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This page is about the town centre in Burnaby, British Columbia. For the shopping mall, see Metropolis at Metrotown. For the SkyTrain station, see Metrotown Station. For the highrise development in Hong Kong, see Metro Town.
Metropolis at Metrotown and Metrotowers
Metrotown skyline as seen from Vancouver Harbour

Metrotown is a town centre serving the southwest quadrant of Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. It is one of the city's four officially designated town centres,[1] as well as one of Metro Vancouver's regional town centres.[2]

As officially defined by the City of Burnaby, the town centre is bounded on the west by Boundary Road (taking in Central Park), on the south by Imperial Street, on the east by Royal Oak Avenue, and on the north by a series of local streets, giving an area of 2.97 km2 (730 acres).[3][4] Kingsway forms the central commercial spine for the neighbourhood, and is paralleled to the south by the SkyTrain tracks running alongside Central Boulevard. The area is served by the SkyTrain's Patterson and Metrotown stations, while Royal Oak Station sits just beyond the southeastern limits of the district.

Name origin

Urban researcher and economist R. W. Archer credited the Baltimore Regional Planning Council (BRPC) for coining the term "metrotown" in 1962.[5] The BRPC envisioned metrotowns as "cohesive urban developments... deployed radially and in a series of rings around the City of Baltimore", each accommodating 100,000 to 200,000 people and at greater densities than what was then common in suburban areas.[6][7]

Archer adapted the term in his two-part article From New Towns to Metrotowns and Regional Cities, which appeared in the July 1969 issue of The American Journal of Economics and Sociology,[8] to refer to "a unit for planned metropolitan development" consisting of a wide variety of land uses and offering "a large measure of local employment and city-type services", but still "significantly interdependent with the rest of the metropolis".[9] He further suggested that building a connected series of metrotowns was the most cost-effective manner for establishing new urban settlements,[8] and saw developments around Stockholm like Vällingby and Högdalen as examples of this type of built form.[10]

The term was subsequently adopted by the municipality of Burnaby in the 1970s, initially as a common noun to refer to a type of urban development; it eventually became a proper noun referring exclusively to the area around the intersection of Kingsway and Sussex Avenue. (See below.)

History

SkyTrain tracks crossing over Kingsway in the western part of Metrotown, following the former interurban's right of way

Settlement and industry

On the recommendation of Colonel Richard Moody, the Royal Engineers constructed a trail linking colonial capital New Westminster and False Creek to facilitate troops movement between the two points.[11][12] The trail (which later became Kingsway) opened in 1860, and cut diagonally across Burrard Peninsula;[11] land was set aside as a military reserve at a plateau along the road in the area of modern-day Metrotown.[11][12] The road was improved following Burnaby's municipal incorporation in 1892, and a parallel interurban line connecting Vancouver and New Westminster opened the previous year, making the area increasingly favourable for settlement.[11] Consequently, the provincial government established a series of holding lots out of the military reserve in the 1890s to accommodate working class residents.[11][12] The lots were drawn at right angles to the interurban line, which ran from the northwest to the southeast, accounting for Metrotown's street orientation.[12]

During the Great Depression, Burnaby reeve William Pritchard instituted a series of make-work programs to put the unemployed to work, using municipal funds and loans.[12] This put a strain on Burnaby's finances, and in 1932 the province stepped in by suspending the functions of Burnaby's government and appointing a commissioner to run municipal affairs.[12][13] Under the province's control, Burnaby was able to strike a deal with the Ford Motor Company to build an assembly plant in the municipality.[14] The plant, located near Kingsway and McKay Avenue, opened in 1938, and was used to produce military vehicles during World War II;[14] it became an Electrolier facility at some point after the war.[15] Wholesale grocer Kelly-Douglas Company built a manufacturing plant and warehouse to the east of the Ford/Electrolier plant in 1946, and Simpsons-Sears opened a catalogue sales and distribution facility to the east of the Kelly-Douglas plant in 1954.[14]

Planning for a "metro town"

Building upon a 1964 report by the Lower Mainland Regional Planning Board (forerunner to the Greater Vancouver Regional District), Burnaby's planning department prepared a report titled Apartment Study, which was approved by the municipal council in 1966.[16] In this document, Burnaby's planners proposed a hierarchical structure for co-locating housing, commercial activity and other amenities, with a "town centre" level as the highest tier.[17] The town centres were to serve as "a major focus of population and community activity", include "a complete cross section of commercial facilities" and "a full range of cultural and recreational activity", and provide residential accommodation "with easy access to well developed industrial areas and places of employment".[17][18] The planners further identified three sites around the municipality as candidates to be developed into town centres: Brentwood, Lougheed and the area around the Simpsons-Sears facility at Kingsway and Sussex Avenue.[17]

