January 16, 2012

Mayor Gregor Robertson,
Members of City Council
City of Vancouver
453 West 12th Avenue
Vancouver, BC V5Y 1V4

Re: Motion on Notice – BC Place Digital Signs
Dear Mayor Roberson & Members of Council,

I am writing on behalf of the Vancouver Public Space Network (VPSN) to offer our support for Councillor Geoff Meggs’ motion on BC Place outdoor signage.

We are concerned both about the material aspects (size and functioning) of these signs, as well as the process through which they were installed. We are encouraged that Councillor Meggs is proposing that the City request “a clear action plan by PavCo to bring the signs into compliance with City standards and processes.”

Of particular concern to the VPSN are:

• The size of the signs (many times larger than would be allowed under the City’s Sign Bylaw),
• Their luminosity (in particular their nighttime impact on both residents and drivers);
• The visual impact of the signs themselves (particularly with the western-most sign which overshadows the recently renewed Terry Fox Memorial; and
• The lack of any reasonable public process connected with the installation of the signs.

On this latter note, we understand that the fact that the Stadium site on which the signs were installed is owned by PavCo, a Provincial crown corporation. We further understand that this may have jurisdictional (or extrajurisdictonal) implications in terms of the application of the City’s Sign Bylaw.

Nevertheless, we feel that the present motion is the appropriate approach to take. It provides a more substantive follow-up to the Mayor’s earlier correspondence with PavCo and allows them a further opportunity to properly resolve this issue in the spirit of good neighborly relations.

At the same time, we encourage the City to be clear about what they feel “bringing the signs into compliance” might mean. There is some latitude for allowing variances to the Sign bylaw. We feel that it would be helpful (and in the public interest) for the City to declare its desired outcome – or opportunities for negotiations – beyond the request for adherence to the municipal Sign Bylaw.

Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to comment on this matter. Should you have any questions or comments about our letter, please do not hesitate to contact me at your convenience.

Yours truly,

Alissa Sadler
Vice-Chair
Vancouver Public Space Network
Box 2759, Station Terminal, 349 W. Georgia
Vancouver, BC, V6B 3X2 | vpsn.ca | @vpsn

VPSN PUBLIC SPACE PROJECTS & EVENTS

• Tuesday, July 6 – Transforming Broadway – Workshop
• Tuesday, July 6 – Surveillance & Security Working Group Meeting
• Wednesday, July 7 – VPSN Volunteer Orientation
• AGM Update
• Great Trees Contest – Support the Urban Forest

VPSN BLOG

• The new BC Place casino – a different kind of bird?
• Granville gets its groove on

OTHER EVENTS

• Saturday, July 10 – Parkour Gathering
• Monday, July 19 – Archival tour of the West End
• Monday, July 19 – Psycho!Geography Bike Ride

 
VPSN PUBLIC SPACE PROJECTS & EVENTS

Tuesday July 6 – Transforming Broadway: What would it take to make Broadway a Great Street?

Join us on Tuesday for the second (and last) of our “Transforming Broadway” workshops. Our Mt. Pleasant event last week was stellar (thank you participants!) and we’re looking forward to another excellent discussion this week.

Both the City of Vancouver and Translink are currently engaging in planning exercises that will shape the future of Broadway. This means that we now, collectively, have a very good opportunity to lay down a sense of direction that will enhance the street. Our position? Let’s take this chance to transform the city’s great east-west corridor into something fantastic!

The facilitated workshops will be focused around a simple question: what would it take to turn Broadway into a Great Street? We need your help to find this out. 

The evening’s session starts at 7:00pm and snacks and drinks will be served. Please note – the event is free, but seating is limited. Register to get your name on the list. 

:: For more information/to register – broadway [at] vancouverpublicspace.ca
:: VPSN Transforming Broadway webpage and backgrounder
:: City of Vancouver Central Broadway Corridor webpage

Tuesday, July 6 – Surveillance & Security Working Group Meeting

Our ever-vigilant S&S Working Group meets this Tuesday in Room 3047 of SFU Harbour Centre. On the agenda: ICBC’s new surveillance camera plan for Vancouver’s intersections, update work for our surveillance mapping of the downtown core, community policing issues and other issues pertaining to safe spaces. Please RSVP for the meeting as space is limited.

:: To RSVP – heather [at] vancouverpublicspace.ca

Wednesday, July 7 – VPSN Volunteer Orientation

Join us for our monthly volunteer orientation and learn about opportunities to make Vancouver great! Session takes place at 7pm in Room 3047, SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings. Please RSVP.

