Arbutus corridor: the destruction of a greenway
August 8, 2016
This Vancouver rail corridor used to be double tracked, and saw passenger service from 1902 to 1954. The last commercial train has been seen in 2001. The asset has been considered very early for a North South rail transit line: A more direct alignment via Cambie, has been preferred for the Canada line circa 2006. That was closing a chapter…However the track was still there, and the hope of a local tram has always stay alive in some circles: the 2010 Olympic line demonstration was giving reason for hope…and CP rail was wanting to bank on its precious real estate. After a bit of bullying by CP rail, in order to get a fair price, the city agreed to purchase the corridor for $55M in March 2016, openinga ew chapter:
The Arbutus corridor was a defacto Greenway:
The Arbutus corridor circa 2014 (credit photo CityHallWatch)
Like many disused railway corridors, a greenway was a logical option for a corridor presenting some natural qualities. However where usually the authorities capitalize on the specificity of such assets, the city of Vancouver has decided to destroy it: A destruction in 2 steps [3]:
Destroying the memory of the place
The Arbutus corridor circa 2009 (credit photo Stephen Waddell)
It has been vague promises of reusing the corridor for a rail transit by the City, but this quickly vansihed, and instead to see a preservation of what make this corridor apart and a reminder of its potential alternative uses, it quickly appeared that the city had negociated the removal of all things related to the railway. That is certainly one of the safest mean to kill any prospect of reactivation of this corridor as a future rail transit corridor (1), it is also a a first blunt to the soul of the place.
Destroying the feel of the place
Many disused urban railway corridors exhale a specific atmosphere found nowhere else in a city, which people growth to appreciate and like it. It was also the case for the Arbutus corridor, something Patrick Condon has worded as “People have gotten quite used to the Arbutus Corridor as kind of a romantic landscape — the kind of unkempt quality of it. it’s level of decay has become something that people kind of like…” [4], what reflects pretty much the position of the current Paris city council, especially as expressed by Christophe Najdovski, the councilor in charge of transportation and public space of Paris, who want to preserve “the mystery and magic” of the Petite ceinture, a disused railway in Paris [6].
Beyond Paris, many other cities capitalize on the experiental side of their assets, that is the case for the Shell road trail in Richmond as stated by the city website:
“The Shell Road Trail is long interior trail that runs north/south along the Shell Road corridor from Alderbridge Way to Williams Road. This interior trail has a distinctly rural feel to it with tall trees and shrubs lining both sides of it, making it a unique trail experience in an urban City Centre.”
The Richmond Shell road trail, and the Colombes “voie verte” (greenway) illustrated below:
The Vancouver official development plan for Arbutus was also not far of this vision, since it was designating it as a greenways, including without limitation [2]:
- (i) pedestrian paths, including without limitation urban walks, environmental demonstration
trails, heritage walks and nature trails; and - (ii) cyclist paths.
The challenge for the designer of such places is to preserve their specificities and feels, while making them accessible to people of all ages and abilities… In the name of the later, Vancouver has simply destroyed the former:
A 4 meter wide bike path under construction? – credit photo [5]
Under public outrage, the city has potentially recognized the insentivity of its position and halted work…temporarily…
Does other solutions were possible?
Yes and it is not even too late to apply them, but what is almost sure is that the corridor has already lost its cachet: whatever final design will be – and it could be a nice one – it is poised to be more bland and artificial since it will be build of a blank state. The soul of the place is lost and, and it is not something designers are armed to restore. The end result is that the whole city will be poorer in diveristy of experience
The main issue now is the treatment of the surface path: it is the object of another post
[1] It is one of the reason why Paris took the complete opposite step for the Petite Ceinture, as we have seen in a previous post
[2] Arbutus Corridor Official Development Plan (Adopted by By-law No. 8249, July 25, 2000), city of Vancouver
[3] The destruction of the greenway is documented on the Stephen Rees blog, here and there
[4] Arbutus’ asphalt greenway not paved with good intentions, critics say, Matt Robinson, VancouverSUn, August 3 2016, Vancouver
[5] City paves way for Arbutus Greenway, Naoibh O’Connor, Vancourier, August 2, 2016, Vancouver
[6] Petite ceinture : faire le tour de Paris à vélo et autres fantasmes, rue89, September 25th, 2013
The VAG North Plaza Redesign
October 9, 2013
A brief historical context is available here
The war on buses is continuing.
The City of Vancouver is losing no occasion to attack the downtown bus system:
the North Plaza site analysis as presented in the open house material
Even when a design doesn’t need to threat transit, City of Vancouver can’t refrain to do so:
The site analysis, while showing permanent bus stops on Burrard, and temporary ones on Howe, fails to show a single bus stop on either Robson or Granville. Also surprising is the lack of mention of any major transit corridors in the vicinity (Granville is not considered as such!).
That could be due more to ignorance of the site and unfamiliarity of the bus network by the design team, than malevolent intentions. Nevertheless, the result is still a deceptive material, raising questions on the openness and good faith of the city of Vancouver in regard of the Down Town bus service review.
(why go thru the exercise, when it is all decided as eventually suggested on the left?)
Passing the above provocation, which eventually left little ambiguities on the city intentions if it was any doubts left after the disastrous “block 51 consultation” in fall 2012 [1], let’s have a look at the proposed designs
Since the VAG is poised to move to Larwill park (Cambie#Georgia), in a relatively near future, the purpose of the exercise is a bit futile, but as the underground vault below the square is leaking: work on the plaza needs to happen as soon as possible. That somewhat can explain the relatively low profile adopted (e.g. no design competition) for one of the most important place in Vancouver, which, potentially temporary, facelift is budgeted at $3 millions. 3 options are presented to the public:
A Plalo Ring, transforming the square as a night club at night? May be for a “Nuit blanche” event, but permanently?
The focal point of the square is obviously the Rattenbury building, and any design should be driven at making the best of this heritage building. This Plalo ring, not only ignoring the Rattenbury building, but also diminishing it, is probably out of place on the North Plaza. One could also infer, it could create some problem for some events. (lighting issue, and sound reverberation).
The fact that it is considered by the design team, and is a favorite with the public [2] is eventually one reason of despair of the Vancouver cultural and urban scene:
Someday, they will propose to demolish the Rattenbury building to increase the size of the north Plaza![4]
Some “edge” on the side of the square?
The goal of it is unclear: bring some intimacy to the square?… square being surrounded by traffic sewages on 3 of its sides, that looks:
- A loosing battle
- and an unnecessary one, since the spaces north of Robson street fulfill this need
All those “edges” seriously limit the versatility of the place, think the Vancouver Sun Run:
- The Georgia side
The fountain along Georgia, seems more inspired by the current “centennial fountain” than anything else. As much as the current fountain, it creates a psychological barrier to the Rattenbury building access. It is worth to note, that a fountain used to sit along Georgia (and is now along Hornby: it is also surprisingly missing of the site inventory). Why not restore the historic fountain in its original location?
