Public space is the stage on which many of our biggest social, economic and environmental issues play out; it is also the forum in which new opportunities and solutions to these matters will take flight.

It is clear that change needs to happen in a variety of ways and time frames: some of it will be short-term and small-scale, some-of it long-term and large-scale. There will also be lots of stuff that needs to happen ‘in-between.’ All of it will play a part in shaping the future of Vancouver. Lots of it will happen in our public spaces.

This raises an important question: How should we #RedesignPublicSpace to support transformative change and ensure our public spaces respond to the new needs and demands being placed on them?

The Vancouver Public Space Network has teamed up with Vancouver Design Week and the Urbanarium on an initiative that invites people to propose creative ways to reimagine one or more of Vancouver’s public spaces.

#RedesignPublicSpace lets you:

• Identify public spaces in the city that you think need to be redesigned to support positive change – and map them using the Urbanarium’s Smart Map tool;
• Participate in an Urbanarium design studio on December 10, where your ideas to #RedesignPublicSpace can be elaborated with the help of professional designers.

If you’ve ever dreamed of reimagining a public space this is your chance! This project will provide an opportunity to daylight public space-based solutions to our big challenges and work on them collectively with other change-makers.

The initiative is part of Vancouver Design Week’s Redesign the Future! theme and its 3R’s for Systems Change campaign. The Mapping Feature is live now, as is registration for the December studio event. Both activities are open to everyone and no prior design experience is necessary.

:: MAP: Public Spaces – https://urbanarium.org/redesign-public-space
:: REGISTER: for the December 10 Design Studio: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/130363301143
:: MORE INFO: arlene@vancouverpublicspace.ca

We’ve put together a hands-on, interactive and fun workshop that explores what we can do to make public spaces usable and enjoyable all year round – especially in rainly climates like Vancouver.

Museum of Vancouver ~ 1100 Chestnut Street
Sunday April 17, 2:30-5:00pm

Participants will review and discuss precedent studies from other cities, followed by a “live” analysis of remote video feeds from around the city of Vancouver.

Together, we’ll create materials and documentation that can be used for advocacy and education directed towards making Vancouver’s public spaces better adapted for the rainy months.

After all, isn’t it time that we got beyond the umbrella? Let’s champion Vancouver as an all-weather city and figure out ways to celebrate one of our most overlooked assets: the rain.

:: Register Make it Rain

Call for volunteers: Want to help with workshop? We could use a few extra hands for various day-of activities. Please contact our volunteer coordinator Michelle Pollard for more info volunteer@vancouverpublicspace.ca.

The VPSN’s Make it Rain workshop is part of the Museum of Vancouver and Urbanarium’s Design Sundays series. Every Sunday afternoon (2:30-5:00pm) throughout April, the Museum will curate a series of playful explorations and thoughtful workshops in conjunction with the Your Future Home exhibition and its central themes: Affordability, Density, Mobility and Public Space. 

A new exhibition, created in collaboration by the Urbanarium and Museum of Vancouver, is encouraging Vancouverites to think about the future of the city and to reflect on the role, meaning and value of public space.

Your Future Home: Creating the New Vancouver contributes compelling information and interesting perspectives to the discussion around Vancouver’s future. As one of the four thematic cornerstones of the exhibition (along with residential density, housing affordability and transportation), public space figures prominently in the effort to create a new Vancouver. Public space also benefits from a refreshing treatment in the exhibition that provokes a number of important considerations.

Good information is essential to informed opinions. Your Future Home starts visitors off on the right foot with some basic facts about public space in the city (city policy aims for 2.75 acres of park per 1000 residents, for instance) and a digital map showing the different types and locations of public space that exist in Vancouver.

Underlining the fact that the city is not static, the exhibition also digs into the stories behind the transformations of some of the city’s most valued spaces, such as Hastings Park and Granville Island. Interesting in their own right, the notion that these stories could catalyze the next generation of interventions by engaged residents is particularly exciting.

