Fairview Amenities and Attractions
Fairview Overview
Fairview, a neighbourhood on the west side of the City of Vancouver, British Columbia (BC), Canada, runs from 16th Avenue in the south to the False Creek inlet including Granville Island in the north and from Burrard Street in the west to Cambie Street in the east. Some city offices are on the eastern fringe of Fairview across Cambie Street from Vancouver City Hall. The 2006 Census reported a Fairview population of 29,295, up 3.1 percent from 2001. Young urban professionals and students comprise the largest demographic; 42 percent of residents are in their 20s and 30s.
West Broadway is an important medical and health care centre around Vancouver General Hospital, the BC Cancer Agency, BC Cancer Research Centre, BC Healthy Living Alliance, and BC Centre for Disease Control. City Square Mall, Granville Island, and South Granville Rise are major neighbourhood retail shopping areas.
All major roads into Downtown pass through Fairview and Burrard Street, Cambie Street, and Granville Street bridges over False Creek. Fairview has two SkyTrain rapid transit rail stations on the line from Downtown to Richmond and the Vancouver International Airport.
Early Developments
The opening of the Moodyville and Hastings mills on Burrard Inlet in the 1860s made Fairview one of the first Lower Mainland areas to be logged yet mostly undeveloped until construction of the electric railway system of the 1890s. Then the Fairview Loop ran from downtown up Main Street to Broadway to Granville Street and back to downtown. With easy access to the city core came commercial and residential development that filled out the neighbourhood, which north of West Broadway has fine views of Downtown and the North Shore Mountains, inspiring the name Fairview.
Information Links:
cambievillage.com
http://vancouver.ca/green-vancouver/fairview.aspx
http://former.vancouver.ca/parks/cc/douglas/website/index.html
http://www.falsecreekcc.ca/
http://vancouver.ca/docs/planning/victoria-fraserview-killarney-community-vision-full-report.pdf
Fairview Housing
There are some multi-unit Victorians and duplexes, but apartments and condominiums are more common housing options in Fairview. Newer high-rise condos and apartment complexes dot the landscape, but most housing reflects pre-1970s zoning that permitted buildings of no more than three stories. Housing prices and rents have risen steadily in recent years, though Fairview is still less expensive than are neighbourhoods farther west.
Fairview Restaurants and Shops
Fairview has some of Vancouver’s best restaurants. West has won Vancouver magazine’s Restaurant of the Year Award four times, and the New York Times has proclaimed Vij’s “among the finest Indian restaurants in the world.” On West Broadway are the popular Memphis Blues and Banana Leaf. South Granville Street is famous for its art galleries, antique and modern furniture home décor shops, and mix of high-end and mid-range fashion.
Granville Island
Fairview’s most famous landmark is a top attraction. A formerly industrial area, Granville Island now attracts 10 million visitors a year to shops, restaurants, and spectacular views. The island, actually a peninsula into False Creek across from Downtown, is home to the Granville Island Public Market and host to Canada Day celebrations, musical and dramatic festivals, and cultural events. Granville Island amenities are a full-service marina, a boutique hotel, the Emily Carr University of Art and Design, the False Creek Community Centre, Vancouver’s only professional improvisational theatre company, several fine arts galleries, and numerous specialty shops. Two remnants of industrial era are a machine shop and a concrete plant.
Since redevelopment in the 1970s, Granville Island has maintained craft studios for glassblowers, printmakers, luthiers, saké makers, jewelers, potters, boatbuilders, and woodworkers. The farmers market has operated daily since the early 1990s.
New Fairview Live MLS Listings
Fairview Amenities and Attractions