- The Howe side
The site inventory notice a bus stop at the foot of Howe street, so this design turns its back on Howe, and erect a “wall” there, preventing the transit users to be part of the square life…enough is said!
the water mirror – for bottom photos, credit (3)
May be the rendering is not making justice to the design, which in some sort is reverberating an early Erickson concept for the square: it doesn’t seem to encouter a great public adhesion [2], but it is by far the best option among the proposed ones:
- It is the most able to address the formalism and ceremonial aspect of the square
- while offering a versatility of use, and still not offering an empty place
That is the purpose of such a mirror in Bordeaux, and more recently Place de la Republique, Paris, a huge “demonstrating” square, as we have seen before, that said:
- Does the water mirror, need to cover all the square?
probably not, since it hinders other spontaneous activities
- Does the water mirror, is a necessary feature on the North Plaza?
may be, may be not: the square is somewhat small, and a proper surface treatment and other urban furnishings, can be enough, to both compliment the building, and enlivening the square.
Place de la Republique, Paris: a skateboard ledge? a speaker corner? a mattress? Basic, moveable furnishing, can gather many spontaenous uses, enlivening the square at low cost.
And The red carpet
All presented proposals seem to be relatively weak, focusing more at addressing the need of a 3 days Jazz festival, rather than addressing the place itself. As such they are relatively uninspiring, especially when compared to the “red carpet” as presented by Hapa collaborative, at the “Where’s the square?”, VPSN design competition.
Vancouver Red Carpet – Hapa Collaborative – entry of the 2009 VSPN Where’s the Square Competition
The surface treatment
All design are based on “Hard landscaping” landscaping because it is “more durable and long lasting”: If Granville mall, where the city believes an outstanding job has been done, is an indication, one should not hold his breath on it. Since, the setting could be temporary, the city could be well inspired to use a compacted fine gravel surface, which has the merit to be much cheaper than a good quality hard surface, and easy to recycle, whenever a new arrangement of the square is required by a different use of the Rattenbury building.
Like many square in France, Place Bellecour, Lyon, has a compacted surface, able to accomodate a great range of venue.
And why not also keep the space as a blank page?… pretty much like Place Bellecour in Lyon, France, which Viva, or other group could program (instead of organizing a blockade on bus routes), and revisit our options when we will have more clarity on the future use of the Rattenbury building?
[1] see “block 51” public consultation, which has left a sour taste with many observers, as we have already noticed here and there. In despite of all evidences, VPSN, a group advocating for aggressive pedestrianism and co-organizeer of the block 51 consultation, unsurprinsingly and sadly, still believe it was a good consultation.
[2] According to a poll by Vancity buzz (3 stunning design revealed for new Vancouver art Gallery North Plaza, Kenneth Chan, VancityBuzz, Oct 1st, 2013), 65& of its polled prefer the “plalo Ring”, while 20% prefer the “wet” concept, with 8% liking the “active edge” one.
[3] flickr user hisgett
[4] This is paraphrasing Victor Hugo, whose famously said, “somedays, they will destroy the cathedral Notre Dame, to increase its parvis”, about the Haussmann work in Paris
That is from their May 7th, 2013 issue, which is rich of Transportation perspective,…,
and eventually illustrates the dichotomy of thought on it between the Western world and Asia
Jaywalking is responsible of the Beijing traffic woes
As you could know, Beijing is facing massive traffic issues, and here like too often in North America before, it is considered that the pedestrians are the problem. Enforcing the jaywalking laws is not an easy matter but it is deemed necessary by chinese,…this to be a “world class” country… at par with the USA…
In Vancouver, Councillor Heather Deal, whose devoted great amount of VPD time and taxpayer money to enforce the local jaywalking laws, couldn’t agree more [5].
In the Meantime, it is worth to note that in the not so “world class” countries such UK or France, jaywalking is legal as in many other European countries, and still it is generally safer to be a pedestrian there than in Vancouver and more generally in North America.
Cycling in Hong Kong raises a safety issue
The edition contains not less than 2 articles related to cycling in Hong Kong: “Cyclist see open roads up ahead”, and “Cyclists face uphill ride on buses, MTR”.
Cycling is pretty much foreign to Hong Kongers: the fact that the Chairman of the Hong Kong Cycling alliance, Martin Turner, is a British raised individual is tale telling…And when cycling is considered it is mostly for recreational purpose, could lament Martin. Nevertheless, anecdotal evidences seem to show that cycling is on the rise in Hong Kong, like anywhere else, but it seems to be little appetite to quantify that:
Cycling seems on the rise in Hong Kong, and it becomes increasingly difficult to find a free spot to park your bike, before boarding the Transit system – notice Police can seize bike tied to the handrail – Credit Photo (4)
Statistics show that bike accidents are on the rise too. Helmet laws and bike licensing, are called by some quarters, to reverse this worrisome trend!
Turner has another opinion, and is lobbying for bike rack on bus, like in San Francisco, or Vancouver,…a North American specificity not seen Europe. This promise to be a tough sell, but there is lot of things to do to improve cycling in Hong Kong beside that:
Hong Kong bike lane (Along Ting Kok Rd, Kong Kong NT): More often that not, Hong Kong's cyclists are expected to walk their bikes to the Bike path... and dismount at intersections...what by the way is usually not respected! -credit photo left (4), right, Google
Light Rail or Monorail in Kong Kong
The debate concerns the redevelopment of the former Hong Kong’s airport: Kai Tak, which still look pretty much like below:
View on Kai Tak, the Former Hong Kong Airport.
The Civil Engineering and Development Department (CEDD) of Hong Kong has a grand vision for the site, which seems reminiscent of Le Corbusier’s cite radieuse, including a “people mover” under the form of a monorail [1]:
Proposed Monorail for Kai Tak new district
Veolia operating The Hong Kong Trams, is making the case for a tramway. Many readers of the South China Morning Post support this idea. Norman Y. S. Heung, project manager at the CEDD Office, explains it is “Practically impossible to accommodate tram system at Kai Tak”, because taking too much road space (sic)…Worth to note that most of the area is not even built yet!
Many other arguments are advanced in favour of the Monorail, which is also presented as a tourist attraction… but at the end the quality of the urban environment is not one of them. It is also explained that the “walking environment will be improved by provision of footbridges and [underpasses]” (sic).
So Does the Kai Tak’s monorail will look like the Chongqing one , or does Hong Kongers will push for a different street experience, may be on the model of the Kunming’s Zhengyi Rd?
Left, Chongqing (China): An avenue with a Monorail (opened in 2011) - Right, Kunming (China): Zhengyi Rd offers a Bld experience, which at par with the ones more traditionally founded in Europe - credit photo left (3), right, (4)
[1] See the video and other information at Hong Kong CEDD
[2] Old Cat
[4] VivenDesign
[5] Vancouver launches campaign to educate ‘fragile’ pedestrians, Jeff Lee, Vancouver Sun, February 07, 2012.
Infra-urbanity
December 18, 2012
Michael Green has submitted an unsolicited proposal for a multi venue art gallery [1].
(Thought he mentions that he “would like to re-open this discussion”, the comment section of his site is closed)
- I don’t think too much of the multi venue idea (also proposed by Bob Rennie [3]); which if considered, should be region-wise, and not Vancouver centric, to bring culture to people, rather than expect people to travel to the most improbable locations to see a tiny part of what the VAG has to offer.
