A New Plan for Centennial Square - 2024 Edition
I really, really hope that I can stop writing about plans for Centennial Square. It was just over a year ago that I wrote my last article about the Square. If you want to get some context on where we have been and where I was hoping we would go, you can go back and read that article right now here. For those that want to stay where you are, I can do little catch-up for you now, but it will be brief.
Centennial Square was built over the course of a couple of years and completed in 1964, which was a couple of years too late for the city’s official centenary of 1862. It was built at the time to be a grand gathering place for the city. Despite the grand design, the Square has never quite lived up to its vision. While there have been times when the Square is used for successful large events, day-to-day use has always been relatively low. Recognising this, the city has tried a number of times to improve the space with the largest improvements being done in 2012. Despite those improvements, the Square hasn’t worked to plan and so over the last 10 years the City has engaged in numerous sessions to see what could be done, all without any positive outcomes. Finally, in 2023 the City came up with a new plan mostly based on the wishes of council. That was the plan that I looked at in my previous article. A couple of small changes were made based on that plan, but for the most part my concerns were not addressed. Luckily, council decided that they should bring in some experts and so the City contracted with Dialog to look at what should be done. This was not going to be an easy task as I will discuss.
Going back to the early days of Sidewalking Victoria, I have wanted to see dramatic changes at Centennial Square. I think my second or third article that I ever wrote on this site talked about the biggest challenge with the space, the Douglas Street frontage. Douglas Street is the largest source of potential square users, with a major bus stop and just a large amount of pedestrians walking along the sidewalk. As the Square has been since the 1960’s, there is a short brick rise along the sidewalk that encases a lawn and the sequoia tree. There are just two narrow level entrances into the Square along each side of this lawn. This has made entering the Square a psychologically challenging prospect; as you can’t see into it very well and the narrow entrances aren’t conducive to making short-cuts through the square.
Another challenge with the Square that has come up many times, is the centre fountain. With the fountain’s position in the middle of the Square, it has made using the space for big events challenging, as anything that is set-up needs to be located around it. Now I am a huge fan of Googie architecture and if there were a way to easily move the fountain so it could be kept in its current form, I would advocate for that. Unfortunately, it wasn’t built in a way that allows for its entire preservation.
My third major issue with Centennial Square is that there has been little done to make the square sticky. What I mean is, on a regular day there is little to no reason to go to the Square and spend time there. It is not as simple as just creating commercial spaces, you need to make the Square usable first. That way any of the commercial spaces that get filled will have a chance of success. Unfortunately, over the years the city has both done little to make the Square better and they have dramatically hampered commercial opportunities to use it. The arcade along the north side of the Square is almost entirely used by the city as office space now and even the newer commercial units at the west end of the Square, near Government Street are either also office space or vacant.
With this many challenges it is clear why it has taken so long to get to a comprehensive plan for the space. I had some initial reservations about what would come from the use of Dialog to develop a plan for the Square. With the 2023 plan in hand, I assumed that we would see a transposition of a lot of the problematic ideas. Instead, I think that Dialog has perhaps come as close as you could to perfect plan that addresses a lot of the concerns, while also bringing some of the good thoughts from the 2023 plan forward. Even some of the ideas that have come up in some of the placemaking events I have attended over the years are in there (like getting rid of the sequoia).
2024 Centennial Square Plan
I was so nervous when I got an email from someone with the new plans in it. I was fully prepared to be disappointed, but as I looked at the plan, I had to admit I was truly impressed with what I saw (You can see all of the plans and supporting documents and the council discussion here). The planners at Dialog seemed to truly understand the gravity of the problem and came up with a really good way to address most of them. The plan has three essential components which they call the Civic Plaza (or Front Yard); the Heart (or the Home); and the Expanded Green (or backyard). I will discuss each of them.
The Civic Plaza
The new Civic Plaza is perhaps the part of the plan I am most excited about. This new space will be directly along Douglas Street is where the current lawn and sequoia tree are. It is a complete transition from a completely unused space to almost a living room for the city. The design and renderings remind me a lot of the western portion of Bryant Park in New York, where you have lots of trees over top of cafe style seating. I think this area will be used a lot by people from surrounding offices and residences as a place to meet and chat. Most importantly it will invite people in from Douglas Street and give them a place to rest in the shade.
The Heart
I am sure that the Heart is the part of the plan that most people will be excited about. This is a truly dynamic, multi-use space that will create a lot of draws for people to go to the Square. The headline feature is that a large part of the space will have a waterpark feature where water will spray up and fill a portion of the Square and then empty and repeat. This is very similar to a great waterpark in Portland’s Pearl District that does a similar thing. In between the Civic Plaza and the Heart will be a raised platform that can be used as a performance stage. With the fountain gone from the middle of the Square, there is a huge space for a crowd to listen to concerts (of course the water park feature would be turned off for these events). The rendering show opportunities for markets and holiday events to use this space as well. One really exciting addition to this area is a retail kiosk next to City Hall which hopefully will give people an opportunity to get some coffee and snacks to sit down with in the Square. I wish there were more than one kiosk (my 2023 plan had three), but it is a good start.
The Expanded Green
The final space which abuts the Macpherson Theatre is a new green space that will be sloped to the west to follow the natural topography here. There is also a smaller opportunity for a second performance space and we see the removal of the current poorly implemented stage space. While many of you know that I am always wary of large lawns in urban spaces in Victoria, as I feel that with our wet winters they will get very muddy, the Square did need to have some lawn to soften it and I hope that the slope will help with drainage.
Minor Quibbles
While I think this new plan for Centennial Square is great, I do have a couple of very minor quibbles with it that I think I should point out. In the Civic Square there are two large planters right along Douglas Street which I wish were just a little smaller to encourage more flow into the space. I also wish the plan better addressed the arcade to the north of the Civic Plaza, granted it is up to the city to offer the space up for commercial use again, I think that there was some opportunity to push them in that direction. The plan has one line it that mentions putting art in the windows of the offices. My final quibble has already been partially addressed by council, the plan did not have any plans for improving the washroom. Luckily, Council did include this in their discussion at the Committee of the Whole Meeting last week. The plan has one more hurdle at Council tomorrow before staff can sit down and start planning the construction work. It seemed to have broad support and I am hopeful that we see this pass this last hurdle. And Dialog, great job! If implemented as presented, I think we are on the cusp of finally having the vibrant and well used civic square that we were promised in the 1960’s.
