Bringing Life to the Streets of the Downtown Eastside (DTES)

Princess Avenue Interpretive Walk

Strathcona is an historic neighbourhood with rich cultural traditions. It is home to Vancouver’s oldest elementary school built in 1891, which was nicknamed the “League of Nations” in the 1930s, aptly capturing the neighbourhood’s long-standing multicultural flavour.

Princess Avenue, located in Strathcona, has been marked as an important north-south pedestrian route. Over two hundred students from the Strathcona Community School participated in a two-day design process to identify themes for Princess Avenue, including making the street greener and more pedestrian friendly.

The Princess Avenue Interpretive Walk showcases the rich history, cultural diversity and child-friendly nature of the Strathcona neighbourhood and engaged the community in designing and implementing a structural children’s silhouette sign at the Princess Avenue and Hastings Street intersection. An interpretive sign was installed at the Strathcona Community Centre to mark the starting point of the walk.

There were two phases in the project:

Phase 1: Mural and Stamping involved the City’s Planning and Engineering Departments, and the Strathcona CommUunity School and Centre. Design workshops and events included over 200 local children who completed a mural on the front of the Strathcona Community Centre, a photo mural at Cornerstone, and sidewalk stamps at the intersection of Cordova Street and Princess Avenue. With a focus on accessibility and safety, new access ramps and crosswalks were put in late April 2009 and a traffic signal at Princess Avenue and Cordova Street was completed in June 2009.

Phase 2:Children’s Silhouette Sign and Information Marker was led by the Strathcona Community Centre and marks Princess Avenue as an important pedestrian route. Coupled with the completed murals and sidewalk stamping, the children’s silhouette sign andinformation marker ensures that Princess Avenue is viewed as a child- and family-friendly North-South pedestrian route.

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