- I guess the idea to build, even underground, something in Stanley park, is just plain provocative, in a try to generate some media attention: Stanley park should be a nature sanctuary.
That said, a good idea emerges: the use of a bridge for something else than transportation.
Michael green is envisioning an art gallery under the Granville bridge
The idea beyond the infra-urbanity neologism
Vancouver, is a city of bridges. One has always to cross a bridge to move around and bridges are part of the Vancouver DNA. but so far bridges have been seen only as infrastructure -we like to routinely replace- designed as pure links, like freeways, with no urban contribution whatsoever. That is, the bridge is not considered as a place of exchange or life in itself. Thought some efforts have been suggested to improve the bridge experience, they should be considered as a starting point [2]:
The Granville bridge green way proposal by City of Vancouver is an improvement on the existing layout, but as proposed, it could deprive the pedestrians of one of the Main bridge asset: the vistas on False creek
With Granville bridge, we have an opportunity, to change that, be with an art gallery or something else, in its truss, encouraging strolling on the bridge, and taking advantage of it (rain shelter) to bring the city one step forward. In that sense the Michael Green contribution, bringing the old idea of “living bridge” into the debate is welcome.
[1] A fresh vision for the old art gallery, Marsha Lederman, Globe and Mail, Dec 14, 2012
[2] see Price tags
[3] Rennie releases proposal for multi-venue art gallery system, Marsha Lederman, Globe and Mail, Dec 12, 2012
Sydney: BRT tunnel and trams
December 17, 2012
Sydney is confronted to bus congestion in its Core Business District (CBD):
6,000 bus enter into the Sydney CBD per day, 1000 during the peak hour. Too many bus routes lead to a poorly legible network
Beside a poorly legible network (Sydney has 850 bus routes) [7], the great number of bus routes is also a source of inefficiency : thought that the offering bus-seat capacity could be great, the practical one could be much less on a given corridor (over-supply on some bus routes is not compensating under supply on others)
The European solution
It is a problem many European cities are facing, and in Europe, it is in general the impetuous to switch to LRT – the rational is simple:
- A modern Tram replaces 5 buses
- Associated network consolidation allows a better adjustment of the offer to the demand, as well as a better legibility of it
- A Tram, being electric powered, generate less noise, and pollution
Hence trams improves the livability of the city. Generally, European modern trams are not justified by speed or urban development opportunities, which are very limited in mature cities but mainly by ridership. They operates on trunk lines fed by bus routes:
- Passengers have to transfer
The fact that the transfer from bus to tram, is not compensated by a time gain (like it could be from bus to subway) is one of the main drawback of such an approach. Providing a superior service and experience is a way to compensate for the disagreement. The European solution in Sydney’s CBD could be the vision proposed by Gehl Architects [2]:
Pedestrian George Street with LRT, in a typically European arrangement – credit picture (2)
The Australian approach
Australia is land of the finest BRTs. Tunnel a BRT is a solution, natural enough in Sydney, to be considered, in despite of its price tag; $2 Billions, for a ~2 km tunnel. The rational is simple:
- A BRT can avoid a transfer
The debate
BRT vs LRT, the context of the debate - Left: Bus volumes entering the Sydney City Centre during the two hour morning peak - Right: proposed BRT and LRT alignment and cost. The full LRT is 12 km long with implementation cost estimated at $1.6B
You could expect the government agencies, ministries and other actors to debate on facts, and not on opinions to lobby one system over another:
reading the different reports [3][4][5] will prove you wrong.
Below is how the debate has occurred between two New South Wales (NSW) government outlets, Transport NSW, favoring the LRT, and Infrastructure NSW (InNSW), an “independent agency”, supposed to not base recommendation on politic allegiance, favoring the BRT:
InNSW estimates the current demand at 9000 pphpd in the corridor [5]. The different system are assumed as below by the different actors:
| System | InNSW [5] | Transport NSW [3] | Certu [6] |
| BRT Capacity | 20,000 | 3,500 | |
| LRT Capacity [9] | 9,000 | 12,000 | 6,000 |
| LRT Frequency | 2mn | 2mn | 3mn |
The numbers provided by Certu (a French agency), are for reference. They are considering optimal surface operation conditions (signal preemption possible, perfect interval maintained) signaling the typical area of relevance for a given technology. Thought the numbers advanced by the Australian authorities are theoretically possible, they most probably supposes a compromise on the level of service:
High capacity BRT, like the one pictured in Brisbane come at a cost – credit photo (1)
The InNSW report contains lot of fear mongering on LRTs, but what is noticeable in the case of the both approaches, is that none quantifies travel time, neither expected operating cost, not even speaking of a cost/benefit ratio.
More importantly, beside removing bus of the surface, the BRT tunnel tries to address a problem different from the LRT: the former addresses regional access-and so doing tend to largely duplicate an existing rail corridor- while the later addresses the more local access into the CBD. One will find some more detail, especially question about the BRT approach in [8]
The urban approach: George Street
As suggested before, the tram choice over a tunnel BRT is not only a transportation choice, it is an urbanistic one too: George street is a 2.5km long street, it is the major Sydney spine. Jan Gehl compares its potential to the one mile long Barcelona’s las Ramblas [2]:
- Both are bounded, by the sea on one side, and by a major commuter railway station on the other
- Both are of similar with, 22 to 30m for George street
The Cost of the different approaches for George street:
| BRT Tunnel [5] | Surface LRT [3] |
| $2B | $500M |
InNSW suggested that George street -20 to 30m width- is not wide enough to accommodate both a tram and pedestrians, and explains that segregation of transport and pedestrian activities, or aggressive pedestrianization, is a better objective [5] (There is very few street of this wide successfully fully pedestrianized [10]). the Bus BRT is considered as a rapid transit with 2 underground stations [5].
George Street cross-section – as proposed by Gehl architects – credit (2)
Jan Gehl touted the concept of overlap use, with trams sharing the urban space with pedestrians, supporting thriving activities on the rather wide George street, and the neighboring alleys and lanes. In fact Transport for NSW states in [3]:
International experience indicates that the pedestrianization of George street without activation by light rail could reduce safety and accessibility, leading to a decline in retail activity.
The surface tram option is envisioned with a stop every 350m, so the tram is considered as a people mover. Evolving in a shared space, its average speed will not be much better than 10km/h on George street – Rest of the alignment is in a more “suburban” environment, so average speed outside the CBD should be more competitive with existing option
Some questions
At the end the LRT has been chosen over the BRT. Nevertheless, considering the expected passenger volume, one could still question this choice:
Shared spaces work well when traffic is light :
- Crossing the street is unimpeded by traffic (that is one advantage of fewer trains over more buses)
In the George street case, the demand suggests a train every mn, so starting to create a “wall” of trains:
Too heavy LRT traffic can compromise the “sharing space” concept
But what could be of more concern, is that the system could be under-sized. The considered 9,000 pphpd requirement suggests that the debate should not have been a BRT versus trams one, but eventually trams versus a heavier rail mode, including a grade separated LRT – that is the Ottawa direction – or extension of the Sydney Cityrail (a S-bahn or RER equivalent). The later is fortunately on the menu [7], and hopefully will go in a direction to reduce the pressure on the tram.
