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Civic Engagement: The Next Generation

A couple of weeks ago, a few collegugue and I were profiled in the Vancouver Sun for our work with PlaceSpeak. Here is the article:

Tradition of civic engagement continues with PlaceSpeak start-up

Justen Harcourt, Yuri Artibise and Colleen Hardwick have famous names in urban planning circles.

Civic Engagement: The Next Generation

Photograph by: Ward Perrin/PNG , Vancouver Sun

METRO VANCOUVER — Their fathers helped shape Metro Vancouver as it is today, but Justen Harcourt, Yuri Artibise and Colleen Hardwick hope to have a hand in influencing the region of the future.

The trio are involved in PlaceSpeak, a new start-up that provides a virtual consultation forum — or, as Harcourt suggests, “civic engagement for the new generation.”

Through the click of a mouse, citizens can be connected online with local issues in their specific neighbourhoods.

“The bar is sitting pretty high to engage the public in planning,” Artibise said. “[With PlaceSpeak] you can learn a bit more in the privacy of your own home and voice your opinions without feeling intimidated.”

None of the three knew each other before the birth of PlaceSpeak, which arose out of a plan by Hardwick to replicate two regional surveys from 1973 and 1990 with an Urban Futures Opinion Survey 2012.

Hardwick maintains she was “indoctrinated at a young age” by her late father Walter, who had a hand in shaping the region and such iconic areas as False Creek, through his dinner table conversations and his work in civic and provincial politics.

As a youngster, she even helped him collate the results of that first survey in 1973. As a young adult, she studied urban planning.

She concedes she got sidetracked into a career in the film industry, but her passion for planning has since be reignited; her latest venture inspired as a “personal homage” to her father who died in 2005.

Hardwick started her quest by reaching out to former B.C. premier Mike Harcourt, who was involved with her father in the fight against allowing freeways through Chinatown.

Harcourt, in turn, suggested she contact Justen, a planning consultant with Colliers. “He said you need to speak with my kid,” Justen Harcourt said.

Harcourt, who shares his father’s passion for urban planning but not for politics, met Hardwick for coffee. “We became the first two investors,” he said. Hardwick is the CEO of the start-up, while Mike Harcourt is chairman.

“This is a real game changer,” said Harcourt, who prefers to take a entrepreneurial, private sector approach. “You just have to look at how far the idea has come in the past year and a half.

“We’re getting a lot of traction on this. People immediately understand when we say we’re trying to improve civic engagement and the democratic process.”

The process is simple: Residents must register with PlaceSpeak, and link their identity to their address to ensure they can be verified. Once they do, they can participate in any municipal consultations, such as master transportation plans, that arise.

They can also participate in the 22-minute 2012 survey, at www.placespeak.com/urbanfuturessurvey.

Hardwick acknowledges this survey is different: it’s not being done by the regional district and it involves a generation that doesn’t bother with telephone landlines, and communicates through social media, email or mobile phones.

Artibise, director of community engagement for PlaceSpeak, argues it’s a much-needed platform for the new generation and also allows renters — and not just homeowners — a chance to have their say. It is appealing to residents aged 35 to 45, he said, when it’s hard to get people to public meetings or involved in consultation because they are busy with jobs and families. Plus, he said, three minutes behind a microphone at a public hearing isn’t really consultation.

“My friends are interested but they don’t have time to watch or read the news,” Artibise said, adding it also appeals to all residents, not just homeowners. “A lot of people rent and don’t get notices (on rezonings). Once you get involved in one issue you can be involved in others.

“For me what was interesting was blending social media with urban planning.”

Unlike Harcourt and Hardwick, Artibise, didn’t have a lifelong interest in urban planning despite the fact his father Alan wielded considerable influence in the city’s planning circles as a former professor and director of University of B.C.’s school of planning.

Artibise, who studied political science and public administration, said he initially “ran away from urban planning,” and only got involved after he moved to Phoenix, Arizona. “It was the first time I went into a city that hadn’t been planned well,” he said. “Growing up in Victoria and Vancouver, and living in Ottawa, I took (good planning) for granted.”

ksinoski@vancouversun.com

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
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Weekend Watch: Global City

Deck Two’s Global City is an ambitious hand-drawn mural that aims to encompass the world—or at least its architecture—into a single cityscape.

Via Architizer.

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Weekend Watch: Moby Talks Architecture

While Moby may be first and foremost best known for his work in the music industry, his latest venture sees him dipping into a whole different territory:

Checkout his  architecture blog here: www.mobylosangelesarchitecture.com.

