At the very least, Frances, the awards have given us the green light to delve into urban design and urbanism in our city.

Given that these were the first awards, the jury might have shown the temerity or inclination to give urban design excellence awards to projects past…

Granville Island. Especially since the architects were not as much involved with the concept—which was already in place—but with the urban design of the place: the bollards, the trees, the (then) controversial wall-to-wall brick paving, and most of all the mixing of pedestrians and cars. Timely to award the project since it appears to move ever closer to peril and dismemberment with each day that passes.

Gastown revitalization. Ten years before Granville Island and following on the heels of the Great Freeway Revolt that brought down the Council of its day, there is a fresh and agile handling in the design of the bollards, crosswalks, sidewalks, streets, streetlights and tree planting. It is important to realize that this is not a ‘historical reconstruction’ of what was there before (dirt road and boardwalk sidewalks). Rather it is a contemporary interpretation of the sense of place so capably handled that it elevates the place, and re-interprets this historic site without violating our connection to its past. I believe that ‘Blood Alley’ is a name that dates to the revitalization—not a historical place name. It plays on our weak grasp of local history romanticizing the spirit of ‘wild west’ in early Vancouver. Inform the furniture store started on Water Street in the 1970s, as far as I remember, and grew into their new location. This superbly revitalized set of buildings very much keep in place the heritage of the place even as they reinterpret the site to make a fresh presentation. The Water Street Cafe has been a long-standing participant in the revitalized Gastown, along with The Spaghetti Factory, Incendio, and a handful of other long-standing establishments.  The hack job came later (via the Storeyum, the Woodwards and the disembowelment of the Mews).

South False Creek Another look back at a time when urbanism seemed like a real possibility in our city. The waterfront of False Creek South (from the Cambie Street Bridge to Granville Island) was a brand new experiment for our city when it was planned. The town planning is not as robust as one would have wished. But the waterfront promenade merits special mention.

The 1970s Revitalization of Granville Steet (demolished for the 2014 Winter Games). This is going to be a tough one for the City to nominate because it speaks to the errors of the recent past. 

Lord Stanley’s Park Unmatched in North America save for Central Park, NYC. The more urban, much smaller but more agile, Park Blocks in Portland probably come third on the list of best urban places in our continent only because of the majestic natural setting of the runner up.

Pairing the Salt Building and a fronting square. The record shows that we suggested this one at the Designers for Social Responsibility Workshop in 2004. Even if the rest of the Olympic Village does not rise to the level of urban design excellence, the combination of the square and the Salt Building elevate the project bringing a strong and palpable sense of place. Making for the village’s only figuration of place the duo is easily spotted from across the creek (Let’s not forget the two birds… ‘very surrealist’ one-liners). Unfortunately, the rest of the fronting buildings fail to achieve heights that are in simple whole number ratios to the width or the length of the square. No lessons were learned here from the mistakes at Leg In the Boot (see below) much less the longstanding tradition of human-scale urbanism.

Favorite Unknowns There are in our city many places that deserve a better fate. Among them I include the shopping streets that suffer from benign neglect (better that than ham-fisted attention). The first two are long overdue for recognition:

– Powell Street (Japantown)
– Main Street, Broadway & Kingsway (Main from 7th to 12th Avenues)

A second group should be addressed in timely fashion, as part of neighbourhood plan development:

– Robson Street
– Granville Street (Broadway to 16th)
– Commercial Street (1st to Adanac) 
– Punjabi Market (Main 48th to 51st)
– Kerrisdale (41st from Balsam to the Boulevard)
– Greektown (Broadway, MacDonald to Alma)

In order to flesh out a concept of what is and what is not ‘good’ urbanism we should mention some ‘also-rans’:

 Leg in the Boot Square should be singled out for its bad urbanism. A square facing north is surrounded by buildings that keep it in shadow all day long. The uses fronting don’t spill onto the square and one soon regrets that the urbanism of South False Creek is about 20 feet deep, misfiring as soon as one steps away from the waterfront rambla.

Chinatown Perhaps another racist act against the Chinese townsite, the revitalization of Chinatown never got the same treatment as Water Street. Not only does this speak badly of our cultural relationships, but it belies a real lack of appreciation for the quality of architecture and the unique urbanism that was built here under conditions of both subtle and overt oppression. Nevertheless the spirit of an immigrant people built here the same cultural space they knew back home. The quality of the buildings—and the spaces between the buildings to be found off-Pender and off-Keefer streets—deserves careful restoration and celebration. Ours is among the best of the surviving Chinese townsites in western North America. Bob Rennie deserves special mention for his sensitive restoration of the Wing Sang buildings.

The Law Courts Arthur Erickson remains Canada’s best architect. We have only to go to the Anthropology Museum to touch his genius. However, as a practitioner of the Modern architecture, his talents could garner but a weak grasp of urbanism. The suppressed outdoor spaces of the downtown Court House; abandoning the square fronting Georgia Street; and opting to enter the art gallery from the rear, are but a few of the things about the Law Courts that fail to deliver on the urban promise of rebuilding 3 downtown blocks with a low-flung architecture rather than the tower that had been envisioned. Standing halfway between Robson Street and Granville Mall (now demolished) it was a project full of promise that ultimately did not achieve the level of Erickson’s wonderful buildings. This is a hard lesson about the distance that separates modern architecture and good urbanism.

The New Granville Street (2010) The old stuff (very good) was ripped up barely 40 years after it was laid down and something very much lower in quality and vision was put in its place. The neon lights are glaring, the return of the straight curbs unfortunate, the parking of cars on the sidewalk an affront to urbanist sensibilities, and the creation of a bar district entirely unnecessary. This is no Strøget—it is what it is.

* * * *

At a glance NONE of the awarded projects speaks to urban design. One of the houses, and one of the urban buildings, may stand as representatives of a ‘building typology’. However, that is as far as it goes.

Needless to say it is not far enough.

The preceding list—even on the sites requiring a future deformation in the boring Vancovuer grid o achieve true ‘sense of place’—makes palpably clear what is understood by ‘urbanism’. The neighbourhood plans that have been hatched over the past few years stand as testament to the complete absence of understanding urban design and urbanism in our City Hall today.

These urban design awards are like a large billboard erected somewhere it doesn’t belong (like at Hastings and Clark) proudly announcing We Just Don’t Get It!

@ Lewis 2

Well articulated! Your observation that the City of Vancouver’s urban design awards are not in fact is spot on.

One of the objectives for a ‘citizen centred planning process’ in preparing neighbourhood plans would be to focus on the kind of neighbourhood urbanism you speak of. That is one of the ways the Metro density quota can be intelligently utilized.