Lessons for Vancouver.
Th Sydney LRT choice has generated some interest in Vancouver here and there : The Sydney choice is done to address problems very different of the ones faced either by Vancouver or Surrey. Still, the underlying motivation, for the heavy transit investment, is mainly to address existing demand. It also shows you are better to understand what objective you are trying to pursue, before embarking into a technology debate, which can lead on exaggerated and misleading claims.
If there is one lesson to be directly learned for Vancouver, it is the idea that [3]:
separating pedestrians and transport is contrary to good planning practice and international experience, which shows transport and pedestrians should be integrated to support thriving cities
Transit at Sydney Town Hall
Integrating transit into pedestrian oriented streets, is also the only way to have an extensive and still successful pedestrian friendly street network. In other word, let transit work, is the first and probably most important step toward bold pedestrianization scheme: An important lesson we could learn more especially fromWellington, NZ.
All $ figure in Asutralian $
[1] flickr user SHOROC
[2] George street Urban design study, Gehl Architects for City of Sydney, January 2012
[3] Sydney Light rail’s future, Transport for NSW, December 2012
[4] Metro Transport Sydney’s position on LRT
[5] First things first, Infra NSW, October 2012.
[6] Tramway et Bus à Haut Niveau de Service (BHNS) en France : domaines de pertinence en zone urbaine from Transport/Environnement/Circulation (TEC) n° 203, September 209.
[7] Transportation Master Plan, Transport for NSW, December 2012
[8] transportsydney.wordpress.com blog.
[9] That is considering a 45m long train. Fine grained Sydney downtown grid doesn’t allow for much longer trains on George street without hindering access to lateral streets
[10] New York City’s Broadway at ~80 feet wide is one example, but the pedestrianized block around Times Square see a traffic of 350,000 pedestrians/day – a uncommonly high volume.
Pedestrian vs Transit: The Wellington’s Golden Mile case
December 1, 2012
Normally, the both, complementing each others, work in harmony, but it happens that an aggressive pedestrianism agenda can conflict with Transit geometry
The Wellington’s Golden Mile case
The Wellington Golden Mile is an area of Down town Wellington, New Zealand, including noticeably Manners Mall, an historically important Transit spine:
Manners Mall/ Cuba Street circa 1920
a busy transit corridor, lot of retail, lot of people – credit photo (1)
Aggressive pedestrianism: the Kiwi version
Manners Mall, strategically located, full of shopping opportunities and pedestrians, made an ideal target for pedestrianization, what has been done toward the end of the 70’s. That was allowed by rerouting Transit on adjacent streets:
The pedestrian Manners Mall was just a small segment, putting buses on a 'slight detour' - credit photo (9)
They put a bus lane through my heart
In 2008, the Wellington city council came with the project to reintroduce buses on the pedestrian mall:
Reintroducing buses in the once pedestrian Mall, make the bus network much simpler
The reasons for this project were to end the Transit issues caused by the rerouting (involved by the Pedestrian Mall) [2]:
- poor journey time reliability
- indirect routings
- poor legibility
Needless, to say, the project has encountered fierce opposition: the arguments are known:
- What the heck such a few meter of pedestrianized road make a problem?
- There is plenty of road where the bus can goes: Why absolutely there?
- Give me a break: It is only a 5mn walk to the bus!
- …
An example of argumentation:
examples of discussions surrounding the pedestrian/transit trade off in Wellington’s Golden Mile (click on pictures for better readability)
In despite of the local Green Party support for the plan, citizen feedbacks were overwhelmy negative: 74% opposed to the re-opening of the pedestrian Mall to buses during the first public consultation [8], a sizable facebook group was constituted, and even a song has been written in defense of the pedestrian mall [3]:
Alas for the pedestrian Mall, it is a case of Transit geometry. If one want to reduce auto reliance and have more pedestrians on the street; attractive transit is key, and good transit geometry is paramount. The Wellington people understood those reasons and the proposal was implemented in time for the 2011 Wolrd Rugby Cup.
Today The buses are flowing down on the once pedestrian only mall. Pedestrians are also the winner of this new configuration: A more direct bus route, open more pedestrianization possibilities, while still keeping pedestrian area accessible by transit, and here it was eventually an argument able to sell the project:
The buses returning on Manners mall, allow more pedestrian oriented streets than before
The new configuration, not only make sense from a transit perspective, but it also makes sense of a pedestrian perspective, by joining 2 pedestrian areas (that is via Cuba street), now irrigated; and not circumvoluted; by transit
That is in accord to the usually successful pedestrian philosophy at play in Europe, which is not to make life more complicate for transit, but to improve the city livability by discourage automobile use (see also [4])
Transit geometry
AFAIK, transit geometry is a term coined by Jarret Walker, to recover some different transit concepts, which are concretely exposed on a real life example in part 2 from the circling the square series, by Peter Marriott, on the Pricetags blog. The transit geometry concept boils down to mirror the desire lines one (concept often associated to Gaston Bachelard [6])[10]
Aggressive pedestrianism
Thought successful pedestrian areas are more often than not the result of a comprehensive transportation plan, addressing well identified problem, as seen in Europe [4], but also, more recently in New York [7], aggressive pedestrianism is a philosophy at 180 degree of it:
- A Vancouver example
A Bob Ransford’s post nearly perfectly syncretizes the aggressive pedestrianism philosophy. It illustrates why transit arteries – the path of least disturbance for motorists- are the main targets of the aggressive pedestrianism movement, which unfortunately is still getting lot of traction in Vancouver:
Great article Bob! RT @BobRansford debate over closing a 100 meters of Robson Street has ignored perspective. tinyurl.com/d8vnorv
—
VPSN (@vpsn) November 29, 2012For the out of town reader (and apparently the not so out of town too), What is at stake in the case raised in the Bob Ransford’s post is not 100 meters of road, but the fact that this 100m are on an important transit spine of the Vancouver network, with no obvious rerouting alternative [5].
[2] Central Area Bus Operational Review, Final report, Opus consultant, Wellington NZ, November 2009
[3] “Manners Mall Emo Song”, Robbie Ellis, 2009
[4] Transit as part of the urban fabric
[5] see block 51: oct 15 and 17th events, a summary, and Peter Marriott’s Circling the square series
[6] La poetique de l’espace, Gaston Bachelard, 1958, Paris
[7] see NYC DOT press release Release # 06-56, October 12, 2006; See World Class Streets: Remaking New York City’s Public Realm, New York City DOT, 2008
[8] Restoring the Golden Mile :Summary of Consultation, Wellington NZ, 2008.
[9] www.aktnz.co.nz
[10] “mirror” because geometry is a rational term whereas “desire” is apriori not. In the case of Manners Mall, the sunny side of Manners mall has sidewalk 20% wider than the shaded side mirroring the pedestrian “line of desire” – Pedestrians, as transit users could prefer journeying thru vibrant street than others for reasons expressed in [4] (which could have to do with some anthropological gregarious trait of humanity among other reason)…
Block 51 Oct 15 and 17th events: a summary
November 5, 2012
On October 15th and October 17, It was a so called “public consultation” on the block 51 respectively titled “a look back” and “a look forward”. If you were not made aware timely by social media like twitter, there is little chance you could have attended it, since it was quickly sold-out (sic).