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Fifteen Things Charles and Ray Eames Teach Us

Screen Shot 2012 06 25 at 11.02.20 PM Fifteen Things Charles and Ray Eames Teach Us

I’m a huge fan of Charles and Ray Eames.  Not just their furniture and design, but their philosophy on life; especially their insights into human perception, understanding, and knowledge.Perhaps most appealing is how they carried out their life’s work with elegance, wit, and beauty.

Charles and Ray believed that industrial design could improve people’s lives; I believe the same thing about urban design.  Indeed, I see the two as interrelated.  While the following list is meant to look at the design of object, many, if not all can also be applied to designing good places; and ultimately, great cities:

 

1.  Keep good company

The artists, the designers,the writers, the architects, the painters, the business minds who sanctified the profession, brought respect to the craft through their actions and work.

 

2.  Notice the ordinary

… the plain, the commonplace, the mundane make a far more wonderful cast of characters than we give them credit for.

 

3.  Preserve the ephemeral

…the importance of preserving ephemeral moments that would otherwise slip away. Forever lost.

 

4.  Design not for the elite but for the masses

“The motivation behind most of the things we’ve done was we wanted to give them to someone else.”

 

5.  Explain it to a child

…not in a textbook way, but through experience.

 

6.  Get lost in the content

The tougher the subject, the more ardently they pursued it.

 

7.  Get to the heart of the matter

Take it or leave it, they seem to say. The idea speaks for itself.

 

8.  Never tolerate “O.K. anything.”

The Eameses fought for good design, not just in their own work, but in the work of others.

 

9. Remember your responsibility as a storyteller

George Nelson had selected the Eameses to create this story of America, on behalf of the U.S. government, for the first cultural exchange with the Russian people since the Bolshevik Revolution.

 

10.  Zoom out

[see] frameworks not as confining constructs, but as a playful means to understanding our world.

 

11. Switch

Was it that the Eameses were more talented, or merely less focused on the rules of the game?

 

12. Prototype it

We see their obsession with testing every detail… One idea at a time.

 

13.  Pun:

Charles borrows the sound of some words, and slams them against the initials of another.

 

14.  Make design your life… and life, your design.

…finding fuel in the process of discovery…

 

15.  Leave something behind.

And you realize what a legacy they left behind-whether intentionally or not-as it lives through the people they touched and worked with.

Excerpts from an essay by Keith Yamashita (PDF)

Screen Shot 2012 06 25 at 11.03.04 PM Fifteen Things Charles and Ray Eames Teach Us

 

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Vancouver’s Love-Hate Relationship with Neon

DrakeHotel Neon Vancouvers Love Hate Relationship with Neon

Drake Hotel Neon Sign. Courtesy of the Museum of Vancouver.

The history of neon in Vancouver reflects the history of the city itself. Neon first symbolized Vancouver’s arrival as a booming metropolis in the 1920s and 1930s. At neon’s peak, there were 19,000 signs brightening Vancouver’s streets. By the 1960s, however, “urban” became a dirty word and urbanism gave way to naturalism. Neon was seen as a scar on Vancouver’s beautiful natural landscape and could not be removed fast enough. A 1974 by-law restricting their usage – led by future councillor Warnett Kennedy -  delivered the coup de grâce.

In recent years the tide has turned. Beginning around Expo 86, Vancouver began to realize it could be a city ‘in nature’ rather than a just a ‘city of nature.’ We began getting our urban groove back. By the mid 90s, a nostalgia for neon was emerging and, a decade later, neon has regained a central and celebrated place in Vancouver’s urban identity.

This story arc is featured in the Museum of Vancouver (MOV)’s current exhibition: Neon Vancouver | Ugly Vancouver. The show presents a fascinating look at the rapid growth of neon signs throughout the 50s, 60s and 70s and the visual purity crusade that almost banished them from Vancouver streets.

Curated by MOV’s  Joan Seidl and designed by Resolve Design, the exhibition digs into the museum’s historic neon collection and resurrects some of our city’s former neon magic. The signs are enhanced by accompanying photography by the late local photographer Walter Griba, on public display for the first time.

The exhibit’s sign highlights include long‐time favourites like the Regent Tailors, Owl Drug, and the Drake Hotel. These signs are complimented by recently acquired signs such as Clark’s Beauty Salon (formerly on Main Street) and the Blue Eagle Café (from East Hastings Street, next to the recently demolished Pantages Theatre). The show also includes signs in the permanent collection, including the popular Smiling Buddha Cabaret and the quirky “Jesus Saves” signs. Altogether, there are 22 signs in the exhibition and another eight in the permanent collection. Joan hopes that visitors will question “how we collectively construct the way our city is portrayed.”