With an emphasis on the central role that Vancouver’s people play in shaping the city, the exhibition offers a number of opportunities for visitors to make their mark. Got a great public space design idea? Grab one of the micro-scale scenarios and get drawing. Looking for a better understanding of how Vancouverites view the city’s public spaces? Use the Some Questions of Public Space guidebook to interview friends and fellow visitors. Looking for inspiration to enhance a special space in your neighbourhood? Check out the installations celebrating the essential contributions regular people have made to help craft Vancouver as one of the world’s most livable cities.

Showcasing “Vancouver’s smallest public park” (a 3 foot by 3 foot astro-turf adorned box) and a model of movable public space, Your Future Home challenges visitors to reflect on their conceptions of public space and how they could change in the years to come. Encouraging visitors to look skyward and arguing that the open air between buildings constitutes public space, the exhibition advances key questions about ownership and public rights. This approach also encourages visitors to reflect on the contextual nature of public space. Does the space between buildings mean the same thing in a city without a stunning backdrop like the North Shore Mountains? And by asking questions like, “will more public space make us happier?” (subtly pushing visitors to question whether less public space would make us sadder) Your Future Home frames the value of public space in terms of basic emotions.

While the exhibit creates almost as many questions as it answers, it’s clear that whatever the Vancouver of the future looks like, public space will be prominently featured.The event has already stirred thinking on the subject, and several projects – including a proposal by HCMA Architecture for a “Coal Harbour Deck” – have been featured in local media.

Your Future Home: Creating the New Vancouver is at MOV until May 15, 2016.

- Story and photos by Mitchell Reardon. Mitchell is a principle at Metropolitan Collective and a volunteer with the VPSN and Urbanarium. Follow him on twitter via @MitchellReardon

Arguing for the motion (and against building more towers):

• Lance Berelowitz – Principal of Urban Forum Associates
• Oliver Lang – Principal of Lang Wilson Practice in Architecture Culture

And arguing against the motion (and for building more towers):

• Dave Ramslie – Principal and Head of Planning Research, & Sustainability, Integral Group LLC
• Christopher Vollan – VP Development for Rize Development

In tackling the issue, each side took turns responding to questions about the viability of the tower model of development that we are familiar with in the city. In particular:

• Is Vancouver and the surrounding region too quick or too slow to build towers?
• Are towers good or bad for supporting goals of livability and sustainability?
• Are towers the way of the future, or are they past their prime?

As with the first debate a few weeks back, the ‘tower’ event was moderated by David Beers, founder of the Tyee.

An initial polling of the room revealed that audience members were split 51/49 in favour of the motion. From there, debaters went head-to-head arguing their positions.

While the ‘less towers’ side acknowledged that high-rises were a necessary and effective building typology, they argued that alternative types of medium-scale development (e.g. mid-rise forms) could and should be adopted in favour of towers – and that these could work to accommodate the growing demand for housing in the city. They suggested that we are ‘missing the middle’ in terms of scale of development and must look to fill this in to provide a greater diversity of housing types.

The ‘more towers’ side argued that the tower should remain the preferred model of development in order to meet the housing and affordability crisis in the city. Citing the economic efficiency, limited footprint and high consumer demand of towers, they suggested that the “missing middle” forms of development would prove too costly and insufficient to satisfy the future demands for housing.

When the bell rung and the post debate audience poll was taken, the audience’s favour had shifted 52/48 against the motion. Despite this, the nearly split audience suggests that this issue is not yet settled and that this debate will no doubt continue in board rooms and dining rooms alike across the city.

Story by Shane Oleksiuk – who also reminds us that the debate series will continue on March 9th when a new debaters will tussle over a motion to ‘Legislate housing affordability’. Tickets for this event are available now.

The Urbanarium Society and Museum of Vancouver (MOV) are collaborating on a new exhibit. Your Future Home: Creating the New Vancouver, on display at MOV now through May 15, 2016, will – in their words – “immerse visitors in an experience that spotlights 20 visions for tomorrow’s city, while focusing on four topical issues: housing affordability, residential density, ease of transportation, and quality of public space.”

The event promises a timely exploration of the future of Vancouver. In response to mounting concern about a rapidly changing region. The program features over 20 of Vancouver’s leading architects, urban planners, and visionaries – each presenting ideas that ask visitors to stop and rethink what they want in their hometown.