The Panel of the first evening was a discussion involving Bing Thom, Alan Bell, Nick Milkovich – three members of Arthur Erickson Architects at the time of building the courthouse complex, reflecting on the 1973 design [7]. In the second event a short 6mn lecture by different speaker was given. The historian John Atkin gave an historical account of the north plaza [5]. Lon Laclair from city of Vancouver was here to talk of how great the Olympic experience was. Jenniffer Sheel and Krisztina Kassay from Viva Vancouver, the brains behind the Robson square programming, gave an overview of what has been done on the square. They didn’t explain why the programming need to be exactly in the middle of Robson street to be successful-and not let say on Bute at Robson [6], but were apparently wanting to make the point that according to them, “people don’t want traffic at all here”. Heather Forbes from VPSN explained that an overwhelming majority of entries to their “Where’s the Square?” design competition selected Block 51 as the heart of Vancouver, omitting to mention that the people choice was the North plaza, but noticing that solutions can be found for other user/need, like transit.
Lausanne, la Sallaz, in Switzerland: Square programming is popular in Europe. Usually it concerns non 'self-sufficient' space, or temporary underused space, like this one (left picture): the programming is poised to give place to buses, in a new arrangement of the square called 'espace rencontre' (meeting place) where buses mingle with the pedestrians (right) - credit photo left (1)
Her speech was followed by Matthew Blackett from Spacing Magazine, who, probably not briefed enough on the agenda concerning transit, incidentally presented those “solutions” starting with London’s Exhibition road:
People waiting the bus 360 on the renovated London’s Exhibition road by Gehl Architects.
He followed up with Pioneer square in Portland, Oregon:
Pioneer square in Portland is well served by Transit (2)
and ending with its preferred, Ban Jelačić square in Zagreb (Croatia):
Ban Jelačić square in Zagreb, where the transit go right into the middle of it, is the “best” square according to Matthew
Since Matthew Blackett is from Toronto, he couldn’t have mentioned Yonge and Dundas square. He doesn’t like the electronic billboard, which are “cheapening the place” in his word, but it his hard to deny it has been a successful place since its opening in 2002:
Toronto’s Yonge and Dundas square has been a resounding success since its opening in 2002 – credit (4)
You will have certainly noticed that all the great places presented by Matthew have a transit component, and it is probably not accident to the success of those places. The bus along Exhibition road was rerouted on a very nearby street (Queen’s gate) during its construction, but once completed, the bus came back, certainly for good reason!
The talk session of the evening, was closed by the Pop Rocks designers Matthew Soules and Joe Dahmen presenting how they have designed their huge pillow from recycled roof material of Canada Place [3]. They proposed some interesting design guideline fro Robson Square, summed up in the below artist’s rendering:
A rendering of Robson square integrating Matt Soules design idea:, flat surface; playful pavment; interactive street furniture, example of Rotterdam’s Schouwburgplein hydraulic lamppost was given – credit (13)
The last hour or so of the evenings was a co design workshop, driven by Stanley King’s team co-design [14].
Comment
Speakers were certainly interesting, but beside the fact the public was not provided opportunities to interact with them, the whole session was missing key points to a public consultation:
What is the problem?
No proper diagnostic of the Block 51 has been done:
- No metric has been provided on the amount of traffic: how many pedestrian, how many bus rider…: does there is a space allocation problem there? [8]
- No geometry analysis of the space has been provided
- No analysis of what is working and what is not has been done
- No context analysis has been provided
When come public space, the audience was seeming to think of a one size fit all [12], what is not necessarily true, and it seems that a wealth of diverging opinion has been expressed. Using the Olympic celebration to explain how the place can be is like using your last family gathering to explain how your dining room can work routinely. It is irrelevant. Spatial Geometry of space is important; A failed party in the large living room, can be transformed in a success in the tiny kitchen [9]; and that supposes to have some known metric.
It seems to have been an non spelled rule; worship of Erickson work is mandatory; preventing any honest and franck diagnostic of the robson Square deficiencies.
The site has been presented on a North-South spine. That was effectively the original Erickson idea. But nowadays, Robson square is dominated by an East-West flow. No discussion on the future of the VAG was opened: The organizers seem to think that a place-making can be done independently of its context, what seems perfectly silly.
What are the solutions?
Since, in fact no problem was identified, the whole function of the consultation was to find a reason for the only proposed solution: “full closure of Robson square to all traffic“. That was the apparent purpose of the co-design exercise.
What are the potential impact of the proposed solution?
No evaluation was provided at all
- Transit?
Apparently, the organizers didn’t find useful to invite Translink to the consultation table. Transit is considered as a second thought, not to be integrated in the urban thinking of the place, what is a striking departure of successful placemaking. Transit has several implications, among them:
- Operating cost of the re-routed line
- impact on handydart if people can’t use regular transit
- impact on the ridership at large, due to lack of clarity, speed, good network connection, involved by transit change
- impact on pedestrian safety: transit riders are pedestrians, and have them boarding/alighting in safe spot is important (today bus 5 is rerouted thru Burrard, one of the most pedestrian accident prone arteries of Downtown)
They are not the only reason Transit is important
- Street vibrancy
In Vancouver, vibrant streets, with flourishing retail businesses, are more often that not correlated to transit rich corridors. Transit has certainly been a causation effect in the past. could it be still true?- The example of the struggling Cambie village area after loosing good transit access and visibility need to be compared to the recently flourishing areas next to the Yaletown station
Could it be different with Robson? Why?
There is also the problem of the Robson street segments between Burrard and Hornby and between Howe, Granville and Seymour. Traffic closure between Howe and Hornby, involves a drastic motor traffic reduction on those segments, while a successful Robson square involves an increased pedestrian traffic. We could have one without the other making those segments unappealing as it is the case now – but one could fairly assume it is also due to building construction/renovation. That said, it is hard to see how a space reallocation on Robson square can’t involve one on those segments, and then come the subsidiary question: Will it be enough pedestrian to make this stretch of Robson of success? [10].
…
The displayed lack of sophistication in the discussion surrounding the pedestrianization of Robson square is for the least, curious [11]:
- It eventually helps us to understand why pedestrian squares are largely a failure in Vancouver, and more generally in North America.
- It helps also to understand the lack of forthcoming of some other spaces, like Georgia#Granville: A very busy corner since the advent of the Canada line, one which could tend to replace Robson square for some functions, like demonstration, but more importantly, people meeting. The subway station entrance hindering considerably the space when it doesn’t need to do witness this lack of forthcoming. Similar observations could be done at Yaletown, where the subway entrance is turning its back to the square
Georgia#Granville tends to replace Robson square as the natural meeting place in Vancouver.
