Back on March 25. 

If you’re satiated with stories and images about Vancouver – but still fascinated with the urban condition – take a breather at the Jennifer Kostiuk Gallery at 1070 Homer until March 14 for some extraordinary images from other lands.

Vancouver photography artist David Burdeny left his architecture practice and spent two years travelling the world to several countries like Dubai, China, Egypt, Europe, and Greenland photographing cities. 

Sacred and Secular … depicts urban edge conditions and built environments throughout the world.  … Burdeny’s intention for each image is to be highly site specific when viewed up close, and more generic when viewed from afar. He obtains this perspective by having the earth, air and water in each image rendered large and neutral  – an infinite field on which society builds and transform the landscape.

 

Sometimes those shaky shots at low light levels produce some nice effects.  Here are two taken at the Surrey Celebration Site, of the Musical Ride and the Celebration Dancers, that capture a nice sense of motion.

Let’s see if this gets a rise:

“Surrey should rightfully bypass Vancouver. It can learn from Vancouver and do things we couldn’t.”

That’s me - in this article by Mary Frances Hill in today’s Sun – and I stand by it.

“If it is a competition, go for it. Be better. Learn from what we in Vancouver did, and surpass it …

“Surrey can learn from Vancouver on how to do really good ‘urbanism’ – in fact, better than Vancouver – and there are examples of that already,” he says, citing architect Bing Thom’s Central City project, which incorporates the Surrey campus of Simon Fraser University….

Price says the promise of Surrey’s new urbanism lies in its landscape.  Surrey has more intact natural and agricultural landscape — streams, for example — “that create corridors and vast spaces of green,” says Price. “In pursuing sustainability, these natural systems give it so much more to work with.”

More here.  And here – the results of the TownShift competition.

From Gladys We:

“My vote for the best piece of public art is this piece … an inukshuk made out of shipping  containers, kitty-corner from the Richmond Oval. I think it’s an interesting updating of the inukshuk theme  – with a B.C. economic twist.  The photo is by Tony Nathan.”

Yesterday, prompted by a release from Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson’s office, the media went after the transportation story.  It’s the dog that, up to now, hasn’t barked: no major screw-ups, and general agreement that things have gone well on the transportation front. 

In fact, the City’s plan – 30 percent reduction in traffic, 50 percent reduction in capacity to downtown, no venue parking – has worked spectacularly well.  And TransLink has performed with remarkable flexibility and stretched itself to the limit.  

So now what?

“You now have a public that sees the possibility,” said (SFU City Program director Gordon Price).

“We just conducted the greatest controlled traffic experiment in North America.”

But despite the optimism now, TransLink is about to return to barely adequate service and a probable new round of bickering between cities and the province over how to fund the system.

“Here’s the embarrassment – now they cut it all back,” Price said.

“They dock the third SeaBus. They can’t proceed with the frequent transit network. They can’t do what they say they want to do that we could do and that we know works.

“Maybe now a new political consensus will emerge that not only can we do it, we must do it.”

As BC Local News reporter Jeff Nagle notes, “the genie is out of the bottle.” 

Mayor’s Council Chair, Peter Fassbender of Langley: “I’d like to believe we’ve developed a transit spirit that says this system can work and it can deliver so let’s find a way to move it forward on the foundation we’ve built in this short period of time.”

But Transportation Minister Shirley Bond is sticking to her marching orders:  ”She’s ‘pretty comfortable’ with the existing set of property, fuel and other taxes plus fares to fund TransLink….  The debate, Bond said, will be about ‘how much should taxpayers, who are actually served by transit, contribute.’ ” – i.e. let the mayors squeeze the property taxpayer ’cause there ain’t gonna be no move on vehicle levies or road pricing from us. 

The only person more missing in action is Gordon Campbell, who as ex-Vancouver Mayor and GVRD Chair, would have been front and centre on this issue.  As Premier, it will be up to him if there is to be any real legacy from the spectacular transportation success of the Olympic experience. 

Otherwise, the only debate we’ll be having is how much we’re cutting back.

One of the legacies of the Games will be the public art that has animated our public spaces – and our skies.  In the case of Vectorial Elevation (below), we’ll at least have memories and images.  (Already I’ve heard suggestions that we try to raise the funds to keep the spotlights intact, to be used, like the Olympic cauldron, on special occasions.)