Burnaby's planning department further conducted a survey of the local land-use structure, and published a hardcover book titled Urban Structure in 1971. Echoing Archer's metrotown concept, the book recommended establishing an "intermittent grid of metro towns" as the best alternative out of the various urban built forms.[19][20] However, by 1974, the planners decided instead to create only one metro town, for fear that having multiple such developments (as recommended by Urban Structure) would divide the municipality's focus and drain its resources[21]. Brentwood, Lougheed and the Simpsons-Sears site were evaluated as candidates for the site of the sole metro town; with the former two locations already gravitating towards a car-centric pattern of development, the planners decided that the Simpsons-Sears site had the most potential to match their original vision for a metro town.[21] The report thus recommended that "the Kingsway/Sussex town centre be designated as a Metrotown development area"; the recommendation was approved by the municipal council in July 1974.[22] The planning department followed up in 1977 with the release of Metrotown's development plan, further articulating the development concept and strategy for the area.[22][23]

Stalled development

Recessions in the 1970s and early 1980s, along with an altered political landscape following the 1979 municipal election, cast uncertainties onto the Metrotown development,[23] with mayor Dave Mercier suggesting in 1981 that the Metrotown plans be revisited.[24] Meanwhile, with "Metrotown" being perceived by local residents as a "sterile name" unindicative of its environs, a naming contest was held in 1982 to rename the Kingsway/Sussex area.[25] "Orchard Park" was the leading candidate until the contest was called off by mayor Bill Lewarne, citing the expense associated with updating the literature already printed which promoted the area as Metrotown.[25]

References

Footnotes
  1. ^ "Town Centres". City of Burnaby. Retrieved 2012-12-21.
  2. ^ "Metrotown City Centre". Metro Vancouver. Retrieved 2012-12-21.
  3. ^ Burnaby Planning Department (1977), p.14
  4. ^ "Metrotown General Land Use Map" (PDF). City of Burnaby. Retrieved 2012-12-21.
  5. ^ Pereira (2011), p.15
  6. ^ Baltimore Regional Planning Council (1962). Metrotowns for the Baltimore Region: A pattern emerges (Report). p. 2-3. {{cite report}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ O'Bryan, Russell L.; McAvoy (1966). Gunpowder Falls Maryland: Uses of a water resource today and tomorrow. U.S. Geological Survey. p. 64.
  8. ^ a b Pereira (2011), p.14
  9. ^ R. W. Archer (1969). "From New Towns to Metrotowns and Regional Cities, I". The American Journal of Economics and Sociology. 28 (3): 257–269.
  10. ^ R. W. Archer (1969). "From New Towns to Metrotowns and Regional Cities, II". The American Journal of Economics and Sociology. 28 (3): 385–398.
  11. ^ a b c d e Beasley (1976), pp.106-107
  12. ^ a b c d e f Glavin, Terry (2006). "Lost Cities". Vancouver Review. Retrieved 2012-12-21.
  13. ^ "Young Burnaby: 1911-1943" (PDF). City of Burnaby. Retrieved 2012-12-21.
  14. ^ a b c "Burna-Boom 1925 - 1954". Heritage Burnaby. Retrieved 2012-12-21.
  15. ^ Burnaby Planning Department (1977), p.18
  16. ^ Pereira (2011), p.34
  17. ^ a b c Pereira (2011), p.35
  18. ^ Parr, A.L. (1966). Apartment Study (Report). p. 2-3. {{cite report}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  19. ^ Pereira (2011), p.45
  20. ^ Beasley (1976), pp.35-37
  21. ^ a b Pereira, David. "The Town Centre Model: Part 3". Retrieved 2012-12-25.
  22. ^ a b Burnaby Planning Department (1977), p.7
  23. ^ a b Pereira, David. "Metrotown". Retrieved 2012-12-25.
  24. ^ Mackey, Lloyd (1981-09-16). "Burnaview". Burnaby Today. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |newspaper= (help)
  25. ^ a b "Metrotown name stays". Burnaby Today. 1982-10-20. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |newspaper= (help)
Bibliography


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