The future redevelopment of downtown Vancouver’s Waterfront Station precinct and the Gastown railyard has the potential to be profoundly transformative for the city.
“There’s a great potential to transform a railway yard from a forgotten place into a green community living and active gathering place,” Joe Hruda told Daily Hive Urbanized.
“It’s also an international transportation hub and gateway for Vancouver residents living around the harbour and international tourists from around the world.”
Hruda is an architect and the founder and president of Vancouver-based CIVITAS Urban Design and Planning. The company has performed major master planning work for significant district and neighbourhood projects worldwide. Some of its most prominent local work includes the urban planning for Coal Harbour, Vancouver Convention Centre’s West Building, and Northeast False Creek.
Working with former Vancouver chief urban planner Larry Beasley, Hruda’s team recently produced an unsolicited urban planning case study for transforming the entire waterfront area north of Gastown between Canada Place and Crab Park’s eastern edge bordering Main Street.
Hruda believes the potential of transforming the Gastown railyard within the Central Waterfront east of Canada Place could be similar to the transformation achieved for the Coal Harbour waterfront two decades ago when it was also a railyard.
However, their case study presents a vision that greatly deviates from Coal Harbour by introducing a wider range of functional uses, building forms, and public spaces.
From west to east, the transformation includes a drastic reimagining and expansion of the Waterfront Station transit hub, including a new railway expansion beneath a grand atrium to the north — framed by mid-rise buildings and high-rise towers with office and residential uses.
Further to the north, the SeaBus terminal is rebuilt and expanded under a visually striking triangular-shaped grand canopy.
Just east of the transit, a major new pedestrian-only space, quite possibly Vancouver’s largest public plaza, would be activated by the retail/restaurant frontage of the new building developments framing the plaza, including a significant new hotel.
Not the actual concept; layout of an unsolicited concept for the Waterfront Station transit hub precinct and Gastown railyard redevelopment, for case study purposes only. (Civitas Studio)
Existing condition:
Existing condition of the Waterfront Station transit hub and Gastown railyard. (Google Maps)
Future concept condition:
Not the actual concept; artistic rendering of an unsolicited concept for the Waterfront Station transit hub precinct and Gastown railyard redevelopment, for case study purposes only. (Civitas Studio)
For the centre area, the concept envisions shorter high-rise towers on top of mid-rise base podiums with primarily residential uses. The northern frontages of these towers, the side that faces Burrard Inlet, are terraced. Furthermore, these towers in the centremost area frame a major new urban park.
The waterfront frontage of the centre area would see a naturalized shoreline, including the creation of four “Island Parks” — similar to the 2009-built Habitat Island in False Creek as part of the Olympic Village project. The HeliJet terminal would remain in this area on a floating platform next to the new islands.
A smaller cluster of office buildings would be located at the northernmost foot of Main Street.
Within the east side of the waterfront area, the existing Crab Park would be enhanced with a lookout pier, beach, First Nations community centre, and a landmark 30-metre-tall (10-storey) Indigenous welcoming figure.
Not the actual concept; artistic rendering of an unsolicited concept for the Waterfront Station transit hub precinct and Gastown railyard redevelopment, for case study purposes only. (Civitas Studio)
Not the actual concept; artistic rendering of an unsolicited concept for the Waterfront Station transit hub precinct and Gastown railyard redevelopment, for case study purposes only. (Civitas Studio)
Between the southernmost edge of the new building developments and the historic buildings of Gastown, there would be a trench for a railway right-of-way to preserve passenger rail connections to Waterfront Station.
Northward extensions of Gastown’s streets — creating bridges over the railway trench — into the new waterfront precinct establish new north-south connections for pedestrian and vehicles.
Notably, though, the concept suggests truncating the existing Waterfront Road; instead of reaching the Canada Place cruise ship terminal and continuing on to its underground connection to West Cordova Street), Waterfront Road would be redirected southward to terminate within Gastown to enable the creation of a seamless large pedestrian-only plaza space next to the transit hub.
Not the actual concept; artistic rendering of an unsolicited concept for the Waterfront Station transit hub precinct and Gastown railyard redevelopment, for case study purposes only. (Civitas Studio)
This concept by Hruda’s team is just one of several unsolicited concepts created to help drive public discourse on reimagining one of downtown Vancouver’s last remaining industrial waterfronts. In recent years, architectural design firms Perkins&Will and Farrells, with involvement from engineering firm Arup, also produced their own respective concepts to inspire the forthcoming City of Vancouver-led work in determining the area’s future.
