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.