Throughout the duration of the exhibition, Vancouverites will be invited to participate in a number of complementary activities, including walking tours, discussions, social events with drinks, and workshops.

The first of these complimentary events coincides with the launch of the exhibition. “Open All Neighbourhoods to Densification” is one of four City Debates, and will probe some of the most burning questions being discussed in the city today:

• How and where will Vancouver and its region accommodate increased population?
• In densifying neighbourhoods, where do issues of fairness, democracy, ecology, and community preservation come into play?
• Should any community preservation come into play? Should any areas be off limits?

We also hope, as part of the dialogue, that the importance of public space and the public realm will be recognized. It is impossible to talk about city growth and change without accounting for the important role played by our parks, plazas, streets and civic centres. Without these, there is no such thing as liveability.

On the “pro” side:

Joyce Drohan – Director of Urban Design at Perkins + Will Canada Ltd., is an architect and an urbanist whose focus is sustainable communities.

Brent Toderian – former city planner for Vancouver, and founding principal of TODERIAN UrbanWORKS.

And on the “con” side:

Michael A. Goldberg – Professor Emeritus of Sauder School of Business

Sam Sullivan – MLA for Vancouver False Creek, is a Member of the Order of Canada and former Mayor of Vancouver.

Jointly produced with the UBC School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, the now sold-out event will be moderated by Dave Beers – founder of The Tyee, Canada’s highly awarded independent online source for news and ideas.

This is the first of four such debates. The second – for which tickets will be available later this week – looks at the role of high-rise towers.

:: More info on the “Open All Neighbourhoods” debate

:: More info on the Your Future Home Exhibit

Vancouver’s streets are busy with people visiting, shopping, and making their way to and from events. There’s liveliness in the air that is coloured with bright lights and festive decorations, the sound of laughter…even some memorable sweater choices.

The winter holidays are here! And guess what: if may even snow this week!

If it does (and in any decent quantity), please help to enliven our public spaces by doing one of the following: throwing snow-balls, tobogganing and building a snow-person (gender of your choice). This is an opportunity we don’t get in the city often enough.

Let us also take this opportunity to wish you, your friends and family, the very best for the holidays. We’ve had a great year working to improve the City’s public spaces, and we’re looking forward to more fun and collaboration in 2016.

– The VPSN Crew

UPDATES

Last minute gift ideas for the public space aficionado – 2015/16 edition!

You’ve only got a few days left, don’t you? A few precious days – hours really – to find that perfect, but elusive, gift for the urbanistically-inclined, plaza-inhabiting, public space aficionado in your life.

Fear not. Challenges like this require Quick + Clever Ideas. The VPSN has got you covered… 20 times over in fact.

This year’s list should also have something to help you out. It is designed with the last-minute shopper in mind. Some of these items are straight-up “things” you can buy. Others are the sort of experiential gifts that work best tucked inside a card. All are fun times!

:: 20 Last Minute Gift Ideas – The List

Active Fiction: A Dark Winter’s Tale

Got time off for the holidays? Why not check out the winter installation of our ever-popular Active Fiction Project. This latest chapter can be found around Main and 28th.

Active Fiction is a “create your own adventure”, self-guided literary walking tour. We’ve hidden short fictional stories in public spaces in a Vancouver neighborhood for readers to discover by walking, or biking around. It’s free and anyone can participate.

This time, we’ve got a dark story for a dark time of year. This one may not be ideal for young readers, but sure to appeal to fans of the Hunger Games and other dystopian adventures. Set in a post-apocalyptic Vancouver, readers need to find their way to a secret society. Only one path will lead you there…

:: More information on Active Fiction

ADVOCACY

A review of some of our work from the past month…

Jim Deva Plaza: final concept, stewardship strategy, and rules for night-time use

Earlier this month, City Council discussed a report and recommendations that will have a number of implications for the City’s public plazas.

The report, written by the City’s Planning Department, focuses on Davie Village Public Space Improvements – and sought Council approval for the final concept for Jim Deva Plaza (at Bute and Davie).

