A recently tender on the city website is advertising for an architect/landscape architect team to pre-qualify for work on a re-design of the north plaza, to be done soon because of urgent need for re-waterproofing between the surface and the Vancouver Art Gallery vaults below.
Not a moment too soon, many will say. At the moment, the north plaza is covered with wood chips, which make it look like an unused horse-jumping ring.
The goal? To quote: ” The goal of the City is to create a plaza that reflects the needs and desires of the
public, respects its location at the historical entry to the Vancouver Art Gallery
building and its relationship to Robson Square. The urgency for the work is due to the
immediate need to excavate the NE portion of the plaza and renew the waterproofing
around the underground vaults of the Vancouver Art Gallery.”
This is not connected, by the way, to the activities the city is carrying on re the south side of the gallery or Robson Square, about whether it should stay closed and, if so, what should go in there.
You can read more here if you wish.
55 responses so far ↓
1 Ned // Nov 7, 2012 at 8:09 pm
Good one, Glissy!
“All it’s needed is a bit of sun… in the sky, all right, all right…”
I think no one thought of that. I wasn’t. That’s a damn good point.
2 Roger Kemble // Nov 8, 2012 at 11:03 am
Yes, “All it’s needed is a bit of sun . . . “.
Elementary my dear Glissie @ #50 elementary . . .
3 Frank Ducote // Nov 8, 2012 at 2:23 pm
Trish@7 – “This plaza has needed attention for a long time, I think it can be agreed. It reached a nadir when the VAG underground vault went in and all the mature trees on that side of the plaza had to go. What was a formal symetrical space became a lopsided weirdness.”
Given this statement (which I hope most people would agree with), I am a bit confused about your closing comment about wasting money to change this space while the VAG vault is there. Can you provide a clearer picture of what you think should happen in the short term, that is, prior to VAG leaving, if they ever do.
Thanks.
4 jolson // Nov 9, 2012 at 3:55 pm
Thanks Frank for the reference to Brooklyn Museum. A good example of adaptation.
It seems to this writer that this building and forecourt need the front door for the place making Rattenbury surely intended. I don’t think it matters who the tenant is; VAG or otherwise. Any money spent on the plaza should be conditional to installing a front door.
To those who suddenly discovered the North Pole; it doesn’t matter where north is, the sun is never in the same place more than once in a year in any case.
5 Voony // Nov 10, 2012 at 11:25 pm
To be sure, when he doesn’t need to criticize Vision to defeat an idea, Glissando Remy can be very relevant.
(many of his point, are also present in this critic)