VRStreetEHastingaColumbToESsidePola1969Nov99CP Vancouvers Love Hate Relationship with Neon

Hastings St photograph by Walter Griba. Courtesy of the Museum of Vancouver

Vancouver’s love-hate relationship with neon reflects a broader tension in the urbanism community. Are neon signs—which exploded in popularity with the rise of the automobile—compatible with a truly urban landscape?

Local historian John Atkin thinks they are. John was involved with Glowing in the Dark, a 1994 documentary film on Vancouver’s neon and curated the award-winning City Lights: Neon in Vancouver, a 2009 show at the Vancouver Museum (now named the Museum of Vancouver).

Although neon signs were first installed to attract and entice passing vehicles, John sees neon as an essential part of good urbanism, pointing to the recently installed rotating Diamond Restaurant sign overlooking Gassy Jack Square in Gastown as a great example of pedestrian-friendly neon.

John believes that a city needs more than street lights to make it feel welcoming. Neon adds a particular quality of ambient light that simply cannot be replaced by other types of lighting. This ambient glow is particularly well-suited for  Vancouver’s often overcast skies and wet streets.  According to John, “there is nothing sexier that the reflection of neon on wet concrete.”

A lack of ambient light detracts from public spaces. As an example, he notes that while Chinatown has three times more street lights than Robson Street, Robson feels more inviting to pedestrians. This is because of the ambient light generated by signage, store fronts, and window displays. Neon enhances the pedestrian experience even further. Just look how popular world-famous urban spaces like New York City’s Times Square or London’s Picadilly Circus are with pedestrians.

John is heartened by the resurgence of neon in Vancouver in recent years, including the attention it is getting from the MOV exhibition. While many feel this resurgence is inspired by nostalgia or a growing appreciation for heritage in our quickly evolving city, he sees it in different terms. We may be looking in the rear-view mirror, but we are heading forward. If restoring the Save-on-Meats sign is a nod to history, new signs at the Georgia Hotel and Shore Club point to the future.

***

DETAILS:

Neon Vancouver | Ugly Vancouver

Location: Museum of Vancouver, 1100 Chestnut Street, Vancouver
Dates: Thursday, October 13, 2011 – Sunday, August 12, 2012
Cost: Included with admission to the museum ($12 adults) | MOV Members free.

More information visit the Museum of Vancouver website.

***

NOTE: This review was originally posted on Spacing Vancouver in November 2011.

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One Millionth Tower [Weekend Watch]

Over a billion people around the world now live in high-rise towers, many of which are falling into disrepair. This trailer for a unique documentary video by the National Film Board of Canada looks at how the power of imagination (and technology) can transform a dilapidated high-rise neighbourhood.

As a Canadian and a community advocate, I found this video especially cool, because it showcases a Canadian community — a highrise on Kipling Avenue in suburban Toronto, Canada. The project is a concrete result of a community collaboration between residents, architects, documentarians and animators to re-imagine the particular spaces around these particular highrises.


This is a timely video for all cities, particularly Vancouver.  There has been a noticeable push back in recent years against new condo developments in the city.  One of reasons given for the opposition to more high-rise towers is that they lack community and lead to neighborhood decay.

For Vancouver tocontinue to be livable (and hopefully become more lovable), we need to find ways to accommodate more people while enhancing our local community ties. Hopefully this project will given tower advocates and opponents alike some ideas to begin a dialogue.  I know it gave me some food for thought!

Long time readers of this site may recall a post on Arcade Fire’s Wilderness Downtown, another immersive video experience.   Videos like these are revolutionizing film as we know it by making the viewer a participant in the action. For their cutting edge efforts, both videos were selected by Google as Chrome Experiments.

For more information or to interact with the full experience, including viewing the full 6 minute documentary, visit the One Millionth Tower site.

 

[HT to Urban Times for the find]

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Vancouver Viaducts Competition: And the Winner Is…

A couple of weeks ago , I covered the re:CONNECT competition that the City of Vancouver held to develop new ideas for the future of the Georgia and Dunsmuir Viaducts and the larger Eastern Core area. Over 4,000 people cast over 15,000 ballots  and made over 1,500 comments on the 104 submissions.