Importantly, it also looked at two other things. First, the question of plaza stewardship. Second, to the possibility of regulatory changes to several bylaws – including the Health Bylaw (no smoking in the plaza) and the Street and Traffic Bylaw.

We thought the latter item had some good aspects (e.g. prohibiting driving in the plaza), but also has one very troubling aspect: it aimed to prohibit use of the plaza “after hours.”

:: Read the full article

On bikes, budgets, and making more room for the sidewalk

Also this past month, City Council heard a report on “Active Transportation Update and Pilot for Skateboarding in Protected Bike Lanes” – which includes a program for cycling infrastructure improvements over the next five years.

As you’ve probably heard, a sizable component of the discussion is devoted to several bike lanes that are proposed for the City, including a number in the downtown core.

We noted that this was an important step forward for biking in Vancouver, offering further legitimacy and support to cycling as a mode of transportation. However, it also, indirectly, raises some interesting questions about the City’s attention to pedestrian issues and pedestrian infrastructure. We explored those questions in a letter to Council and lengthy article on our website.

:: Read the full article

FIELD NOTES FROM OUTER SPACES

A few posts from VPSN contributors on some exceptional public parks in Montreal and Copenhagen.

Superkilen, Copenhagen, Denmark

…The great thing about it is that it was not created just for the sake of having a public space; it is lively with unique objects from around the world scattered around it including swings from Iraq, a boxing ring from Thailand, and a fountain from Morocco. The different objects in the park are meant to reflect the diversity of the 50+ nationalities living in Nørrebro. | Story by Alex Butler

Parc la Fontaine, Montreal, Quebec

In Montreal, bounded by Rues Rachel and Papineau and Avenue Sherbrooke, is beautiful Parc la Fontaine. Located in the popular Plateau neighbourhood, it is a short walk from busy high streets like St-Denis and St-Laurent.

In this crow-free park, squirrels, pigeons, ducks, and dogs seem equally free to frolic. Around 60 years ago, the park housed slightly larger animals, including bears, wolves, monkeys, and lions. It was called Le Jardin des Merveilles (“The Garden of Wonders”) and functioned as a zoo much like Vancouver’s own, now closed, Stanley Park Zoo. Inside, visitors enjoyed aquatic shows in the pools, and a petting zoo. Other kid-friendly elements drew on fairy-tales and Disney-esque themes. | Story by Eva Kwan.

UPCOMING MEETINGS

Volunteer Orientation
Monday, January 11, 2016 @ 6pm
Join our volunteer coordinator Michelle Pollard at our monthly meeting for new volunteers. Learn about the VPSN and find out about opportunities to lend a hand with public space issues. All welcome! Info: volunteer [at] vancouverpublicspace [dot] ca

Communications Meeting
Monday, January 25, 2016 @ 6pm
Interested in helping out with our various communications activities? Want to write about public space, or help champion public realm issues? This is the regular meeting of the VPSN Communications Team. All welcome! Info: volunteer [at] vancouverpublicspace [dot] ca

Research Projects – Various
Ongoing meetings: January
We have a number of on-going research projects – studies of public space metrics, local economy, site analysis and more. If you’re interested in helping-out with research-related activities, please contact us to find out more, or check out the main volunteer orientation for all the details. Info: andrew [at] vancouverpublicspace [dot] ca

OTHER EVENTS

New Years Eve in Vancouver

December 31 – January 1
For the first time in years, Vancouver will have a sanctioned public New Years celebration. The event takes place on Canada Place Way between Howe and Burrard streets, and features free musical entertainment, sponsor exhibitions, food trucks, live on-site broadcasts, and a midnight countdown with spectacular fireworks over Coal Harbour. Festivities kick off at 6 p.m. | Details

City Debate #1: Open All Neighbourhoods to Densification

January 20, 2016 6-9 pm
Vancouver is globally famous for its densified downtown, a lively, walkable mix of homes and workplaces. Most of the city remains low-rise and residential, however. Should densification efforts focus on those neighbourhoods? Why or Why not? Event produced by the Urbanarium Society and Museum of Vancouver. | Details