About a year ago, the municipal government indicated it was prepared to set aside $2.6 million to conduct the formal detailed planning process for the Waterfront Station transit hub expansion and the Gastown railyard transformation. This would build on the initial planning work conducted in the 2000s, triggered by the Vancouver Whitecaps’ unsuccessful proposal to build a soccer stadium on an elevated deck over the railyard.
A major challenge in determining the area’s future is the need to involve numerous area property owners and stakeholders, which brings in a very wide range of varying ideas, interests, concerns, and priorities. This includes not only the City, but also the Vancouver Park Board, TransLink, Transport Canada, Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, BC Ministry of Transportation and Transit, Tourism BC, Pavco (Vancouver Convention Centre), Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC), Canadian National, VIA Rail, GHD Developments, and Cadillac Fairview. A degree of consultation with local First Nations is also expected.
“There are so many stakeholders here. It’s really hard to coordinate all the different groups. But what I can tell you is the City of Vancouver is 100% behind a new vision for that area,” said Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim in a mid-term review interview with Daily Hive Urbanized on Monday.
But because of the wide range of different priorities, he added, “not a single group will get 100% of what they want.”
2000s study preliminary concept; Site plan of the expanded Waterfront Station, with the underground link between the expanded station and the new marine terminal. (City of Vancouver)
2000s study preliminary concept; artistic rendering of the transit concourse at Waterfront Station. (City of Vancouver)
2000s study preliminary concept; layout of the Central Waterfront Hub Framework in downtown Vancouver. (City of Vancouver)
2000s study preliminary concept; artistic rendering of the Central Waterfront Hub Framework area from Canada Place. (City of Vancouver)
2000s study preliminary concept; artistic rendering of the Central Waterfront Hub Framework area in downtown Vancouver. (City of Vancouver)
Although the Mayor did not specify on some of the emerging ideas and diverging interests, based on previous planning work, the port authority’s involvement will likely focus on preserving the movement of goods from the adjacent Centerm port container terminal, which recently underwent a major expansion on its container handling capacity. The existing railway directly serves this port facility, and the port authority and CPKC — which are perhaps the area’s largest stakeholders — would not want a redevelopment that inhibits the efficient goods movement.
The port authority also owns and operates Waterfront Road as an access and service road for not only the Centerm container terminal but also the Canada Place cruise ship terminal. This was particularly evident in April 2024, when the port authority announced it would temporarily establish a checkpoint at Waterfront Road’s entrance near Main Street to restrict non-port-related traffic using the road as a quicker signal- and intersection-free route to reach downtown Vancouver. This followed a major increase in non-port-related traffic due to road construction in Gastown.
The checkpoint reduced traffic congestion to better preserve the road’s priority use for passenger buses and freight trucks — providing cruise ships with their resupply of food, beverages, ship supplies, and maintenance equipment — reaching Canada Place. These vehicles would otherwise have to use congested tight streets in the city centre.
For Pavco and and Tourism BC, given the obvious site constraints west of Canada Place, the interests of both provincial crown corporations may relate to preserving the last opportunity for a seamless major expansion of Vancouver Convention Centre by building an additional convention centre wing north of Waterfront Station. This is crucial to maintain the convention centre’s long-term competitiveness in attracting not only more events, meetings, and conventions, but also larger and higher-calibre functions. The convention centre is one of BC’s largest engines for tourism and for the downtown Vancouver economy, but it is increasingly facing competition from newer facility expansions in Seattle and Calgary.
Waterfront Road looking east from Waterfront Station’s SeaBus terminal. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
Artistic rendering of the original conceptual design of the West Building of the Vancouver Convention Centre, with the Civic Arts Complex (concert hall) depicted on the far right as a standalone building. (Government of BC)
Cadillac Fairview owns not only the historic Canadian Pacific building that serves as Waterfront Station but also the adjacent Granville Square and PricewaterhouseCoopers office towers. Over a decade ago, Cadillac Fairview first proposed building an office tower on the east side of Waterfront Station, but this plan fell apart due to the pandemic, mixed reviews over the building’s modern origami-like design, and the emerging consensus to conduct an area planning process before enabling any development.
When Waterfront Station’s potential evolution is factored in, other complexities emerge, such as the question of possibly expanding the station and track space for additional SkyTrain and commuter rail/regional rail services and the introduction of high-speed passenger rail and interregional passenger-only ferry services.
Of course, all of these considerations are followed by the very significant costs of transforming the area and the intention to introduce a mix of high-density active uses, with the potential for market-based developments to fund at least some of the costs.
“I think it’s like it’s a blank canvas that could be absolutely spectacular,” Sim told Daily Hive Urbanized.
“Opportunities like this do not exist in very many parts of the planet. And so, we’re blessed with one. Let’s not squander it.”