IT'S an opportunity most communities can only dream of: five acres of publicly owned land at the water's edge, facing south over a busy harbour to the skyline of one of the world's most admired cities.
It's only steps away from a public market and a transportation hub.
Yet the heart of the City of North Vancouver's waterfront sits vacant, its possibilities inspiring strong feelings in residents, business owners and politicians.
"What would I like to see on the National Maritime Centre site? Thoughtfulness," says Tyler Russell, owner of the Café for Contemporary Art, in Lower Lonsdale. There's so much potential with that place, so much honour that is owed to it and the history that it holds. It's a colonized space, it's one with deep history in the military industrial complex, shipbuilding, international trade, these kinds of things. It's a space that provided livelihoods for people for generations, and it's fundamentally First Nations territory. A lot of people go there for their contemplative space. All of those aspects need to get into the conversation about what it's going to be."
The empty site due south of Russell's door is where the National Maritime Centre was supposed to have been built. One hundred and fifty years ago, it was densely forested, like all of Lower Lonsdale and the rest of the North Shore. It was the land of the Squamish, Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. The arrival of European colonists towards the end of the nineteenth century brought logging, and the tall true trees of the North Shore attracted shipbuilders right from the beginning. Many of the ships that opened up the northern coast of B.C. to trade were built in what was then called Moodyville.
Even as wood gave way to steel and sail to oil, North Vancouver remained a major shipbuilding centre on the West Coast. In the 1940s, hundreds of Victory Ships, freighters that were close cousins to the better-known Liberty Ships, were launched into Burrard Inlet to carry vital war material in the Battle of the Atlantic. North Vancouver's shipyards helped win one of the decisive campaigns of the Second World War.
Less widely known is that North Vancouver's yards continued to change the world in the post-war years. In the early 1950s, to the east of the NMC site, the White Pass and Yukon Corporation designed and built the first container cargo ships, forerunners of the massive freighters that ply world trade routes today. Although North Vancouver's shipbuilding industries continued to enjoy good times in the post-war boom, work began to taper off towards the end of the 20th century and the shipyards retreated.
The City of North Vancouver then faced a question that many coastal cities have had to confront - how to redevelop an industrial waterfront after the industries have moved on.
A common answer has been to build condominium towers, desirable residences that are lucrative for developers but don't add much to the city's coffers or sense of community.
There are, of course, plenty of condos in Lower Lonsdale. It was the deals that led to them and the Pinnacle Hotel that helped get the city ownership of what was planned to be the National Maritime Centre, a national museum that would anchor Lower Lonsdale as a cultural precinct, home to new facilities for many arts organizations.
That was the plan. But in January of 2010, a cash-strapped provincial government backed out of the NMC project and the land has sat unused since. Meant to be elements of the museum, the rusting remains of old industrial buildings and the mothballed stern of HMS Flamborough Head, a wartime ship, languish behind the fencing, echoing rather than celebrating the history of the site.
The cultural precinct concept, however, is still very much alive and kicking. Presentation House Gallery plans to move its world-class photography collection from its current run-down home into the Carrie Cates building immediately east of Lonsdale Quay public market. The building, currently used by Seaspan for tugboat maintenance, will be extensively renovated to preserve its dramatic southern opening while protecting the prints displayed within. The city approved the gallery's plans in principle this summer, and the gallery is now embarking on a drive to raise $9.5 million for its new home.
Also looking to get out of the ramshackle Presentation House complex are its theatre company and the North Vancouver Museum. A consultant's report presented to the city in July of 2010 suggested the theatre be rebuilt on the Presentation House land, and the museum become part of redevelopment plans for the Safeway at Lonsdale Avenue and 13th Street. But the consultants pointedly ignored the NMC site, having been instructed it was to be reserved for some other regional attraction that would replace the maritime centre. That, says Russell, was a mistake.
"The report said one thing. That the NMC site is reserved for a revenue-generating regional attraction, therefore the Presentation House tenants can't go there, so let's blah-blah about where they could go instead. It was another way to kick the stone down the street while doing one definitive thing, which is reserve that land for something else. A museum is really about how we define this community. If you're defining North Vancouver by some nook in a condo development - are you serious? I can't think of one significant museum, or even an insignificant one that's still attractive, that is nestled among condos."
"It's funny what we're doing," adds Russell, remembering where he chose to open his business - part coffee shop, part art gallery. "But this is our joke - to bring an alternative art space into condoland."
Developed in collaboration with North Vancouver designer Arata Hatawaka, Russell has some big, unusual ideas for the empty lot. The plans he exhibited in his café are broadbrush concepts based on a hill-shaped structure created out of irregularly stacked shipping containers overlaid with park space.
"So you have a conversation between the green side of North Van, the shipbuilding history and the industrial aspect. I think that's a pretty awesome idea. This is an amazing starting point and maybe an amazing end point: signature architecture that considers the site and isn't just 'I've got a great idea, let's do a glass tower.' You want something a little different that speaks to the identity in some way."