But not all of the works deserve a space on the podium.  Here are two works, fortunately temporary, that I think deserve recognition for being not just provocative – that’s art’s role if not responsibility – but for being off-key and, worse, badly placed.  Two of them were on the Vancouver Art Gallery.

A Modest Veil, on the Georgia Street side, covering the north face of the gallery, is Michael Lin’s gigantic floral, meant to reflect “domestic comfort and warmth.”

I assumed, when I first saw it, that it was actually the wrapping that would be dropped at an auspicious moment to reveal a far more interesting work behind.   The Art Gallery plaza needs all the help it can get, and it doesn’t get any from this.

Worse, though, is Cue -  ”an outdoor screen illuminated for more than 20 hours at a time, with 89 different video works from 79 artists, adding up to 667 minutes.”   

Can’t say that I’ve spent five of those 667 minutes watching anything on the screen that justified much more of my time.  But what really annoys me is that the screen and hoarding appropriate one of the great public spaces of this city – the gallery steps, the best people-watching place in Vancouver and usually the stone bleachers for the spontaneous performances in front. 

Now that this part of Robson was closed, there was enough room to accommodate both passers-by and audiences , or would have been if the screen had been placed somewhere more appropriate – like on the north-side of the gallery!

The winner, if that’s the right word, of the lead medal is regrettably a permanent installation at the entrance to Stanley Park.  Rodney Graham’s Aerodynamic Forms in Space is ”a nod to the location’s nearby seaplanes as well as the toy model planes seen with children and adults on the park’s grounds.”

I find it trivial and awkward – but that’s my opinion; your take may be different.   But again, this is a work that’s badly placed, a lost opportunity for a singular site.  And unfortunately permanent.

Not to end on a negative note, this is just one of eight city-c0mmissioned projects, not all yet installed but one of which has already achieved  iconic status.  I saw Ken Lum’s Van East Monument last night when whizzing by on SkyTrain – and knew right away that it was aptly titled.  It’s a landmark with a great backstory.

Here’s a Courier story on this and other works in this series.

The Games are still on, but it’s not too early to pass out some honours in a few categories.  Like the best piece of Public Art (Light Division).  An easy decision, this one.

Vectorial Elevation - “an interactive artwork that allows participants to transform the sky over Vancouver, Canada. Using a three-dimensional interface, this web site lets you design huge light sculptures by directing 20 robotic searchlights located around English Bay.”

Huge international coverage too.  The PBS News Hour gave detailed instructions on how participants could design their own light show and watch it live on the web.  Better to be in Vancouver, though – from the Upper Levels Highway to East Vancouver, it animated the sky.

Other categories and nominations welcome.

Vancouver moments while cycling around the peninsula:

Like, street hockey among the daffodils.

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But where are the cyclists?

Biking is still the fastest way to get around, there’s valet parking close to Games events, the weather is perfect – and while numbers are up slightly, it’s nothing like I would have expected.  A week ago we cycled out to the Pacific Colliseum along the Adanac for pairs skating, only to find only a dozen other bikes in the secure parking.   

So why aren’t people cycling more?

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A rock balancer displays his craft along the False Creek North seawall.  

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The latest False Creek ferry dock is open at the southwest corner of David Lam Park – and they’ve built a sturdy waiting pavilion next to the Erickson.   It says: we take these little ferries seriously enough to keep you out of the rain while you wait.

And the new Sea Star Children’s Centre nearby says: we take child-care seriously too.

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Sorry, but the Yaletown Park at Nelson and Hamilton is still a bust.

Even on a perfect day, when the docks of Yaletown are overflowing and the streets are full to bursting, this hard-surfaced open space attracts only a handful, who really don’t have anything to do.  The children can’t play safely, the undulating surface discourages the toss of a frisbee or ball, people don’t hang around.  The trees don’t even look happy.

But we’ve never looked better.

I mean, better dressed.  Maybe everyone looks good in red and white, especially when the shirts and jackets are athletically cut, they’re new, they’re clean, and they serve as the informal uniform of the multi-racial young.  And as the French know well, everyone should wear scarves

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Probably the quietest place downtown is the Olympic Village .  Hardly a soul along the seawall (and why is it fenced off anyway?).  The streets and squares seem empty from a distance. 

But hey, I suppose a quiet, protected place is exactly what the athletes want – and as the final days approach, things will liven up.

