its look at plans to develop a neighbourhood of “smoke-scarred, empty warehouses” into what may soon become the city’s newest “potential character area” – Yaletown.

“I’d like to see it made a historic precinct,” says city planner Eric Crickmore, “but not a mandatory one. Right now, we’re taking a fairly low-key attitude toward the area.”

Ideas for developing the historic neighbourhood -a ramshackle collection of dilapidated warehouses and loading bays, are numerous, the Sun notes, with proposals to transform the area into a cultural district tailor-made for artists and creative types, or a “specialty retail area, perhaps like the the antique district of Old Montreal.”

“Dreams of open-air markets and canals died quickly,” the Sun reports. “The city has steadfastly resisted the idea of touristy Gastown-style shops in the area.”

However, property owners are worried about the future of Yaletown (originally named for the hometown of the CPR workers who resided there), seeing it as uneconomical, difficult to develop, and with its future tied to the construction of nearby B.C. Place. Despite this, and fears that B.C. Place’s 12,000 residential units will saturate the city’s housing market, proposals for lower-rent New-York style warehouse apartments are picked by the paper as a clear favourite for the area.

“There’s a lot of talk about it,” explains B.C. Place architect Murrary McKinnon. “There are a lot of creative people in the city who would love to live there.”

 

IMAGE: Yaletown, at 1152 Mainland St, circa 1977. Image Courtesy of the Vancouver Archives.