Inside and outside, Russell and Hatawaka's building would create space for a grab-bag of cultural activities: Presentation House Theatre, the museum, a skatepark, community gardens, and rooms for Capilano University to set up a Lower Lonsdale campus.
"We even created a new department for Cap U," jokes Russell as he shows off his plans, "the scuba diving department."
While Capilano University is genuinely interested in a Lower Lonsdale satellite campus, the school will likely want to lease space from the city rather than construct a purpose-made building.
On the museum idea, however, Russell has some support from Mayor Darrell Mussatto.
"I think the museum is better suited to the waterfront as part of a cultural area with the gallery and the theatre," the mayor says.
After the demise of the National Maritime Centre, the city asked development giant PCI to look for a comparable regional attraction. Although PCI's report was never made public, Mussatto said they basically came back empty-handed.
"The challenge with that is it too required a high up-front cost with no guarantee of success," he says. "Just look at Storyeum - it took tens of millions to get going and it was a failure."
Since then, Mussatto has had informal conversations with the staff of many of the Lower Mainland's attractions, including Science World and the Vancouver Aquarium. Although neither is contemplating moving, there was some talk of bringing one of the aquarium's exhibits to North Vancouver.
"There's still some opportunity to explore there," Mussatto says. "But animals are very expensive. How do you fund that? Capital you can maybe get, but the operating costs kill you. But we're still looking at that. What might fly over here is a kids' museum. Seattle has one where it's a very interactive site and kids are involved. That really resonated with me, and the reason I say that is if you look at the demographics of Lower Lonsdale, who's moving in? Children and families. And they are actually quite popular. People come again and again."
Like Russell, Mussatto has his own wish-list for the valuable land, which could include a water park, an ice rink, space for the university, and a possible expansion of the Pinnacle Hotel, which believes it can start to attract additional convention business to the North Shore if it can add about another 100 rooms and more conference space. But, he added, some residential development might have to be included to help pay for it all.
"We need to have a vision for the whole area," says Mussatto. "We are bringing people down there to live, work and play. We've got big employers like ICBC and Lonsdale Quay. It's a transit hub. We have grocery stores, banks and entertainment. We really do have an opportunity to make a community where you don't need your car all the time."
One of the people already living in Lower Lonsdale is Tony Valente, who moved onto East Esplanade in 2008 and shares Mussatto's enthusiasm for the neighbourhood's future.
"I'm really excited to be in Lower Lonsdale in this time when all these things are going to happen," he says. "This is going to be the place to be. You've got transport and all these things that will draw people here, so it's not just going to be dead at night like it is now. I don't think that's good for anyone. You'll have all the benefits of living downtown without some of the congestion."
But while he's optimistic about the future, Valente was alarmed when the city went to PCI last year for answers. Valente presented council with a 75-signature petition to turn the NMC space into a park.
"I was worried something was going to come out of that that people wouldn't like. So I wanted to give them this before that happened," he says.
"It was trying to give some direction to council that, 'Listen, we understand. If the maritime centre is done, let's do something else. All this is celebrating our maritime history. That's going to be our centrepiece no matter what. There were some guys that signed our petition, they're older, they have much more history than I do in North Van and I'm telling you, when that thing started to say Wallace Shipyards, they'd say 'Look at that Tony; that's awesome.'
"I already appreciated that it was getting to be an exciting area, but it's important to a lot of people too. What we're proposing in the petition would give us that opportunity, in any case. You're not building anything you couldn't easily move. But I think there is a lot of fear around putting a park there."
Doug Ausman, president of the Lower Lonsdale Business Association, shares Valente's impatience with the status quo but wants to see something more than simply greenspace.
"Our view is that almost anything would be better than a five-acre area of dirt that is fenced off from an otherwise beautiful public area," he says. "It's also unfair to residents in the condos nearby who overlook that, and to the hotel and the retailers going into those red-roofed buildings."
What local business wants, says Ausman, is "anything that draws people day and evening, seven days a week. We think a museum could do that. . . . Would we like to see an attraction like the North Vancouver Museum in Lower Lonsdale at that site? Yes. It would be good for residents, good for business, and close to a real hub of transportation."
Ask Ausman what else could be a good fit on the NMC site and he'll rattle off everything from a permanent Cirque de Soleil performance space to a floatplane dock and pub to a Bellagiostyle casino and entertainment complex, taking in a station for the Rocky Mountaineer and an outdoor adventure sport centre along the way.
"What if someone were to come forward with a London Eye, ferris wheel viewpoint kind of thing? Is that likely to happen or is it practical? Probably not, but we brainstormed a lot of things," Ausman says.
Mussatto expects the decision will have to wait until after November's civic election, but one thing Russell, Valente and Ausman all agree on is the need to make a decision and get cracking - soon.
"The city has to consider what are those things that we can practically do, and then get on with it," Ausman says. "Let's see some thoughts and ideas put forward and proceed reasonably quickly - in my lifetime."
