Diversity and the Built Environment: the Case of 105 Keefer

Centre A welcomes architect Joe Wai, urban planner Nathan Edelson, community builder Doris Chow, academic/community activator Melissa Fong and others to engage in a conversation specifically addressing the challenge of 105 Keefer as we reflect on past experience and contemplate ways forward for Vancouver’s Chinatown.

Vancouver has been a diverse city since its very inception. Experiences of linguistic and cultural diversity in BC urban environments have been mentioned in writing ever since the days of the gold rush. For the most part the story has surrounded the co-habitation struggles between a largely Cantonese/Toisan speaking Chinese community and a predominantly English speaking European community.

Over the decades, as these communities have struggled over the bounty of colonial exploitation, it can be said that the English speaking European community held the upper hand. However, at the same time they expressed a persistent anxiety that if not made subject to moderation, control and even exclusion, the Chinese community might one day overwhelm the English speaking community’s perch of cultural power.

A product of this anxiety and the struggle for Chinese community’s survival despite racist pressures is Vancouver’s Chinatown. It is unique both in urban experience and in built form. The era that, through racist policies, contained a community and produced Chinatown has passed. Today, Chinese businesses, residences, and cultural and linguistic expressions can be seen prospering throughout the metro area. However, Chinatown remains a site of linguistic and cultural diversity and its heritage is expressed as much in the people who populate the Goldstone Cafe as it is in the neighbourhood’s built form.

With the emergence of more professionalized urban planning after WWII, in the 1960s and 70s, Chinatown found itself having to struggle against public policy aimed at its destruction. Through the 80s, 90s and early 2000s, while Chinatown faced decline and a host of related problems, the City of Vancouver made accommodations and sought ways to acknowledge and celebrate this unique aspect of our urban environment. Today, in the throes of a seemingly never-ending condo-boom, Chinatown faces new challenges to its social and architectural make up.

Recent activism has been focused on a proposal by the Beedie Group to develop a condo tower at 105 Keefer across from the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden. Many community members have not been satisfied with recent condo developments along Main Street and see the current proposal to develop 105 Keefer as a “red line” that if crossed will mark the moment when Chinatown was demoted to the status of a gentrified tourist and real estate marketing commodity; a significant loss in the cultural diversity and heritage of Vancouver.

With the backdrop of Walking On The Line, Seung Woo Back’s ongoing exhibition at Centre A that explores archive, urban form and trends of standardisation, we invite a public conversation to discuss the current challenges facing Chinatown and our approaches to heritage, diversity and urban change.