Granville Street Redesign
When this website was but a nascent blog, I lamented Vancouver’s lack of a public square. A year later, as condo towers continue to spring up all around us, and the pressure to expand transportation infrastructure remains unabated, the need to carve out and protect public spaces is more necessary than ever. Through the course of its development, Vancouver seems to have missed out on some great opportunities create public spaces. Downtown building density makes it difficult to congregate before and after concerts and films. Outside our stadiums, celebrating a sports victory takes place along the sidewalks of Yaletown or in areas adjacent to glassy towers. Robson square, while great from a design standpoint (Kudos Arthur Erikson), fails as a public gathering site, in my view. Its basement-like quality leaves it ignored and under-used. Why go there, when the sunlit steps of the VAG beckon above?
It’s not all bad – Vancouver does hold plenty examples of embracing public space in all kinds of creative ways. We just need to do more.
For example, the Olympics have helped turn things around. The task of “hosting the world” in 136 days (and counting), has pumped creativity and dollars in dusting off two of our most important public spaces:
- Recently capped withsnazzy glass domes this year to the tune of $1.6 million, Robson Square will enjoy a place in the limelight this February as a central media hub. Time will tell if this will give the square a new lease on life. Perhaps the lit-up glass domes, will act as a lure for more impromptu gatherings than the square currently sees. I sure hope so.
- The near-completed redesignof Granville Street into a majestic promenade promised to inject new life into the city’s central artery, having languished in seedy obscurity for too long.
On a less glitzy but no less important scale, grassroots efforts at promoting all kinds of varied public space deserve a place in the spotlight as well.As described in a recent post, entitled Getting to know your Community Art, Kurt Heinrich describes how the Commercial Drive community is using its walls as a backdrop for wonderful community art. I also love how, in neighbourhoods across the city, busy residents take part in creative gardening and often artistic gardening, transforming traffic intersection into sites of public, green pride.
The advocacy effort for Vancouver public spaces received a huge boost last Tuesday with the exciting launch of PubliCity, a newly minted magazine put out by theVancouver Public Space Network (VPSN)The VPSN is a grassroots collective that engages in advocacy, outreach and education on public space issues in and around Vancouver. Efforts include combating advertising ‘creep’ in public spaces, promoting creative, community friendly urban design, monitoring private security activities downtown and looking at ways to re-green forgotten spaces and alleys of the city. PubliCity will provide a great vehicle for creating awareness of these issues and inspiring democratic debate about how best to promote, create and use public space in all its forms.
It goes without saying, that without public space, community can and will not flourish.
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Nice post, Godfrey.
As you are a worldly fellow, I’m wondering if you could perhaps expand on where Vancouver stands/sits/squares in terms of public space in a global context. I mean, I know we aren’t the home of magnificent piazzas and the like, but are we coming into our own? I also wonder what you and the VPSN think of the Olympic Village development. This weekend, I was lucky enough to spend a few ours with one of the city’s soon-to-be-leading-architects, who wowed us with some “fun facts” and conceptual outlines of why the square in the development has been designed the way it, um, has been designed. I’d be interested to know your thoughts.
Thanks for the insight, good sir.
John
You’re one step ahead of me – i’ve yet to look at the Olympic Village with my armchair critic’s eye. But I will certainly let you know. I would say, yes, Vancouver is coming into its own, but it still has a ways to go. In terms of Vancouver in a global context, I would say Vancouver ranks pretty highly, buoyed in particular with the creation of Stanley Park way back in its history. Still, it can always do better, particularly in its recent history where public space was sacrificied in the name of residential tower development.
Don’t you think temperature has something to do with it? There are places in Canada where you just can’t go outside for too long in the winter. That is why Toronto and Montreal have so few squares and public spaces. And in Vancouver there needs to be shelter because it rains everyday in the winter. There is a functional issue as well as practical and philosophical issues too.
This is something valued differently thab pother places in the world. We would rather drive to a mall and that’s what we’ve been brought up to do.
- Pete
Good point on functionality Pete. I do think that has something to do with it. I wonder what a comparison between the number of public squares/public spaces in countries in Europe with moderate climates (ie Spain, Italy, France) vs. countries with rainier climates (ie England and Germany) would yield. Thoughts?
European cities and these include those in rainier cities of Germany and France are stuffed with public squares. This is not a function of climate, it’s a function of cities that grew up before the automobile, where pedestrian traffic was all there was. Vancouver saw its development in the age of the automobile – that’s why streets and thoroughfares have taken precedence over public gathering space. Nothing to do with it being rainy here!