Anyone experienced it first hand?

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As a combination of engineering and art, these pipes from the district heating plant next to the Cambie Bridge are brilliant.  The heat is tapped from the sewage main that lies unerneath, and the tops light up to indicate the amount of energy being used.  One thing though: can’t we paint the pipes something a tad more exciting than industrial gray?

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It didn’t get a lot of publicity, but the streetcar collided with a vehicle at a level crossing.   No evidence of damage, though.  I’m told Bombardier technicians worked through the night to get it back in service within hours, looking as good as when it arrived from Brussels, to which it will return.   But not without a lot of people wanting something just as good for Broadway – or any other part of the region that’s demanding something more than infrequent service by diesel bus.

Another curious phenomenon: check out the number of tourists on this truck:

Two.  And that’s not untypical.  How come?  Have people converted so much to walking and transit that traditional ways of getting around – especially by car – have been discarded for a different kind of freedom?

This, folks, is the entrance to Granville Island on a sunny Sunday afternoon – a view of empty asphalt probably not seen since 1977. 

Amazing.  Will this change the debate over how we allocate road space after the Olympics?  Never again can anyone argue that we can’t remove car lanes without creating traffic chaos.

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One significant improvement has been the information panels, providing not only directions but also, critically, an indication of how long it takes walk  to other destinations – say, 15 minutes from BC Place to the cauldron.

Kudos to the Streets Department in Engineering and to the graphic designers for the new kiosks – another small but worthwhile legacy from the Games.  Another assist to the way that Vancouverites will think about time and space in their city.

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To end, as we began, with more street hockey, this time in the middle of Robson Street:

Cherry trees flowering in mid-February, half way through the Olympics.

Okay, Nature, this is getting a bit much.

Maybe it’s the ex-councillor in me, but I find this very cool.

Porltand is testing an app that will allow citizens to report a problem – an overflowing street drain, say - and then, by using their iPhone, photograph it, locate it on a map, classify it, write a few comments and send it to the city – with a promise that they’ll get a follow-up.

Beta stage still – but you can find out about it here.

There will be at least one iconic image that will come out of Vancouver’s Olympics.  It’s a nice touch that this image actually includes an icon.  And a fence.

This has instantly become one of the great case studies in urban design.  What were they thinking?  I mean, literally.  What went into their thinking when they designed the cauldron and the public spaces around it?  Did they think about people taking photographs?  Did they think people would even show up?

Was it discussed, or was the design process mainly about security and traffic movement?  Because that’s the way it looks.

What they clearly didn’t expect – who did? – was that so many people would show up wanting to be there.  So many, in fact, that the crowd would be its own phenomenon.

They have come by the thousands, to line up for hours, to spill down the stairs and along the seawall, up the ramps and along the railings, to jam the sidewalks on all the blocks leading to the cauldron.

It’s like Times Square.

Or at least the Times Square before they closed Broadwa y to traffic.  The Times Square where four and a half times as many people as vehicles were squeezed into 11 percent of the space.  Where the car was the priority, and so many people on feet was a problem.  You could see it in the barricades that lined Seventh Avenue to keep people from spilling into the street.  Just like here.

This controversy over the cauldron and the fence is not about the security.  That was thought out.  That could have been been the priority even as a solution was found to accommodate the thousands who wanted a clear view, as close as possible.  What seems to have happened is that they simply didn’t think about it.   The success of this public space, the space beyond the fence, came as a complete surprise.

And that’s not to blame VANOC.  In an endeavour of this scale, not everything can be anticipated.  It’s what you do in response that counts for the future.  

Anyway, they’ve done one big thing so well that it too has come as a bit of surprise.   More later.

Vancouver is Manhattan with mountains. It’s a liquid city, a tomorrow city, equal parts India, China, England, France and the Pacific Northwest. It’s the cool North American sibling. If only, and this holds true for the rest of Canada, it didn’t feel the need to blush.

- Tim Egan, New York Times (Feb 17, 2010)

We may have the greenest neighbourhood in the world, the greenest building bylaw in North America, the greenest aspirations anywhere – but Portland has just approved a $600-million cycling infrastructure program. 

That is not a misprint.  That is a 6 with eight 0’s.  Albeit over 20 years, with still undetermined sources for all those zeros.  But it gives a sense of the possible.

Here’s the back-story on the politics.