After the dust settled, only one thing was clear, however: there is not a clear consensus on what Vancouverites want to do with the viaducts.  A total of 14 proposals received mention at the awards presentation, with only one proposal catching the eye of both the expert panel and the public.

web image Vancouver Viaducts Competition: And the Winner Is...

After the providence of this proposal was announced, it wasn’t hard to see why this one rose to the top of a crowded filed and caught they eye of both the professional and the public.  Indeed, the team behind the proposal represents a who’s who of Vancouver planners and architects, led by Norm Hotson, Larry Beasley, Jim Green, and Margot Long.

Their submission proposes the total removal of the viaducts and a redesign of Pacific and Expo Boulevards with enhances park space.  However, the judges could only give it an honourable mention as the proposal included “a large built form with an orientation that creates a barrier to the historic precinct.”

Here’s what the City of Vancouver had to say about the contest:

December 2, 2011

Viaducts competition winners announced

Vancouver’s viaducts were the centre of attention last night as 15 concepts, ranging from the practical to the highly imaginative, were recognized at the finale to the re:CONNECT ideas competition. Designs were as diverse as creating wide boulevards, monuments and museums to building recreational canals and adding new parks.<

More than 100 entries were received in the competition offering creative possibilities for the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts and the Eastern Core, an area that stretches from Northeast False Creek to Clark Drive.

A design jury, made up of renowned international and local urban experts, selected winners in three categories for the two competition entry streams – free and fee: Connecting the Core, Visualizing the Viaducts, and Wild Card.

The free stream (no cash prize) was a low- barrier stream directed toward people from any background who could enter without a fee. The fee stream, which required an entry fee and awarded cash prizes, was directed more at design professionals such as architects, engineers, as well as urban planners and their skill sets.

The jury was made up of five industry professionals: Allan Jacobs, globally-renowned urbanist and planning consultant (Berkeley, California); Rob Bennett, Executive Director, Portland Sustainability Initiative (Portland, Oregon); Joe Hruda, Member of the Architectural Institute of British Columbia (MAIBC), architect and founding partner at CIVITAS (Vancouver, BC); Tom Hutton, professor at the Centre for Human Settlements and School of Community and Regional Planning, UBC (Vancouver, B.C.); and Patricia Patkau, MAIBC, architect and founding partner of Patkau Architects (Vancouver, B.C.).

The People’s Choice award winners were also announced last night, chosen by the public who were invited to pick their favourites in each category by voting online. The competition attracted entries from across Canada and 13 other countries. More than 15,000 votes were received online, along with over 1,500 comments.

For details on the winning entries, visit vancouver.ca/reconnect

While no decisions on the viaducts are being made through re:CONNECT, the ideas the competition generated are intended to spark dialogue and help inform and inspire planning for this part of Vancouver.

The viaducts options will feed into the public consultation for the Transportation Plan update in spring 2012. Planning work to develop policy directions for the Eastern Core will continue in the New Year, with a report to Council anticipated in summer 2012.

Be sure to check out all the winning entries on the city’s re: CONNECT site.

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Here Comes the Neighborhood [Weekend Watch]

Watching this video reminded me of the powerful connection between street art and neighborhood placemaking. It gave me all sorts of ideas on how a renewed focus of street art could help continue transform both Vancouver’s and Phoenix’s alleyways.

To be sure a lot of work has already been along these lines in both cities (notably Calle 16 in Phoenix), but it is always good to be pushed forward by outside examples.

HERE COMES THE NEIGHBORHOOD is a Short-Form Docu-series exploring the power of Public Art and innovation to uplift and revitalize urban communities. The Pilot Season revolves around the Arts District of Wynwood Miami, featuring an array of internationally acclaimed and locally respected Street Artists, Graffiti Writers and Muralists.

In 2009, Urban Visionary and Placemaker Tony Goldman partnered with Jeffrey Deitch (Deitch Projects Soho and now director of MoCa Los Angeles) to create the Wynwood Walls.What began with a series of parking lots, loading docks, and drab rundown factory buildings, became a curation of high caliber murals from Futura, Shepard Fairey, OS Gemeos, Kenny Scharf and others. The Walls opened for Art Basel 2009, and now two years later the collection has expanded to include over thirty artists from around the world, becoming a “Town Center” in a district that has grown into one of the largest concentrations of commissioned murals in the World.

This year Artists, many of whom have not shown work in the United States before, were selected by Tony Goldman, Goldman Projects Arts Manager Meghan Coleman and Art Consultant Medvin Sobio of the Visual Arts Collective Viejas Del Mercado. 33third Los Angeles, Mid City Arts, and Montana Cans worked together to provide paint for the project’s ambitious expansion.

