We hope you’ve all enjoyed a fine Family Day weekend. Hopefully you've had a chance to get outside in the nice weather to enjoy one of the city’s excellent public spaces!
With the long-weekend drawing to a close, we wanted to share a few items that will be of interest - including an update about our monthly meet-up (taking place tomorrow and covering the theme of social well-being and public space). There's also an invitation to the launch of our Life Between Umbrella’s design ideas competition. If you’ve got ideas on how our public spaces can be more rain-friendly, you’ll want to check this out!
To round things out, you'll find news on March's civic buildings meet-up, an upcoming Pecha Kucha architecture and design evening, and, for those that want to lend a hand, our next volunteer orientation. Lastly, a recap of recent activities concerning 800-block Robson Square and the Granville Bridge Greenway (spoiler alert: they're both good news stories!)
So… lots of public space action for your mid-winter calendar! Wishing you a happy February. Stay warm out there!
- the VPSN crew
February Meet-up – Public Space and Social Well-being – Tuesday, February 19 @ 7:00pm
Our next VPSN monthly meet-up focuses on the connections between public space, health, safety and social wellbeing. We’ll be joined by Mitchell Reardon of Happy City to speak to the public space-well-being connection and to share a recent analysis of a few City of Vancouver pavement-to-plaza projects.
As with all our meet-ups, we also want to hear from you! The meeting will include a workshop component, and we want your help to refine our understanding of what well-being looks like in public spaces. In particular, how might we look at the connection in terms of physical and mental health, social connection, inclusion, diversity and accessibility, and safety.
Please consider bringing a Vancouver (or local) example or two of a public space or feature that promotes wellbeing - and be prepared to speak briefly to why you think it’s great!
The event will take place in the Wo Soon (Mary) Lee Chan Room, VPL nə́c̓aʔmat ct Strathcona Branch, 730 E Hastings Street. The event is FREE, but please RSVP to let us know if you’re able to attend.
:: Reserve a spot - info@vancouverpublicspace.ca
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Facebook Event Page
Life Between Umbrellas - Design Ideas Competition for Rain-friendly Public Spaces
Launch Event – Wednesday, February 27 @ 7:00pm
It’s been extra chilly lately, steering things off of the usual wintertime rainy weather – but if there’s one thing you can count on in this city, it’s the fact that there is wet weather just around the corner.
With that in mind, we are very excited to announce the upcoming launch of Life Between Umbrellas - a design ideas competition that is looking for new and creative ways to improve public space and public life during Vancouver’s wet weather months. If you have an idea for how our public spaces can be made more rain-friendly, then this is the event for you!
Co-produced by the
VPSN and
Viva Vancouver, the Life Between Umbrellas design ideas competition will be open to a broad audience, including designers or all sorts, students, and the general public.
The competition will have three streams, allowing participants to submit ideas on
- Rain-friendly spaces;
- Rain-friendly design features or elements; and
- Rain-friendly events or activations
A number of prizes will be awarded in each stream, and winners will be chosen by both a jury selection process and a people’s choice voting process.
Our upcoming launch event, taking place on March 27, will provide an overview of the competition, featuring speakers and activities that will help to showcase some of the design challenges and opportunities that come with life in a rainy city. Seating for this event is limited, so get your tickets today and plan to get creative!
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To reserve a ticket visit our Eventbrite page
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General information on the competition
:: More information on the Life Between Umbrellas design ideas competition
:: Reserve a ticket to the Launch Event via our Eventbrite Page
Looking Ahead…
Volunteer Orientation – Monday, March 4 @ 6pm
Our next monthly volunteer orientation will take place on the first Monday in March. We use these meetings to provide some history and an overview of the Network, our current projects, and upcoming volunteer opportunities. If you’d like to lend a hand to improve public space in the city consider joining us at this session. We’re still firming up a location for the meeting, but please mark your calendars and hold the date. To help with planning, please register for the session.
:: To register – email
volunteer@vancouverpublicspace.ca
March Meet-up – Civic Buildings: an Exploration of “Publicness” – Monday, March 18 @ 7:00pm
Looking ahead to March, our monthly public space discussion will present some of the recent work of our VPSN Civic Buildings team, along with a guest speaker. This promises to be especially interesting, as we will unpack some of the ideas of what exactly constitutes a civic building, and, by extension, a public space. Why do some civic spaces seem less “public” than privately owned spaces? And if so, why? Are Third Places a type of public space? What sort of “publicness” should we expect from a civic building like a library, or City Hall?
We’ll be posting more information on our website in the next few weeks. In the meantime, if you have any questions email
beverley@vancouverpublicspace.ca, or
ellen@vancouverpublicspace.ca.
Pecha Kucha – Thursday March 21 - Thursday, March 21, 2019 at 7:30 PM
The VPSN’s Andrew Pask will be one of a number of speakers on stage at the next Pecha Kucha event. This edition of everyone’s favourite 20x20 slides ‘n stories night will be an exploration of architecture and design in our city. Once again, tickets are going fast, so be sure to get yours now!
:: Tickets – via
Eventbrite.pknvan48.eventbrite.ca
… And a Quick Recap
Making a permanent plaza at 800-block Robson
Fantastic news! Last Wednesday, by a vote of 8-3, City Council approved funding for the 800-block Robson Square plaza. As you may recall from our last update, funding for the plaza had been initially reallocated during last year’s capital budget process – a move that had caught many of us by surprise, and also threatened the completion of a multi-year design process.
But now, we are happy to report that Vancouver’s pre-eminent public square has been approved for a permanent make-over! Council was presented with an alternative funding approach that would help keep the project moving forward. With the vote in place, the approved investment will enable the delivery of a permanent gathering area on the 800-block that can properly support a wide range of social, cultural and democratic activities.
VPSN Chair Paola Qualizza spoke at Council, along with a number of other supporters. We were very pleased by the good questions and enthusiastic response from Councillors, many of whom were quite vocal about their support for public space issues. We also wanted to give a special shout-out to the many supporters on this list. Your letters and emails to Council were an important part of their decision-making process, so thank you!
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Success! Council votes to fund permanent plaza at 800-block Robson (Feb 13, 2019)
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Make the expansion of Robson Square a reality. Help Needed (Jan 29, 2019)
Granville Bridge Greenway
You’ve probably already seen at least one of the concept drawings for a centre-lane boulevard on the Granville Bridge. The idea of a greenway – or something similar – was first presented in the Transportation 2040 Plan a few years ago. It’s now being considered for a more detailed community engagement program, and was in front of Council in late January.
The VPSN supports the idea of an improved pedestrian/cycling crossing, but we felt that the public engagement that was being proposed also needed to include a range of options, so that opportunities for better east or west side crossings could also be explored. We wrote to City Council to both support the engagement process, and encourage the consideration of a wider array of options. We’re happy to report that they agreed!
We look forward to seeing this engagement process unfold, and will provide updates as it kicks off. In the meantime, you can find our letter to Council by following the link below.
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Granville Bridge Greenway – supporting enhanced public engagement (Jan 29, 2018)
