Vancouver Public Space Network » geoffrey daniel

IN PHOTOS: Made in Strathcona

VPSN — Fri, 19 Jun 2015 15:00:13 +0000

The Strathcona Business Improvement Association hosted “Meet the Makers Expo” on Saturday, June 13th at the MakerLabs at 780 East Cordova. Featuring makers, innovators and and entrepreneurs from over all over Strathcona, the event gives the public a chance to better understand the area’s businesses, it’s community and the future vision for East Hastings.

Located between Clark, Venables Street, and Gore Avenue, Strathcona diversity is well reflected by the businesses that call the area home. 17 Strathcona businesses ranging from restaurants, cafes, breweries, and locally made goods and services provided workshops, demonstrations and free samples within the MakerLabs space. The MakeLabs is a 26,000 square foot makerspace that provides the community with the tools, space, and skills to build almost anything.

Bob Rennie facilitated a panel discussion around the Strathcona Business Improvement Association plans for revitalizing East Hastings. Community members were encouraged to share their connections to Strathcona and their hopes for it’s future. The public was provided with an opportunity to share their feedback with the Strathcona Business Improvement Association tasked with creating a revitalized neighbourhood plan.

Strathcona has been home to many successful businesses like Yolk’s, Sunrise Soya Foods, Hootsuite, and Aritzia, and continues to be a hub for many independent mixed-use, manufacturing and retail businesses.

FIELD NOTES: Seattle’s Olympic Sculpture Park

VPSN — Thu, 21 May 2015 15:00:59 +0000

photos by Geoffrey Daniel | words by Lehran Haché

Many North American Cities are struggling from age of automobile-planning hangovers. One of the most challenging symptoms of this affliction are the highways, freeways and train tracks built at the waters edge. Originally constructed in these locations to facilitate the movement of goods or afford a desirable view while users were car commuting, the usage of waterfronts has drastically changed in the last fifty or so years; now the movement of people to the waterfront is a more desirable use for socializing, active recreation and tourism. The question for city builders has become how do we move pedestrians and cyclists there? How do we make this a desirable experience despite the multi-lanes of vehicle traffic? Single lane utilitarian pedestrian bridges are often the leading (and cheapest) solution but miss an opportunity for creating a truly unique and inviting urban experience leading to the waters edge. Seattle took an alternate route.

While recently in the Pacific Northwest’s largest city I had the opportunity to explore Seattle’s Olympic Sculpture Park. A massive infrastructural work built on a former industrial site that moves people over four lanes of traffic and three rail lines, all while creating Seattle’s largest green space (at 9 acres), an outdoor art museum, and a truly engaging link to the waterfront. The park opened in 2007 as a result of an international design competition and has been well loved and used since. I think it’s the transformation of place and the multi-layered stories of places like this that make city-building in this age truly exciting!

More information and photos of the Olympic Sculpture Park from the winning designers can be found here.

IN PHOTOS: Vancouver Especially

VPSN — Sun, 19 Apr 2015 16:00:33 +0000

photos and text by Geoffrey Daniel

Ken Lum critiques Vancouver’s housing affordability and architecture through the new public art exhibit Vancouver Especially. The piece lives at 271 Union St in Chinatown and lampoons the Vancouver special style housing. The boxy and boring architectural styling is typical of single family dwellings built from 1965 through to 1985. Lum was given $45,000 to produce the piece, which is roughly what a Vancouver special home would cost in the 1970s. Lum’s original thought was to create a replica at the same price and scale relative to the present day price of that kind of home. However, the size of the piece would be far too small, so the dimensions were multiplied by eight.

COMING SOON: Neighbourhood Park at Yukon & 17th

VPSN — Thu, 26 Feb 2015 16:00:18 +0000

photos by Geoffrey Daniel, with material from Lehran Hache (Park Designer for Yukon & 17th)

What does living in a city striving to be the “greenest” by 2020 mean? It means that really extraordinary things start happening that change the way we use public space, and that our values begin to be reflected in our collective landscapes. At the intersection of Yukon St and W 17th Ave, such a thing is about to happen.

A new neighbourhood park has been in the works for this location since 2013, when the city purchased and demolished a derelict house in this location (the lot has been sitting vacant since July of that year). The area had been identified as lacking a park and play space within reasonable walking distance for residents, especially given the number of young families in this community. Through public consultation, the Vancouver board of Parks and Recreation learned that vehicles shortcutting along Yukon to avoid congestion on main arterial roads was the biggest concern, both for local residents and users of the popular Yukon bikeway.

The result? This summer, the asphalt on Yukon between W 17th Ave north to the laneway will be torn up to double the original intended size of the park. The bold move is the result of a partnership between the Park Board and the City of Vancouver Engineering Department, and is intended to both help with traffic calming in the neighbourhood and to provide the space for a much better park.

By early fall of 2015, this location will reflect a population that values community connection, safety and access to green space more than vehicular traffic. Small spaces like this can have a much wider neighbourhood impact and I certainly hope this is only the beginning of a much larger trend.