Question: why is there no securtity at cultural events?  Why, when attending a Cultural Olympiad event at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, do we not have to go through airport-style screening?

Not that I’m suggesting it.  But isn’t it odd that a target as attractive to a terrorist as any crowd at a sports event – and arguably more vulnerable – isn’t subject to the same level of security?

The reason, I’d suggest, is that we’re always fighting the last war.  Because of Munich and Atlanta, we accept the constraints for access to the public spaces at Olympic Games that were previous targets.  Just as we now take off our shoes at airports.  But since no one has set off a bomb in a theatre – yet – we accept a level of risk that requires, in another context, a billion-dollar expenditure to avoid.

The public seems to have reached its limit of tolerance, though, with the chain-link fence that cuts off access, physical and visual, to the cauldron at Jack Poole Plaza. This morning I see they’ve sliced a gap in the fence for cameras, and allowed people an unobstructed view from the adjacent rooftop to the west.

But really, why not just two rows of Jersey barriers and some Mounties?  Isn’t it worth the risk?  And if zero or minimal risk is the only acceptable option, then why, I ask, do we leave balletomanes and symphony goers as soft targets?

Coverage begins to pick up on the green theme. 

First, the announcement that the Olympic Village was “awarded LEED Platinum certification by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) Tuesday, certifying it as the greenest, most energy efficient and sustainable neighbourhood on Earth.”

Yup, on Earth.   ”As far as we know there’s nowhere comparable in the world,” Gregor Robertson said.

I’m looking forward to recognition being given to the Clouds of Change Task Force which, back in 1990, set the course for what has been achieved today. 

Also, a quick piece in Fast Times on how the legacies from the Games will subtly transform the city:

… while the Bird’s Nest has sat largely empty since its 2008 debut, the Richmond Oval will become a community recreation center and the centerpiece of a new waterfront neighborhood. Similarly, a curling facility will later be converted into a community center. Indeed, the governing principle in Vancouver seems to have been “leave no trace,” to create multi-use facilities that quietly integrate into the fabric of city life once the games are gone.

There’s also a helpful link to the ten major design elements of the Games, from mascots to medals.

Oh, this is brilliant: Locations of the best lighting installations for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler – with pics.

The best ones can be drawn by a child.  They’re recognizable from a distance.   They can be flown back or front and look the same.   They have a unique symbol, neither dated nor freighted with the regrets of history.    They inspire citizens, soldiers and fashion designers. 

Like these.

 

On first impression, I didn’t think much of the Vanoc palette – all tepid greens and blues, a tapestry of visual cliches.

I was wrong.  I missed the point: it wasn’t meant to be assertive.  In fact, its job was to be background, and to be everywhere.

This visual wrapping is especially good on television, where the cameras blurr the colours, and the tendrils complement the speed and angle of the athletes.

Diane Switzer, the Executive Director of the Vancouver Heritage Foundation, sends along a much better pic of “The Wall” – the new site for art that comments on our built environment, located on the west side of the new CBC Plaza.

Eric Deis is the artist of Last Chance, and here’s his statement:

In Eric Deis’ architecturally-scaled photograph, a house is framed by a large cedar tree on one side and condominium sales office on the other. In the background, the presence of a residential tower suggests  a similar fate for the little house at 1062 Richards Street. The photograph was taken just months before the owner ended her resolute stand off and sold her home of 45 years to make way for advancing development.

Echoing the current rapid migration of construction sites from one street to the next throughout Vancouver’s downtown core, Deis has transplanted Last Chance to the 700 block of Hamilton Street.

Using a printing medium commonly associated with full colour advertising and real estate marketing, Last Chance asserts a distinctly quiet, black and white presence. Its scale suggests a distant view, yet focuses upon a recent past.

Compressing into one image the last house, the last tree, and the last chance for preconstruction pricing, Deis’ photograph captures a somber and familiar moment of transition in Vancouver’s  built environment

From Gladys We: “These are from this gorgeous afternoon — so many people on that walk, and so many of them decided to go down and make art for themselves, including my 6-year-old. It was a highlight of my Olympic experience!

“I wonder if this rock-stacking thing is a uniquely Vancouver art  form? That fellow who does them around Stanley Park is amazing, but  these squarish concrete pieces are definitely more accessible to amateurs than his gorgeous roundish rocks.”