I've long been a fan of the work of realist painter Edward Hopper, whose 1940 canvas "Gas" is a masterpiece of subtlety. The lone station attendant seems much older than the typical pump operator, and a feeling of loneliness permeates the painting: dark woods are just around the corner, and the road itself is eerily vacant. Perhaps the most welcoming element in the painting is the actual station building itself, which emits an unexpectedly warm light. Furthermore, the building's design is clearly evocative of two types of communal structures typically found in New England, Hopper's home region and the setting of the painting: the town hall and the colonial church.
Alas, the contemporary descendants of the gas station depicted by Hopper lack its charm, detail, and attention to design. In fact, modern gas stations tend to be amongst the most poorly-designed structures in modern cities, especially in places like the City of Vancouver, where a combination of high land prices and a structured, effective regulatory regime have generally tamed the other usual suspects (strip malls, big boxes, etc.).
But it doesn't have to be this way.
Bad Gas
Bad Gas
This Shell station, located in the fast-growing Southeast False Creek area, is typical of most stations currently in Vancouver. The awning, intended to shelter customers from the frequent rain, is made primarily of aluminum and constitutes a rectangular plane held up by utterly utilitarian columns. The station's branding colours (yellow and red) and prominently displayed on the awning and reappear on the equally rectangular "Snack Shop" convenience store; competing stations, such as those affiliated with Petro Canada and Husky, employ similar branding tactics. The remainder of the site is mostly comprised of concrete and asphalt parking/driving areas, save for a small area devoted to the station's sign and gas price display; luckily, height controls ensure that the sign isn't much taller than an awning, preventing the ultra-high station signs common along highways in other areas. Overall, the design does not respond to its context or surroundings, and the same forms and elements appear at all Vancouver Shell stations regardless of their neighbourhood/location within the city.
From a financial standpoint, the most curious aspect of this station is the minimal attention paid to the convenience store. Gasoline is a notoriously low-margin product, so stations must depend on convenience stores or attached repair garages for the overwhelming majority of their profits. This convenience store's design makes little attempt to draw in customers: approximately half of the facade is made up of white paneling, and interior amenities that might persuade customers to linger a while- such as attractive seating and lighting- are absent. A busy bus stop is located on the adjacent sidewalk (riders are waiting for it on the left side of this photo), but the store's orientation and placement does little to encourage patronage from this potential pool of customers.
Past Gas
Like the subject of Hopper's painting, this structure- one of the first gas station/garage combinations built in the City of Vancouver- displays better design than its modern counterparts. Most obviously, it is constructed primarily of brick, and the material is even used at the tip of the structure in the support columns for the portico. The building's architect, who later designed Vancouver's city hall, created an apartment for the station's owners on the second storey. Like the famous Flatiron building, the site occupies a corner lot on a diagonal intersection, so the garage building becomes wider as it retreats from the portico.
I wonder if Jan Gehl, the famed Copenhagen planner and author of *Cities for People*, would see irony in the fact that this building is currently being used as a funeral home. At one time garage mechanics working here diagnosed some vehicles as being "beyond repair", sealing their fates and consigning them to the scrap heap. Now the current business at this site helps its customers face the realities of a different kind of death.
Gas to the Future
Vancouver, like the rest of Canada, has witnessed a sharp decline in the number of gas stations in recent decades. The city hosted 328 gas stations in 1970; as of early 2012, that number had fallen to 84. Since the late 1980s, the number of gas stations in Canada has fallen from approximately 20,000 to less than 13,000.
A number of factors have contributed to this decline. As many others have pointed out, the high cost of land in urban centres, where a substantial chunk of the population resides, is an obvious deterrent to the construction of new stations. Despite the expense of soil remediation, some former gas stations in Vancouver will soon be home to new condo and/or retail developments. Industry consolidation has reduced the number of independent operators, and smaller stations with 1 or 2 pumps closed under competitive pressure from larger stations. As mentioned previously, gasoline sales are an extremely low-margin business, so stations that were unable to attract customers to their food-and-beverage or garage businesses were doomed. Fuel efficiency, which declined in the 1990s, has been increasing again, so many drivers require less-frequent fill ups. And- at least in Vancouver proper- actual driving seems to be on the decline: the number of vehicles entering downtown has fallen to levels last seen in 1965 (despite significant increases in retail, residential, and office development) and Translink, the region's public transit agency, has seen ridership increases of 84% in the last decade.
So, in Vancouver, regulating the development of new gas stations will do little to change the overall physical environment of the city since it is unlikely that new stations will be built. The real opportunity for change exists in the development of design guidelines for station renovations. It seems likely that the remaining station owners themselves may already be planning to undertake some changes to remain competitive over the next decade; fuel economy standards are mandating even greater efficiency and electric cars, especially those produced by California upstart Tesla, are poised for significant increases in market share. Given that a wave of renovations may be coming, the establishment of design guidelines now would be well-timed.
What should the guidelines encourage? It seems obvious that a de-emphasis on gasoline sales would benefit station owners while offering asthetic opportunities. For example, electric vehicle charging stations require much less space than gasoline pumps, so guidelines could encourage their design to be as sleek and elegant as possible. Given the increasing popularity of bicycling, stations with garages may opt to convert some service bays to bicycle repair stations; design guidelines should encourage smaller and/or more decorative sliding door installations for these bays. Other opportunities exist in the updating of retail buildings. To better accomodate non-motorists, the city should recommend structual expansion to property lines where possible so that pedestrians could enter stores directly from sidewalks. And guidelines should suggest the use of neighbourhood-appropriate building materials and designs for the retail buildings as well environmentally-friendly features such as green roofs and softer LED lighting. Finally, the city should recommend the incorporation of coffee shops and cafes into the retail structures, which would be accompanied by welcoming interiors.