HERE COMES THE NEIGHBORHOOD explores a unique juncture in history as a new community emerges and evolves. A progressive urban revitalization campaign is examined in the first person, using this year’s new Artists and their commissions as a lens to explore a neighborhood in transition. The Series is framed by colorful overview and concluding episodes, providing the scope of past, present and future. Each episode is accented by images from legendary Documentary Photographer Martha Cooper, who has been capturing The Walls since they began in 2009. Her Photographs will also appear in a Special Edition Art Book “The Wynwood Walls and Doors” set to be released at Art
Basel 2011.

For more information on the artists and history of the Wynwood Walls visit thewynwoodwalls.com

Episodes of HERE COMES THE NEIGHBORHOOD will digitally premiere for free in the weeks leading up to Art Basel. You are invited and encouraged to share, blog, “like” tweet and tumble this content freely and enthusiastically. Your interest and support is deeply appreciated. To learn more and to view the episodes as they are released, please visit the official site HCTN.tv and the VIMEO PAGE, or contact us directly at INFO@hctn.tv

HERE COMES THE NEIGHBORHOOD
Directed By: Jenner Furst
Produced By: Ben Solomon
Supervising Producers: Julia Willoughby Nason & Daniel B. Levin

Created By: Jenner Furst & Tony Goldman
Executive Producer: Tony Goldman

A CINEMART Production
In Association With Goldman Projects
Coordinating Producer: Meghan Coleman
Consulting Producer: Medvin Sobio

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Here Comes the Neighborhood [Weekend Watch]
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Vote for re:Visualized Versions of Vancouver’s Viaducts

For you Vancouverites who are at loose ends now that ‘silly season’ (aka the civic elections) is over, here is another opportunity to vote!

re connect vote Vote for re:Visualized Versions of Vancouvers Viaducts

In September, The City of Vancouver invited the public and local and international design community to submit ideas for the future of the Georgia and Dunsmuir Viaducts and the larger Eastern Core area. The response was excellent. ”Visualizing the Viaducts” received 104 submissions from 13 countries – 75 percent within Metro Vancouver. Other countries included the US, Mexico, UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Poland, Turkey, Slovenia, South Korea, Hong Kong and Australia.

Submissions range from the beautification of the viaducts, to their re-use as open space or other uses, or their partial or complete removal and replacement. The visions range from the practical and pragmatic, to the futuristic and whimsical.

Here are a few samples of the submissions:

web image Vote for re:Visualized Versions of Vancouvers Viaducts

web image Vote for re:Visualized Versions of Vancouvers Viaducts

 

web image Vote for re:Visualized Versions of Vancouvers Viaducts

In addition to the public ‘popular’ vote, the City has assembled a design jury to give a ‘professional’ opinion.  You can find out who won both the ‘people’s choice’ and the ‘jury’s choice’ on December 1st.

re:CONNECT Vancouver’s Viaducts and Eastern Core Ideas Competition Award Announcement and Panel Discussion December 1st

The jury is comprised of renowned urbanists Allan Jacobs and Joe Hruda, architect Patricia Patkau, sustainability expert Robert Bennett (Portland Sustainability Institute) and urban economics expert Dr. Tom Hutton, have selected the winning submissions which will be announced as part of a public dialog on December 1st. The People’s Choice Awards will also be presented on December 1st.

re connect awards Vote for re:Visualized Versions of Vancouvers Viaducts

A Panel discussion with the local jury members augmented by Helle Soholt (Gehl Architects, Copenhagen), Ken Greenberg (Greenberg Consultants Inc, Toronto), and Brent Toderian, City of Vancouver Director of Planning will follow the award announcements. The discussion will be moderated by Gordon Price.

Panel Members:

  • Ken Greenberg, Greenberg Consultants Inc
  • Joe Hruda, Civitas Urban Design and Planning
  • Dr. Tom Hutton, UBC School of Community and Regional Planning
  • Patricia Patkau, Patkau Architects
  • Helle Soholt, Gehl Architects
  • Brent Toderian, Director of Planning City of Vancouver

 

Details:

Thursday, December 1st 7-9 pm
Room 3200 – Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema
Woodwards Building
149 West Hastings
Admission is free, but seating is limited. Please arrive early to avoid disappointment.

More Information:

CITY OF VANCOUVER
www.vancouver.ca/reconnect

 

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Vote for re:Visualized Versions of Vancouvers Viaducts
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