What is wrong with this idea of Robson square? answer has not been provided – credit photo City Of Vancouver
[1] 20mn romandie, July 6th, 2012
[3] see ‘Pop Rocks: Soft Urban Boulder Field’ Installation / Matthew Soules Architecture + AFJD Studio
[5] The post Block 51: North Plaza capture most of the presentation
[6] That is a spot identified by the Vancouver’s transport 2040 plan
[7] The post Vancouver courthouse Blocks 51-61-71: The Final Erickson proposal fueled by insight of the conversation, capture part of it
[8] Normally any reallocation of space is preceded by a careful study of traffic, pedestrian, transit riders, and vehicles. Of course, that was the case for London’s Exhibition road, On the section illustrated in this article, there are ~4000pedestrian/hr vs 550car/hr at peak hour (Exhibition Road Monitoring, August 2012). What are the number for Robson square?
[9] Verbatim of Jan Gehl, Livable Cities lecture, Richmond city Hall, Jan 27, 2011.
[10] Robson street is 80′ wide. There is virtually no example of pedestrian only street in Europe with such width. New York Broadway Avenue, at ~80′ wide, could be the closest, but the pedestrianized block around Times Square see a traffic of 350,000 pedestrians/day
[11] for matters of comparison, one can refer to the Paris’s place de la République renovation involving space reallocation in favor of pedestrian. the project is €17millions, what is relatively benign in the Paris city budget of €8billions. Nevertheless, the public consultation process is order of magnitude more elaborated that the one in place for Robson square. It includes the elaboration of shared diagnostic on many aspect of the space, walk tour,…
[12] For more idea about the different function of a public square, see Geography of Paris squares or plazas, oct 29th, 2012
[13] vivendesign.com
[14] The company site explains well the process. A 1973 movie, related to the block 51, was projected in the first evening, chairs for lovers, which introduced the “co design process”. co-design has also a blog
Block 51 : Where’s the Transit?
November 2, 2012
I am a member from Transport Action British Columbia, an organization which has already addressed its concerns about the streets closure impacts on transit users, and more generally on the blatant lack of consideration for surface transit by the current city-council [1].
Those concerns have also being raised by other organization as mentioned by Kathy Roczkowskyj on the Stephen’ress blog:
“The closure of Robson is inconvenient for all transit users but is a real burden for seniors and disabled individuals. A number of organizations (BC Coalition of Disabled People, West End Seniors Network, etc.) sent letters to the Mayor and Council opposing the closure but their concerns have not moved the Mayor. In fact, even though the closure is supposed to be “temporary”, it was extended into the fall by the Mayor even though there is nothing going on on that block now. I attended a forum on October 26th at Gordon Neighbourhood House where the vast majority of the participants opposed the closure due to the difficulties they now had going to doctor’s appointments, etc. City staff who were present could not explain why the closure was continuing through the fall except to say that the Mayor had ordered it. And the City staffer present who was in favour of the closure’s main reason for the permanent closure was that they had discovered that the architect’s original plan from the 1970s for that area included a pedestrian walkway. What kind of reason is that??”
Kathy is right, an original plan is not a good reason [6], and even less relevant when the reading of the original intend is not correct![5]
On October 15th and October 17, It was a so called “public consultation” on block 51 – that includes Robson square- which could have confirmed the Kathy feeling. Transport action BC, has expressed its concerns on it as below:
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October 31, 2012 To: Mayor Robertson and Vancouver City Council Re: Consultation on the permanent closure of Robson Street between Hornby and Howe Transport Action BC is concerned with the way the city has organized two “public consultations”, held on the evening of October 15th and 17th. Topics of these consultations included the permanent closure of Robson Street between Howe and Hornby, a proposal involving significant impacts on the transit network viability and attractiveness: Far to expose and address the different issues induced by such a proposal, the consultations focused only on the pedestrian experience of the space and largely ignored the impacts on the public transit network. Furthermore, we have been surprised that: * The public consultations were advertised as events titled “block 51”, a legal lot description name, which, could have been too esoteric to attract people beyond the already civically engaged circles. * We were asked to share personal information with a private corporation, Eventbrite, for the simple purpose of attending a public consultation * A public consultation was advertised as “sold-out”, but at the evening events, roughly two thirds of the seats were empty. * The public consultations appeared to be co-organized by an advocacy group, Vancouver Public Space network (VPSN), which has already a well-established and publicly known opinion on the use of Robson square. * They were no visible City of Vancouver staff available, with whom the public could have shared their concerns on the present and future use of the Robson square area. Though the October 15 and 17th events brought a valuable contribution to the vision of our public spaces, we take issue at having the city calling them “public consultations”, when we believe they were not. We urge you to revisit the public consultation process for the Robson square area: * with a format which can engage a large number of citizens, representative of the diversity of the city, and allow them to register their concerns; * and have this consultation organized by groups which are neither stakeholder, nor can be suspected of pre-conceived opinion on desired use of Robson square. We recommend that the public consultation should include information of how other cities have successfully dealt with the transit/pedestrian dilemma in the organization of their public realm. We also would like to point out that urban experience and accessibility are two keys and correlated elements of a vibrant city and one shouldn’t take precedence over the other. Beyond Robson square, we remark that the public demand for more pedestrian friendly streets coincides mainly with historic Vancouver transit routes and we suggest that the city should initiate a reflection on how both the transit and pedestrian experience can be improved in a public space which we ultimately need to share. Sincerely, Patrick Rault – VP Transport Action Britisch Columbia CC: Charles Gauthier – Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association; TransLink Board of Directors; Andrew Pask Vancouver Public Space Network |
Councillor Andrea Reimer was seeming so embarrassed by how rigged was the consultation, that she feels the need to assert that “it is not a done deal” [7],…ah!
“Consultation” on October 15th: Picture taken during the panel debate with Bing Thom. The public had no opportunity to ask questions, just quietly listen. If you have not been alerted by Twitter or other similar medium, soon enough, there is little chance you could have attended this “consultation” which was “sold-out” – credit photo City Of Vancouver
It is worth to stress here that Transport action BC has no formed opinion on the future of Robson square. Numerous of its members seem to support the concept of pedestrian priority squares and streets, as outlined in the Vancouver Transport 2040 plan; and this on a public realm much more extended than Robson square; pedestrian priority being not equal to pedestrian only. But, this organization believes that ad hoc rerouting of bus routes, leading to a dysfunctional Transit network, this, to apparently fit an ideological agenda, is not an acceptable way to move forward. A definitive decision on Robson square can’t be done without assurance that the transit issue can be addressed in a satisfactory manner:
As of today, it is not the case
Rerouting is an option, not the only one, and not necessarily the one offering the best compromise [2][3]
Possibly in a damage control operation, a released city survey, on November 1st, has this opening page:
 A Note on Transit and 800-block Robson Street The #5 Robson bus is an important transit route connecting the downtown and West End and people to key downtown destinations, such as transit hubs, the library, shopping and theatres. TransLink and the City recognize that an accessible, convenient, reliable and understandable transit route is what makes the # 5 Robson bus function well. The current re-routing for the #5 Robson bus is challenging for many and regardless of Council’s decision on creating a permanent public space on 800-block Robson Street, TransLink is currently planning an improved re-routing to the #5 Robson bus. TransLink will be conducting a service review of their entire downtown network that may help guide improved bus routes. TransLink will work in partnership with the City on both the service review and the short-term re-routing improvements for the #5 Robson bus. |
Beside noticing that the note’s author didn’t find relevant to include the VAG and the provincial Court House as Key downtown destination (sic), this note raises questions:
- If TransLink is currently planning an “improved” re-routing to the #5 Robson bus, what is so secret to this improvement it can’t be shared with the public?
