Proposed development at 1400 Howe. Architect: Bjarke Ingels

There’s an interesting lecture taking place this evening at SFU Harbour Centre – on the subject of tall buildings. This is a topic that gets both advocates and detractors passionate… and tonight’s event promises to be a good discussion.

It’s sponsored by the City of Vancouver’s Urban Design Panel. Here’s the official word, courtesy of a press release that was sent out yesterday:

Renowned architects participate in lecture and Urban Design Panel review of proposed highrise

Internationally recognized architects will discuss tall buildings and sustainable design at a public lecture and participate the next day in a special session of the Urban Design Panel to share their knowledge and expertise.

The free public lecture will feature architects Stefan Behnisch (Stuttgart) and Peter Clewes (Toronto) who will speak about their work and observations on sustainability and architectural excellence, particularly as they relate to taller buildings.

When: Tuesday, April 10 from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m.
Where: SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings Street, 1400 Segal Room

Behnisch and Clewes will then join Vancouver architects Walter Francl and Mark Ostry and members of Vancouver’s Urban Design Panel for a technical review of a proposed highrise development at 1400 Howe Street at a special session of the panel.

The panel provides recommendations to Vancouver City Council and City staff on creating buildings that achieve the highest standards for sustainability and architectural excellence.

In 2011, Council approved a revised policy for high building proposals. Proposed buildings that significantly exceed existing height limits are subject to an enhanced review process which includes the addition of world-renowned architects to the Urban Design Panel.

The City continually reviews the design of tall buildings and their impact on the city skyline and designated public views, while considering development opportunities that advance sustainable design.

Last week Danish architect and urbanist Jan Gehl gave a presentation to a capacity audience at the Vancouver Playhouse. VPSN Mapping Co-Coordinator Ryan Betts was on hand to hear what he had to say and filed the following report on the evening’s proceedings.

Jan Gehl designs Cities for People. In a field dominated by the sweeping sculptural works of starchitect icons such as Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid, Gehl instead practices a slow and iterative approach to intervening in urban life – and, in particular, ‘life between buildings.’ His efforts focus on the threshold between buildings and the street, where our daily interactions take place. This is scale where emphasis isn’t on grand, detached architectural schemes, but an urbanism that is about creating and sustaining the “dignity” of everyday life.

In his words, “cities are expanded by adding small units and [at] good human scale.” To Gehl, the good city is one that is lively, attractive, safe, sustainable and healthy.

One of the most well respected and accomplished architects and urban designers of our day, Gehl has been practicing for over 50 years. After cutting his teeth in Copenhagen, he was influential in transforming Melbourne from a cultural desert nicknamed “the dougnut” – for the lack of anything happening in the center of town – into the world’s most livable city. More recently, New York City engaged him to help in expanding their bike lanes and transforming their downtown core. Now, while on a tour to promote his new book, he turned his attention to Vancouver. He kicked things off by offering his take on how urban design has forgotten about the human scale and what must be done to bring people back into focus.

Speed kills (details): of mile-high perfume bottles and birdshit architecture

First, Gehl provided a little bit of background.

In the early 20th century, Modernism – led by icons such as Le Corbusier and the Bauhaus directors – envisioned utopian cities of vaulted towers and large swaths of greenspace. These visions were no doubt closely related to the speed of technical advance and the speed of urban growth accompanying industrial revolution. Then, with the post-WWII surge in the popularity of the automobile, the ground speed of cities rocketed from a 5km/hr walk to a 60km/hr drive. It was life in the fast lane.

“Speed, it seems to me, provides the one genuinely modern pleasure”

– Aldous Huxley, 1949

Speed, speed, and more speed. But where are all the people?

Speed “had a great impact on the structure of our urban landscape.” Tranquil green spaces were supplanted by byzantine freeway bypasses and sprawling parking lots. Architects insisted that city skylines look beautiful from the freeway and enticing from the air. The concrete jungle was booming, and early urban critics such as Jane Jacobs predicted the demise of street life at the hands of these arterial freeway visions.

Brasilia was the poster child of Modernism’s failings. Built for the car and designed to look like a noble eagle from the air, it was a lifeless industrial park at eye level. “If you visit Brasilia, it is not great at all,” Gehl mused, “to be happy in Brasilia, you need a helicopter.” In it’s attempt to “make the cars happy” it had forgotten all about what makes a city tick.

These cities were designed by moving scale models of buildings around, and lost touch with the human scale. Like trying to perform eye surgery with space lasers, this detached process resulted in …

“Birdshit architecture”

Gehl recounted his first experience with Dubai. Wandering around, the buildings began to remind him of his wife’s perfume shelf. Just as the designers of his wife’s perfume bottles competed for attention with distinct and seductive shapes, so did the architects of Dubai’s buildings. Complete indulgence of form, with no interest in function and day to day use. He coined “birdshit architecture” to describe this process of premium architects being flown in to drop their buildings onto a city with no regard for their impact on public life.