:: More information or to RSVP – erin [at] vancouverpublicspace.ca

AGM Update

Thanks to everyone who came out for our VPSN Annual General Meeting last Sunday. You’ll be hearing more from our Board this year as we move into planning work around the VPSN’s long-term strategic goals. In the meantime, we’re please to present our Board officers for 2010: Erin O’Melinn (Chair), Adam Vasilevich (Vice Chair), Stephanie Doerksen (Treasurer) and Josh Paterson (Secretary). Rounding out the Board are Heather Forbes, Eliana MacDonald, Jaspal Marwah, Karen Parusel and Andrew Pask. 

:: More information on the VPSN non-profit – info [at] vancouverpublicspace.ca 

Great Trees Contest. Support the Urban Forest. Win a Prize!

Each week we give a way a prize to one lucky Vancouverite who likes trees. The process is easy and the odds are good. If you want to participate, all you have to do is send us a picture of your favourite Vancouver tree with a few words on why you feel its so awesome.

We’ve been publishing the submissions we’ve recieved, along with other neat articles on Vancouver’s urban forest on our Great Trees blog. In the next little while, we’ll also be kicking off our community-based map of the city’s favourite leafy giants. 

If you have a chance this week, take a moment to snap a picture of your favourite tree and send it our way! Help us to pay homage to our urban forest.

:: For more information – www.GreatTrees.ca

VPSN BLOG

The following are some of the recent posts from our blog. 

June 30 - The new BC Place casino – a different kind of bird?
Earlier this spring the BC government released a major announcement about a downtown development project. Unveiled in a new proposal was Extreme Makeover: BC Place Edition, in which Vancouver’s downtown stadium will be getting a new retractable roof along with other building improvements, to the tune of $450 million. (Eat your heart out, Ty Pennington.) [more…]

June 26 – Granville gets its groove on
A roving team of 50 percussionists turned Granville Street into a giant drum, testing the resonance of street furniture, sidewalks and signs alike… Part of the VPSN’s Stick it to the Streets event, the pavement-level gig changed the soundscape of the street — animating it for passers-by and showcasing the real acoustics of Vancouver’s “entertainment district.” [more…]

OTHER EVENTS

Saturday, July 10 – Parkour Gathering

BC’a largest annual Parkour gathering takes place on July 10 starting 1pm at the Vancouver Art Gallery. The crew plans to “re-purpose” the urban landscape throughout downtown Vancouver, running, clambering and jumping through the city’s spaces. Lots of fun! This is probably one of the rare chances people get to see over 100 traceurs of all different skill levels from all over Canada and the US get down in the city. More importantly, it’s a great opportunity for the curious to give it a shot. 

:: For more information – www.pkbc.ca

Monday, July 19 – Archival View of the West End – Friends of the Vancouver City Archives

James Johnstone presents a virtual street by street tour of the old West End using images from the Archives photographic holdings. For more information, please visit the Friends of the Archive webpage. The event is free and there is no need to reserve a space.

And speaking of the Archives, they also have a new exhibit running in their gallery called Edifice: Exploring Art, Archives and Architecture. It’s on display until August 27 and represents a collaboration between the Archives, artist Graham Winter and Heritage Vancouver. You can visit the Archives over off of Chestnut Avenue in Vanier Park.

Monday, July 19* – Psycho!Geography Bike Ride

Join Gallery Gachet and artist/activist RedSara on this unique guided bicycle ride through the twilight summer night…. featuring stops at one ‘high incidence of car crashes’ site, one crazy industry site for screaming, one quiet river refuge, and the ICBC crashed car parking lot. In the evening River Road along the North Arm of the Fraser River is a quiet and beautiful place where industry meets nature, all reflected in water.

Ride departs Marine Skytrain Station at 8:15 and crosses the Fraser to Richmond, with stops for early evening observation & photography along the way. Ride ends at 22nd Street Skytrain Station, a distance of approx 20 km.

Participants should register in advance, and also be sure that they and their bikes are in good enough functioning order to be able to ride for 20km (will take approx 3 hr with stops). Assistance is available for people with unique mobility needs who wish to join the ride through tandems, chariots or loaner bikes. Please inquire. Note: rain date – July 26, 2010.

:: For details or to register – email sara [at] redsara.ca

SUPPORT THE VPSN

The Vancouver Public Space Network is an all-volunteer, community-driven enterprise that works on advocacy, education and outreach pertaining to the city’s public realm. We depend on your contributions in order to undertake our projects and activities. Looking to lend a hand? Please consider making a donation or signing up for one of our volunteer projects. Thanks!

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.