- How Translink can plan an “improvment” without input of the public? …It could be a significant departure of their usual practice
Incidentally, it happens that Transport Action BC met with Translink representatives on October 4th in New Westminster. There, the question of “improved” bus route has been raised, and the then given Translink answer seems to contradict what the survey states and this for good reasons:
Translink will wait for the introduction of the Compass card to collect meaningful statistic on trip origin/destination, before considering route alignment change
No doubt that the city survey will find the public overwhelming supporting a very mysterious bus rerouting: here a typical question the public is asked (Answer choice is either A, B or C)
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Based on your answers from the previous questions about what you would like to be doing, tell us how you think 800-block Robson Street needs to function in the future? A. As a permanent public space: ii. A flexible pedestrian space offering several ways for people to interact and enjoy a plaza space
B. As a summertime public space: iii. An improved re-routing of #5 Robson bus during the summer
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…Such a survey is beyond ludicrous and certainly doesn’t worth the trouble.
Whatever one own preference for the future of Robson square, one should feel embarrassed by the adamant lack of openness and transparency offered by the current “consultation” process, which is clearly nothing less than a masquerade:
Gratuitous attack on the Vancouver Transit network- credit photo (4)
[1] In term of transit, the only legacy of the Robertson’s administration, so far, has been policies having as consequence to reduce transit lane efficiencies, when not outright barring buses to use them (Granville)
[2] Example of how European cities routinely deal with pedestrian and transit: Transit as part of the urban fabric
[3] Price tags is “celebrating” two very relevant examples, very relevant because showing Transit has been integrated in the project in a smart way leading eventually to great space without compromising accessibility: That is a very significant departure from the Vancouver approach… and can explain why project like it move with less angst there
[4] twitter user REALTOR Blair Smith
[5] See our historical series on it.
[6] “Finding a good reason” was the object of the consultation held on October 15th and 17th.
[7] Verbatim of Andrea Reimer intervention at the Block51 event, a look forward, October 17th, 2012
Geography of Paris squares or plazas
October 29, 2012
In a complex urban environment, each square will tend to be specialized toward a function rather another one: Square are not in competition but compliment each other. Hereafter is an essay on the geography of the Parisian squares:
Identifying
Le Louvre (Cour Napoleon)
This place is not a people place, it doesn’t mean to be. This square is the heart of the French DNA. a 1000 years mille-feuille of History in the making. The headquarter of the old regime, transformed into a monument to the culture, is supposed to represent what French are or at least think they are, and it does quite well:
Cour napoleon, where the Louvre’ s Pyramid sits – credit (11)
Representing
Place de l’Étoile
Like for the Louvre, this place is designed to have you overwhelmed by the “grandeur” of the State. The Arc de triomphe built by Napoleon is a monument crowning 500 year of planning of the Royal axis, originating from the Louvre. The hill where it sit on has been leveled, giving it a concave slope, enhancing the overwhelming presence of the Arc, sitting in the middle of a 240 meter diameter round place:
Place de l’Étoile is a very large traffic circle. Going to the middle is usually done thru underpass – credit (2)
Celebrating
Étoile-Concorde: Champs-Elysées
En route from The Louvre (old regime) to the Arc (new regime), it happens to be the Concorde, where the last french king, Louis the XVI has been guillotined. Where French celebrates is on The Champs-Elysées, between the Concorde and Étoile, a vast public space able to contain one million people, with huge plazas, Etoile and the Concorde providing very comfortable overflow, and entry/exit point.
The Champs-Elysées on New year Eve (here 2006) looking toward The Concorde – credit (5)
The size and topography of the Champs-Elysées help people to appreciate the size of the crowd. The celebration like above suppose to close the 10 lanes of traffic the avenue is normally supporting: A celebration on the Champs-Elysées means not “business as usual”.
Demonstrating
République-Bastille-Nation
Demonstrating is also part of the french DNA, and demonstrating supposes to walk, from one point to another:
Those points are usually République-Bastille-Nation, in that order!
Demonstration at Republique – credit (3)
Place de la République one of the largest Parisian square is 283x119m is well suited to accommodate large crowds. Beside it, it is not a necessarily inviting place. It is currently under renovation: respecting its history, its current use as a place to vent social message, while making it a more inviting space, especially outside demonstration time, was one of the challenge the contestant had to address. A water mirror, is part of the answer:
A water Mirror, as seen in Bordeaux, can “activate” large esplanade, while still leave it clear of encumbrance when needed – credit (1)
Programing
Place de l’Hôtel-de-Ville
It is a “people place” per design, and the PPS editors like it [7], but this 155x82meter square is not a self-sufficient one, where people will intuitively go. they will go there only knowing the square is hosting some events, usually sponsored by the City:
Paris- Hôtel-de-Ville is a place for programing; ice rink in winter, beach volley in summer, all sort of fair in between – credit (4)
Meditating
Place des Vosges
A plaza in word, a park in theory, this almost perfect square, is a hit with many urbanistas for good reasons.. like Rome’s Piazza Navona, reaching Place des Vosges requires journeying along minor, often hidden streets. Then away of the crowd and noise of the surrounding city, you find an intimate, secluded, and still comfortable place. The square dimension, 127×140 meters,as well as the building lining help it, contribute to it. It is surrounded by a street allowing a light amount of traffic contributing to a safety feeling at any time any season.
Paris Place des Vosges, the oldest suqare of the city is requiring some effort to be found
Place Dauphine dating of the same era work a bit differently- may be too small and carry an oppressive feeling. Place Vendôme, has been designed along the Place des Vosges model (same size), but again it is a colder place. In Paris, Palais Royal, offers almost a similar setting
Relaxing
Place George Pompidou
Better known as Place Beaubourg, or simply the Piazza, it has been created ex-nihilo by architect Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers and opened in 1977. In despite of its relatively novelty and use of modern architecture in a city full of heritage building, this square works very well at the difference of many other one created in the same period. Due to this, it makes it a very interesting case study:
It is facing a Modern art museum known as Beaubourg built at the same time by the same architects. Like Sienna’s Piazza del Campo, the 170x65m square has a slight declivity along its narrow edge, which allow people to appropriate the space like it was a beach: it is not uncommon to see people sitting on the pavement, facing the museum, which happen to have corridors and stairs on its outside facades, offering continuous movement of people to watch from the square.
Like Place des Vosges, this square is not obvious to find, and offers some respite, step away, of the capharnaum, the Halles can be:
Paris Place George Pompidou, is a successful square created ex nihilo
At the difference of Place Des Vosges, this square is fully pedestrian, and is surrounded by cafes and other shops.