Scale, people

This is Gehl’s primary thesis: the design of cities has lost touch with the human scale. Renderings may be littered with depictions of “unspecified public life” – scale people – but they are rarely grounded in reality. They are ornamental. Form comes first; a building at eye level is an after thought. As Gehl wisely reminds us, “units are getting bigger and bigger – but people are still slow and small.” And this demands a new approach.

A new paradigm: cities for people

From a half-century of experimenting with the automobile, we now know what works and what doesn’t. Gehl reminds that this is only natural: “first we shape the cities – then they shape us.” Cars are necessary, but certainly not the most significant part of a healthy city. Cities must shift their focus towards interactions between people; they should be lively, attractive, safe, healthy, and sustainable.

To Gehl, the success of a building happens where it’s base meets the street: “every architecture school should have a department that is dedicated to designing the ground floors of buildings.” A new school of urban design needs to turn away from the detached processes the make Brasilias and Dubais, and towards a human centered approach. Gehl points towards success stories like the Potato Rows in Copenhagen. Though bland from the air, they “have everything at people scale”. Gehl points out that when people enjoy themselves at that scale, they tend to “forget it looks like shit” at the city scale. It’s also worth mentioning that the Potato Rows boast the highest property values in the city. So, how do we get there?

“Good public transportation and a good public realm are brothers and sisters.”

To overcome dependency on the car we need a healthy public transportation system. In turn, if we are to encourage adoption of public transport we need to create a safe and enjoyable public realm where people are “invited to move by [their] own force.” But Gehl encourages us to think about this not as an abstract platitude, but a foundation for good urban policy. “In the [good] city everything will be done to invite people to walk and bicycle as much as possible in their daily doings.” The notion of ‘invitation” is key here: the spaces we create for walking and cycling need to be captivating, enjoyable… and yes, fun.

How do we get that safe and enjoyable public realm?

“the moment we do anything inviting, people come out in numbers”

Gehl notes “there is nothing that is more interesting than other people.” Echoing Jane Jacob’s “eyes on the street”, Gehl likened the city to movies, noting that watching other people is “our greatest joy.”

To encourage the convivial component of public space, Gehl has identified a checklist of 12 qualities that public spaces should aspire to. These, he clusters under the categories of “Protection”, “Comfort” and “Delight”:

Protection:

• Protection against traffic and accidents – feeling safe
• Protection against crime and violence – feeling secure
• Protection against unpleasant sensory experiences (rain, snow, pollution, noise, etc.)

Comfort:

• Opportunities to walk (room for walking, good surfaces, etc)
• Opportunities to stand/stay
• Opportunities to sit
• Opportunities to see (reasonable viewing distances, interesting views…)
• Opportunities to talk and listen
• Opportunities for play and exercise

Delight

• Scale (buildings and spaces designed to human scale)
• Opportunities to enjoy the positive aspects of climate
• Positive sensory experiences (good design, materials, trees, plants, water…)

(excerpted from Jan Gehl. Cities for People, p.239)

These traits and the ways to measure and design for them are described at length in his book and at a high level in this video. They resonate well and made sense on an experiential level. If you want to undertake an interesting exercise keep this checklist handy the next time you go on a stroll around your neighbourhood.

And moving through public space? To Gehl, the bottom line is that the design of our cities must invite people to participate and “move by their own force.” In the case of Vancouver, the architect applauds the commitment to prioritizing walking, cycling, transit above the automobile. These, in turn, are facilitated by land-use that supports density and compactness versus diffusion and urban sprawl. This, however, came with a cautionary note: density and green buildings on their own do not equal a healthy city.

“The tower is a lazy architect’s solution. You can achieve the same density with much lower height.”

This begs the question, since Vancouver is going to continue to grow over the next few decades and centuries is it time for us to start thinking more about how to Copenhagenize the city?

Part of this announcement included a proposal for a new “Las Vegas-style entertainment resort complex” to be built on the west side of the stadium, featuring a casino, two hotels, and several restaurants, bars, and retail spaces. At a proposed 680,000 sq.ft. this would be no small complex, and when I first heard “Las Vegas-style” I was immediately nervous.

Having travelled to Las Vegas myself only a month prior to the province’s March announcement, I had it fresh in my mind what the wonders/horrors of a Las Vegas resort can bring. The success of a casino is traditionally created by constructing an indoor environment completely disconnected from the outside world. Much like a convention centre, shopping mall, or movie theatre, casinos may offer dazzling environments on the inside, but often offer only garish, disengaging walls to the outside, adding little, if any, benefits to the public realm. Instead the guest is invited in to a land of entertainment where there are no clocks, no windows, and no clues as to what may be happening outside its walls. Armageddon could be unfolding on the surrounding streets but the happy roulette-spinning patrons inside would be none the wiser.

This is all done on the grandest scale imaginable in Las Vegas, with each casino complex comprising several city blocks, large enough each to be home to meandering Venetian canals, cobblestone New York alleys, and piazzas and courtyards a la Ancient Rome. Las Vegas hotel/casino resorts are also infamous for the fact that one has to walk through what feels like at least half the casino itself before finding the hotel lobby, a washroom, or heaven forbid, an exit. Would this be the kind of entertainment complex coming to downtown Vancouver, one that turns its back on the outside city?

