City launches Block 51 survey: have your say on the future of Robson Square and the North Plaza
UPDATE: The original survey deadline has been extended by a few days. It now closes on November 12, 2012.
The City of Vancouver has just launched a survey to gather input on the future of Block 51 – the area bounded by Hornby, Georgia, Robson and Howe. The survey looks at the possible expansion of Robson Square (creating a pedestrian-only space on the segment between Hornby to Howe) as well as the future of the north plaza of the Art Gallery (also called Courthouse Plaza or Centennial Plaza).
We’d encourage you to take a few moments to fill out the questionnaire – and to send it along to your various contacts and networks.
You can access the on-line version here: http://fluidsurveys.com/s/Block51/
Here’s a few more notes from the City’s announcement:
Please take a moment to fill out the survey. Let us know how you would like to see 800-block Robson Street and the Vancouver Art Gallery North Plaza used in the future, and whether you support the permanent closure of 800-block Robson Street to create a pedestrian plaza.
Your feedback will be given to the designers of the Vancouver Art Gallery North Plaza, and the feedback regarding 800-block Robson Street will be included in the report to Vancouver City Council.
If you could please help us out by sharing the survey link with your networks, via email or social media, it would be greatly appreciated. And if you are tweeting, please add the hashtag #Block51 to your tweets.
Survey link: http://fluidsurveys.com/s/Block51/
City webpage: http://vancouver.ca/block51
Definitely something that needs to be part of the discussion!
This issue was raised during the two public events, and a number of examples were shown of cities – rainy cities like Vancouver – that have successful public spaces that function year-round. In fairness to the survey, it did look like there was at least one image of a covered space (not umbrellas, but some sort of covering). But yes, this could have been called-out with more clarity.
The Co-design exercise (from which the images were derived) began with an exercise that asked participants to envision how the space was being used over a 24 hour period. An equally valid query could involve asking people how they would imagine the space being used over the 12 months of the year.