Meeting
Fontaine des Innocents
Place Joachim du Bellay is a name very few locals know, but no Parisian ignores its fountain:
When they need to meet, Fontaine(fountain) des Innocents is the natural rendezvous.
It is easy to understand why: It is strategically located [10]
- It is at the cross road of the main Parisian arteries.
- Today, it sits midway between the Parisian subway hub (Châtelet ) and the Regional Express Rail network hub (Les Halles)
However, it is not directly on the way, rather on a “corner” of the intersection, so that the traffic doesn’t pass here. but, more important:
- the square’s size, 53x80m, is big enough to accommodate a substantiate activity making a good hangout, but small enough to be able to recognize a person in it (see the notion of social field of vision in [9])
- and the square design is perfectly appropriate:
Fontaine des Innocents IS the meeting point in Paris – credit (6)
This square is also surrounded by Cafes.
Concluding
Paris’s Place Stravinsky, a “secondary” but still lovely place – credit (11)
This geography is far to be exhaustive, Paris has many other squares, of various size, various features, some more interesting than other… what we have presented are what we see as the “staple” squares of Paris, and we can see some features emerging, noticeably regarding the size of the square:
- Different square size are needed in a big city, to accomodate the different function
- And still, the square where people feel comfortable to stay, will tend to be in the 120x120meter
This size could be not purely arbitrary, and could have to do with our field of vision- we tend to not recognize people beyond this distance and from smaller distance, we tend to be able to describe people facial characteristic – the ~100 meter range lie in between [9].
[1] flickr user hisgett
[2] flickr user ar56
[3] flickr user tofz4u
[4] flickr user babicka2
[5] Franck prevel via Le Monde
[7] PPS page: Paris’Hotel de Ville (City Hall)
[8] See for example: Squaring public space with human needs, Lisa Rochon, Globe and mail, Nov 25, 2011. Curiously enough Vancouver bloggers like Lewis n Villegas and Stephen Rees, will use this square to illustrate Vancouver specific problematic. For the record, architect Ricardo Boffil had a project to built a place inspired by Place des Vosges at Paris The Halles: Parisian didn’t like the idea, and their mayor, then Jacques Chirac, basically “chased” the architect…
[9] Cities for people, Jan Gehl, 2010
[10] Paris, les Halles :introduction to its anatomy
[11] vivendesign.com
Block 51: the North Plaza
October 26, 2012
This post is closing our historic errand series of the Blocks 51-61-71:
- The Provincial Court House or Block 51-61-71 History up to 1972
- The Provincial Court House or Block 51-61-71 History after 1972: The Erickson years
The north Plaza of Block 51 is the square sitting north of the VAG. Thought it is part of the block 51, and more generally of the Block 51/61/71 complex, this square has a life of its own.
After the opening of the second courthouse in 1912, This square will very quickly become the ceremonial Vancouver square. Its location along Georgia street, providing frontage to a preeminent and formal government institution, makes it almost a non brainer:
Mayor James Findlay welcomed the Duke and Duchess of Connaught to a civic reception at the newly-completed Vancouver Court House on 18 September
1912
The early days
- A first fountain, commissioned to sculptor Charles Marega in 1912, had been installed as a memorial to King Edward VII right along Georgia. It was initially equipped with bronze cups on chains, but these were quickly stolen and never replaced.
- On august 29, 1913, a flag pole has been erected in the middle of the square. It was said the tallest flag pole in Canada
The Vancouver Court House square
It was apparently a staple to be photographed on the front step of the courthouse,and the Vancouver archive are full of group picture [1]
1966: The Centennial fountain
respecting the formalism of the space, the city idea for the square in 1964 was as pictured below:
1964: City vision for the block 51 north plaza (4)
It happens that W.A.C Bennett had another agenda. He commissioned R. H. Savery (design) and Alex Von Svoboda (sculpture/mosaic) to design an “XXL” fountain, 72’x26′ and 16′ high:
The Savery/Svoboda fountain model, showing the original plan for the plaza
According to [5] quoting an official report: the “symbolic twin-pillar centrepiece” is “meant to represent mankind rising from the sea and depicts gods of Celtic mythology”.
The $250,000 fountain will be controversial right from the beginning, and will be called the secret Bennett Project[5], erected behind blind walls. W.A.C inaugurated it at night, during a rainstorm, after having inaugurated the Grouse tramway, on December 15th, 1966. The semi-private ceremony was perturbed by a so called act of vandalism: someone had poured detergent in the fountain, making huge bubble [4][5]
The old fountain has been put in storage up to 1983, when it has been reinstated along Hornby street.
Vancouver people have never been fond of this fountain [2] and we can give here a couple of keys why:
- The fountain looks over-sized, in respect of the square size, and more especially the old courthouse building
- Disregarding aesthetic taste, The chosen Artistic choice, doesn’t pair well with the Neo-classic building
To be sure, the Vancouver administration hasn’t made any effort to improve the fountain setting, and the fact that the today VAG is turning its back on Georgia doesn’t help the matter. More generally we can consider that all the intervention on the Rattenbury’s building after 66 (lobby on ground level, rooftop patio…) are unfortunate acts of vandalism
The Erickson proposal
The Erickson view for this square in 1966, was not much different of the one of the city:
1966 Erickson/Massey Proposal: The view along Howe Street looking south
In his 1973 proposal:
- It was envisioned as a largely hardsurfaced plaza — adapting itself readily to multiple uses according to [6], but model photography suggest nothing much more than a lawn
This part of the complex design has never been implemented, allowing the Centennial fountain to stay up to today [8].
2009: the VPSN competition
In 2009, the VPSN held a design idea competition, “Where’s the square?”, and one of the co-winner of the “people choice” was HAPA collaborative, with their entry, “red carpet”:
Vancouver Red Carpet – Hapa Collaborative – entry of the 2009 VSPN Where’s the Square Competition
We will find some remarkable analogy with the City Hall 1964 vision, and this HAPA proposal epitomizes quite effectively what is the Vancouver collective conscience and wish for this space. It also shows a remarkably solid consensus overtime on the idealized vision of this square.
2011 The Concert-hall by Bing Thom
On March 4, 2011, The Vancouver Concert Hall and Theatre Society proposed a Bing Thom plan for a 1,950-seat concert hall underneath the existing plaza fronting Georgia Street.
The 2011 Bing thom proposal for an underground concert hall – credit (3)
notice how this vision fits well with the HAPA proposal.
[1] Verbatim of John Atkin intervention at the Block 51 event, a look forward, VAG, Oct. 17, 2012
[2] That includes John Atkin, who even qualified it as too noisy![1]
[4] VancouverProvince, December 16th, 1966
[5] VancouverSun, December 16th, 1966
[6] heritage vancouver society newsletter, Volume 17 Number 1, June 2008
[7] Redevelopment in downtown Vancouver : report No 5, City of Vancouver, 1964.
[8] In fact the fountain is excluded of the Block 51 lease agreed between the City and the Province. That along original negotiation line dating back January 1974- (Vancouver City council mn, January 8, 1974)
The name "Voony" comes from the name of the author's family cat. The author is the guy in the picture. This blog revolves mainly around transportation and urban issues in the Vancouver area.
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