Making People Places from Found Spaces
Despite the what you may have heard about modern society, people still like to congregate together. I was reminded of this last week when my wife and I were sitting at the bar at Cafe Brio for our date night and she mentioned how busy it was, despite it still being early. I said at the time and am now reflecting on it, that people do like to be in places with other people. This, of course, includes places outside as well. Whether we want a place to sit on a bench and watch the pedestrians pass by or stand at a focal point where we can meet-up with a friend and have a chat before moving somewhere else, a city needs these spaces in droves. I would say that while downtown Victoria does have a few spots that stand out, perhaps the strange street furniture at Douglas and Yates or the parkette on Fort outside the Dutch Bakery, (Millie’s Lane?) we could definitely use a few more. Outside of downtown, I think this could be even more important. The good news is that I think I have found a couple of candidates for this sort of treatment, and even a couple of examples that have been created recently.
Over the last few years, there has been an incredible amount of change to the streetscape (maybe not surprisingly, I wish there had been a lot more). One of the by-products of this work, whether that is closing part of a road for a bike lane, or changing a one way street into a bi-directional street, are kind of 'lost spaces', land that used to be used for cars that is now just there. These spaces might not be obvious at first because maybe our eyes are used to the way things were; we can’t see their opportunity yet. There are also a couple of small spaces where we have recently tried to make it happen, which I think provide some pointers on how to do it and what we need to do to make them better. And then there are a couple spaces that are just sitting there waiting to be transformed. I will go through a few of the ones that have been created and changed for good or bad and then I will look at two places that I think could be amazing spots to transform into people places.
Recent Transformations
Blanshard and Pandora Intersection
The first one on my list is also the one that has been in place the longest. I think is a great place to start because it shows how far we have come in thinking and noticing these spaces. At the northwest corner of Pandora and Blanshard, there used to be a slip-lane. Slip-lanes are those swooping right-turn spaces for cars that create a pedestrian island. We have seen a number of slip-lanes disappear in the city over the last few years. Indeed, this is not the only slip-lane closure on this list. When the Pandora Avenue bike lanes went in, the slip lane was filled in with more pedestrian space. You can actually still see the curb of the old slip-lane in the sidewalk, which I love because as you will know, seeing little pieces of our past in our infrastructure is one of my favourite things. Still, as has been a common occurrence with the implementation of the AAA Bike Network, when the lanes go in, the bare minimum is done to fix the pedestrian spaces around them, and that occurred right from the beginning as can be seen at this corner. Apart from the visible piece of curb, there is nothing else of note here from the gained space except the space itself. Now that is a win all by itself, but we can do better. And given that this corner has the most public space at this intersection, there easily could be something here. That something could be a poster pole, a piece of art, or a bench, which could become a point of congregation at what is a major intersection for the city.
Humboldt and Douglas Intersection
This second one is likely a work in progress despite having been in place for a couple of years now. When the Humboldt bike lanes were put in, it was decided that the best and safest option was to close Humboldt to cars. This actually created quite a significant space that wouldn’t be needed by cars or by the bicycles anymore. And I suppose given the location in the heart of the city’s tourist zone, there was more effort put in than in other locations. The space got a couple of benches and at least for a short while, a ping pong table. It was turned into a real people place despite it not being very large. The ping pong table has been relocated, but I think that this space has a bright future as the new Telus Ocean building’s entrance will point directly at this spot and there is a significant amount of landscaping going into that location. I do expect that this will be a real place of congregation for the southern end of downtown.
