TOWNSHIFT Suburb into City / Cloverdale: Round Up
2009
Surrey, British Columbia, Canada- Planning
- Districts
- Housing
''TownShift: Suburb into City'' is open an international ideas competition seeking innovative ideas for five of Surrey's established Town Centres: Guildford, Fleetwood, Cloverdale, Newton and Semiahmoo. The aim of the competition is to ''Shift'' thinking and opportunities for each of these ''Town'' hubs towards more intense, public-minded and productive urban futures. Approved by the Architectural Institute of British Columbia, this competition is proposed in order to generate innovative new thinking about suburbs transforming towards sustainability in an era of increasingly expensive energy. TownShift has been conceived to open up debate and communicate design ideas amongst the general public and city-building professions, and we hope its results will shape this rapidly-evolving city for decades to come. Indeed, the civic slogan proudly displayed on Surrey's new urban brand is ''The Future Lives Here.''
Cloverdale: Round Up
Building Affordability
The Challenge
Of all Surrey's Town Centres, Cloverdale has the clearest architectural evidence of a history as an independent town. Cloverdale was founded and prospered as a railway town, the location of a switching centre for no less than three railways at the beginning of the 20th century. As a railway town, its main street is terminated by tracks and its commercial buildings are lined with boomtown fronts - recalling Canadian prairie and Interior B.C. Railway villages more than other towns on the Lower Mainland. Cloverdale has exploited this unique legacy by sponsoring the largest rodeo in the province. As well, an effective ''Main Street'' beautification and conservation initiative program has accentuated this ''Wild West'' theme for 176 Street. The results are welcome relief from Surrey's suburban streetscapes. Moreover, storefronts here are almost entirely occupied by locally-owned businesses, not the franchise chain stores or big box retailers that predominate elsewhere. 176 Street will be familiar to viewers of the popular television series ''Smallville'', as the iconic qualities of its streetscapes attracted producers to regularly shoot the series in this real/unreal town. A few blocks north, year-round a successful casino runs night and day on the rodeo grounds. Cloverdale is the location of Surrey's city-wide Museum and Archives, and consequently, tourism is more important to this Town Centre than any other.
(From competition documentation)
Cloverdale: Round Up
Building Affordability
The Challenge
Of all Surrey's Town Centres, Cloverdale has the clearest architectural evidence of a history as an independent town. Cloverdale was founded and prospered as a railway town, the location of a switching centre for no less than three railways at the beginning of the 20th century. As a railway town, its main street is terminated by tracks and its commercial buildings are lined with boomtown fronts - recalling Canadian prairie and Interior B.C. Railway villages more than other towns on the Lower Mainland. Cloverdale has exploited this unique legacy by sponsoring the largest rodeo in the province. As well, an effective ''Main Street'' beautification and conservation initiative program has accentuated this ''Wild West'' theme for 176 Street. The results are welcome relief from Surrey's suburban streetscapes. Moreover, storefronts here are almost entirely occupied by locally-owned businesses, not the franchise chain stores or big box retailers that predominate elsewhere. 176 Street will be familiar to viewers of the popular television series ''Smallville'', as the iconic qualities of its streetscapes attracted producers to regularly shoot the series in this real/unreal town. A few blocks north, year-round a successful casino runs night and day on the rodeo grounds. Cloverdale is the location of Surrey's city-wide Museum and Archives, and consequently, tourism is more important to this Town Centre than any other.
(From competition documentation)