A bike station in a proposed office tower on Granville and West Cordova streets in Vancouver could wheel in a new – and cleaner – breed of office workers who bike to work.

The office building design includes showers for cyclist commuters on each building level, as well as a full bike station on the main lobby. The bike station would include secure bike storage and rentals, a café, repair shop and two additional showers.

Graham McGarva of Via Architects said the idea aims to normalize biking to work every day.

“You put your bike downstairs, put your gear down and have a shower,” said McGarva. “Come in your spandex; leave in your suit and tie or skirt,” he said.

Lisa Slakov, a member of bike advocacy group HUB, says Vancouver should catch up to cyclist-friendly cities like Toronto and Montreal, that already have bike stations.

“It keeps popping up and hasn’t materialized yet,” said Slakov. “We’d love to see it happen in downtown Vancouver. It would be a really valuable resource.”

More than the showers, Slakov sees additional secure storage as the most valuable aspect of a bike station.

“A lot of people won’t commute downtown simply because of that security issue,”she said.

Before the building plan can move ahead, McGarva says they need permission from the city to rezone the area as a community amenity zone.

Community amenity zones are offered at a lower rent than commercial spaces, and would allow the station to breakeven financially after charging users a small fee, according to McGarva.

The office building proposal goes before Vancouver’s urban design panel Wednesday at 5 p.m.