Yates and Fort Convergence
Yes, these are almost all from the bike lanes. This space, where Yates and Fort converge into one street, used to have a space where cars could turn around and connect from eastbound Fort Street onto westbound Yates Street. Then the bike lanes were put in on Fort and this eastern portion of Yates Street. They faced a problem though due to the changing of the one-way streets of downtown, into the two-way streets found almost every else (Have I mentioned how much I dislike the one-way streets downtown?). For bike lanes, it makes sense to have a bidirectional lane on one side of a one-way street but not on a two way street, so at this road convergence not only does the way the road operate for cars change but also for bikes. The solution was putting in the worlds smallest roundabout for bikes (I am not sure that it is the smallest but it is very small and as I said in my article on the installation of the lanes, is not going to work if the lanes get very busy). The roundabout took up a small portion of the space that had been taken back from cars here and there was still a lot left over, and I think that the city actually did a really nice job in adding to the area with two parts to it. Just to the east of the bike roundabout is a section of the old streetcar track that was dug up while they were doing the construction and to the west the city built one of the nicest sitting spots with two sets of long benches that face each other. Now, I don’t live in that area, so I don’t stop here often, but on the couple of times I have been passing through, I have noted what a pleasant space it is, exactly the kind of people place that the city should be creating.
Quadra and Caledonia
The last space I am including here only came into being a couple of weeks ago and again it was the result of both removing a sliplane and adding bike lanes but this time at Quadra and Caledonia Streets by the police station. Compared to what was done at Blanshard and Pandora, it looks great and I am sure that the additional work will pay off. I do like that you can still see the old curb and it even has retained a little bit of its yellow paint. In the centre of the space as you approach the crosswalks from the north or east there is a broad paved brick walkway. On both sides there are nice bioswales and on one side a bench. I am not sure how much use the bench will get given the surrounding traffic noise, but the way it has been implemented looks great. I am tempted to try and see how the space feels now that there is an opportunity to sit down and enjoy it. Again thinking that this new place is just previously a part of the road really makes you appreciate it more.
Hopefully looking at these examples has given you some ideas of spaces that could be transformed into people places.
Two Opportunities
View Street Parkade
I am sure that there are dozens of places around the city that could be easily transformed into spaces for people. As I was thinking about this article, I noticed quite a few more, but for the sake of brevity and that the two here, would be fairly easy to implement, I am going to just include these two. The first is just in front of the View Street Parkade in the 700 block of View Street. I have had visions of creating public spaces near here before and strangely enough, when the city turned this portion of View Street back into a bidirectional street, it destroyed the opportunity of my previous vision (you can read it here) and actually created a new one. In the past, when the western portion of the 700 block of View Street turned into a one way street, in an effort to create an opportunity for people to change their mind about turning onto Douglas, there was a large turnaround for cars. It is actually still there, it just isn’t used any more. While the space isn’t enormous, if you took the turnaround and the couple of parking spots just before the entrance to the parkade and turned it over to the pedestrian environment, I think that there could be some really creative opportunities for using the space. There is also a secondary entrance to the parkade here that is blocked off and if that was brought into the mix it would be a sizable space. I could imagine that the narrow streetscape could be a great spot for buskers and as a photographer, this is one of my favourite places to go in the fall and spring at noon or just after. When the sun reflects of the office building onto the street it can create some pretty dramatic lighting. In my crude drawing below, you can actually see some of the reflection from the image I took off Google Maps. In case it isn’t obvious, the light grey crayon is the current sidewalk and the green is the space that could be added to it. I would love to hear some of your ideas of what could be done with this space.
Royal Athletic Park
The second opportunity for creating a great people place is Vancouver Street right next to Royal Athletic Park. This space is quite large and has not been used by cars since the space was blocked off as part of the Vancouver Street Bikeway. As it is right now, apart from a no entry sign and a concrete barrier part way up the west side, nothing has really changed in the space. What I would love to see here is for the whole block to be made level and perhaps a colour treatment for the bike lanes down the middle (or the side if that was better. This could easily be a congregation space for North Park and when there is a game on, it would provide a public celebratory plaza. I could easily imagine the area filled with vendors during the summer for a market, and maybe a couple food trucks in the winter? Again in my crude crayon drawing you can see the large amount of space that is just sitting here waiting to be taken back by the public. Also if the space was level, I can’t see how it would interfere with the comings and goings at the Park, especially since it would make sense for the plaza space to end where the service gate is. There is just so much opportunity here and I would love to hear your thoughts!
As I said before, if you know of some places around the city that are just sitting there, not being used by cars anymore, let me know about them in the comments and maybe someday they can be turned into People Places.