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It's time to take down the BowMac sign
Posted by Mike Klassen on October 4, 2008 in Vancouver
Like so many dads with young kids do every day, I parked quickly at the Toys R Us on West Broadway, to make a quick dash into the store to purchase a gift. I parked on the roof and took the stairs down to the street.
The staircase itself wraps the bottom portion of the old BowMac sign, now covered by a large TOYS R US that barely reveals the rusting hulk underneath it.
I've concluded that the old sign must go, and here's why.
The original intent was to retain the sign as a part of Vancouver's heritage. I admit I was one of those who desperately wanted to keep it as part of West Broadway. I liked its kitsch. Surely it added some much needed personality to this rather boring retail strip in the city. No retail sign of its size would ever be allowed under today's zoning rules, so it really was more of a monument to olde Vancouver than a sign.
What the developers delivered was a real disappointment. A big-box store was built right up to the sidewalk over the parking lot of the former car dealership, and instead of repairing or restoring the sign to its former glory, they simply attached the new sign over it.
What is left is a rusting, broken mess. It looks like an old icebreaker in dry dock. The BowMac sign is a sad reflection upon Vancouver's attempts to retain its heritage, and it is arguably a safety hazard.
When I made my dash past the toy store, I found a blabbering homeless guy taking a crap in the stairwell. He was clearly mentally ill. He'd found a convenient place to hide off the main street. If I ever go to this store with my child, I'll never again use the rooftop parking to avoid that awful stairwell.
The decision to rezone that site for a big box store and let the toy store put its cladding over the BowMac sign was perhaps the right one a decade ago, but the wrong one for today. An opportunity to apply some wit and create fine urban design was overlooked in the rush to get new retail floor space on Broadway.
Up close the building appears cheap. The stairway and elevator beside it look like an invitation for a mugging, or as it was the other day, an outhouse.
It saddens me, but I think it's time to take down the old BowMac sign out of respect for its glory days, and to make the street below safer.
Tagged: urban design, vancouver heritage
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