A Grand Public Square for Vancouver

A few weeks ago I talked about what to do with the Sears Building in downtown Vancouver, and one of my ideas was to tear it down and build a public square big enough to host large events such as concerts, parties, rallies, etc. It's something that Vancouver is definitely lacking. Cities of the world are often defined by their squares and plazas. Rome, for example, IS its piazza's. "Meet me at Piazza Navona", actually means something. Vancouver has lots of public space along its perimeter, looking out to the mountains and ocean, but there is no major inward-looking space nor is there really any square that everyone knows. "Meet me at Emily Barnes Park", means something only to the people in the Yaletown area. We all know English Bay, but it's a huge area - how often have you tried to describe to someone on the phone where you are on English Bay? Lawn or sand; north or south; maybe at the Starbucks on the corner (which may lead to "which one?"

Anyways... go figure that there was already a design competition underway to suggest solutions to this problem called Where's the Square? (http://vancouverpublicspace.ca/index.php?page=wts_splash) The contest gave no specific site, but asked teams to suggest a site and reason why that location was best. There were numerous entries with grand squares located on the waterfront in Coal Harbour/Gastown, but to me these only add to the outward-looking public space we already have. Just to be clear, I'm not saying that view is a bad thing - it's beautiful. The other large group of entries centered around Robson Square and the Sears Building, most of them incorporating a new/improved Vancouver Art Gallery suggesting that it is much better in its current location rather than the proposed move to Plaza of Nations. This is really the place I see with the most potential. It already has huge volumes of pedestrians who would love more space, it's located at the heart of downtown, and there is a sky train station soon to be right there.

I also liked the entry that proposed a new square at Granville and Pacific/Drake. It would be a great new square in an area that is soon to be redevelopped and would only improve the attractiveness of this currently "downtrodden" area.

So go check out the short-listed entries and vote for your favourite!
http://vancouverpublicspace.ca/index.php?page=wts_gallery

On a larger scale, it would be great to see large public squares pop up all over the city and region creating a network of great spaces.