2003
Top Ten Endangered Sites
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The escarpment below Beatty Street is among Downtown's few remaining natural features and provides a commanding site for the historic Beatty Street Drill Hall.
Set into the base of the cliff is a concrete
Art Deco portal marking the eastern entrance of the old CPR
Dunsmuir Tunnel. The portal, now sealed, is an important monument
to Vancouver's early railway history.
South of the Drill Hall, marking the western
approach to the original 1915 Georgia Viaduct, is a commemorative
plaza called Viaduct Park. The park, created in 1970 after
the old viaduct was demolished, incorporates the original
concrete railings and street lamps.
Under the proposed rezoning (to permit a Costco
store and residential towers), the Beatty Street grade would
be extended outward in a plaza structure, burying the escarpment
and marooning the Drill Hall on a flat surface. The escarpment
would become a concrete retaining wall for a parkade, the
tunnel portal would be demolished and Viaduct Park would be
obliterated.
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