Thankfully, it appears not. Instead it seems that Paragon Development is looking to create a different kind of bird, not your typical casino, for downtown Vancouver.

Vancouver city planners have warned Paragon that an isolated box will not be suitable for this project, and have challenged them to come up with some creative ideas to meet the design criteria. This is a unique and demanding site for a casino complex, and the bar has therefore been raised. Wedged between Cambie Bridge’s off-ramps and the mammoth wall of BC Place stadium, space is rather limited on this site. Also unique is the fact that although this area is already an entertainment district of sorts, being home to both downtown stadia, it also sits next to the eastern edges of Yaletown’s residential condo towers. In addition, a brand new waterfront neighbourhood will soon be constructed along Northeast False Creek, which upon completion will be home for up to 7200 residents. Being a respectful neighbour will be a must in this quickly-evolving downtown district.

From an urban design perspective, significant improvements have already been made when comparing the plans revealed in March with the latest renditions in last week’s Open Houses. Originally the complex would only partially be attached to BC Place, resulting in a semi-public alley between the two buildings that would finish with an awkward dead end. Pedestrians attempting to travel from busy Robson to the False Creek waterfront would be confused by this narrow space. Updated renderings show the entire complex flush right up against the wall of BC Place, removing this awkward space and providing potential for better internal connections between the new complex and the stadium.

In the updated proposals, a pedestrian wishing to traverse from Robson down to False Creek will be ushered down new stairs taking them down immediately to street level along Expo Boulevard, east around the complex along New Smithe Street (a new street to be built, as an extension of Smithe from Pacific Boulevard that will terminate in a cul-de-sac just before Expo) and from there onto Pacific Blvd.

The newest proposal also shows street-side, at grade retail and restaurants on both the Expo Blvd and New Smithe St. sides, which will help to create livelier, more interactive pedestrian environments. Hotel and casino lobbies will be located just off street entrances, rather than buried deep inside. Restaurants and nightclubs will be accessible directly from the street, or will look out over the streets from upper floors. One restaurant will have a street-side patio on the New Smithe side. All of these will help to create active edge uses, and the increased ground level activity will hopefully bring new life to currently dead-zone Expo and Pacific Blvds. While it is hopeful to see this improved interaction between the indoors and the out, it appears that the Pacific Blvd side seems to be lacking in such streetside activities.

Other improvements worth applauding include a proposed extension of the Smithe St. bike lane, which will help to improve connections between downtown and False Creek. Also, a new mini-plaza located at the corner of Expo and New Smithe St. will help to create a more attractive and welcoming public gathering space. The entire project will also be built to LEED Gold status, and will include such features as a green roof and using daylight to light large portions of the complex interior.

With the current site comprising parking lots, imposing stadium walls, and traffic racing along freeway-esque Expo and Pacific Boulevards this new project will hopefully go a long way in bringing some energy and streetlife to a rather desolate corner. The challenge will be whether or nor the casino complex can be built at a human scale, can create a public realm that is welcoming and lively, one that is respectful in design and form to the existing residents in the area, and the high density residential and workspace coming soon to Northeast False Creek. Soon this neighbourhood will be home to thousands, and your traditional casino design form simply won’t do in an environment like this.

As mentioned before the City of Vancouver has given Paragon some ambitious goals to make this a high quality development, and so far they appear to be rising to the challenge. Considering how casinos are typically constructed Paragon does seem to be making some important strides. Efforts thus far should be applauded, but continued feedback on the project will hopefully improve it even more.

Images and details from the Open Houses will soon be posted on the City’s website, and I encourage everyone to share their thoughts on this project with city planners. The new BC Place entertainment complex has a lot of potential to create something unique among the world of casino resorts, and come opening day when Paragon shouts out “Move that bus!” I’m hoping we’ll see a development that blows us away with its engaging, exciting, neighbourhood-appropriate, human-scale design. I’d hate for that Ty Pennington to have the last laugh.

The launch party will be held at the InterUrban Gallery (1 East Hastings) on Thursday, April 1st from 6:30pm-1:00am. DJs, a cash bar (serving beer, wine and a signature cocktail), and refreshments will be provided. This is a great opportunity for people in the design community to get together, let loose and share ideas.

The exhibition showcases 52 finalists from the 2009 Open Architecture Challenge. The Challenge invited the international architecture, design and engineering community to collaborate directly with students and teachers to rethink the classroom of the future. More than 1,200 designers from 65 countries registered for the competition. The winner was awarded $5,000 and the selected partner school received $50,000 to realize their design.

The exhibition also features submissions from the AFHV team and local students in collaboration with Arts Umbrella.

To see more details on the exhibition and get a sneak peak at some of the finalists you can go here. Beats provided by DJ Pat Lok (Bonafide @ Shine) and a little mix tape here. Facebook event page.