vancouver's popular pop-up plazas becoming permanent fixtures
8 minute read
rachel magnusson, city of vancouver associate director, street activities at the plaza at 14th and main street in vancouver.
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gulzar nanda only wants one thing for his east vancouver neighbourhood: to be remembered.
he hopes a small public plaza dotted with turquoise picnic benches and flanked by a bright yellow mural featuring indian sweets will be one more step toward that dream.
opened earlier this year, the side-street plaza at east 50th avenue and main street sits in the heart of the punjabi market, a strip of roughly three blocks where south asians first settled and grew businesses in the city. nanda was raised here in the 1970s, among shops selling gold, sweets, silks and spices.
“all the things we needed for our celebrations,” said nanda.
nanda still lives in the neighbourhood, even as most of his generation have moved to surrey and other areas.
“the streets were our playgrounds,” said nanda. he nods to a group of teenage boys who have settled at a picnic bench at the plaza, laughing and carousing, and smiles.
the punjabi market plaza is a pilot project, one of 27 neighbourhood plazas throughout vancouver, each with their own distinct personality and flavour.
the neighbourhood plaza program, which transforms streets into public hangout spaces, is one of the friendlier outcomes of covid-19 restrictions.
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“when indoor gatherings were limited, demand for outdoor public spaces exploded,” said rachel magnusson, the city’s associate director of street activities.
pop-up plazas that emerged were so widely supported, the city expanded the program, actively seeking intersections that would work, and supporting communities that wanted them.
each pop-up starts with a pilot over a summer, and relies on a steward, usually a local business improvement association, that liaises with the city and oversees the plaza and keeps it tidy. the city provides basic furniture, such as picnic benches, planters and maintenance crews to check on them.
if the community response is positive, the pilot plaza becomes a neighbourhood plaza that is “here to stay.”
now the city is making five of those “here to stay” neighbourhood plazas permanent. the plazas at granville street and west 14th avenue, cambie street and west 18th avenue, main street and east 14th avenue, kamloops and east hastings streets, and bute and robson streets will be anchored with permanent electrical and road infrastructure, and landscaping.
whether the goal is cultural, historical, social, if the community supports it, the city will continue to support it, said magnusson.
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magnusson said the city works with local bias to determine a good location and looks for certain attributes.
“we look for underused side streets, we look at the transportation network. are there trees for shade? is there community interest? is there a community or business association to be a steward partner?”
“the capital investment (for a pilot) is relatively low,” said magnusson, “about $25,000 to $30,000 per plaza.”
gulzar nanda, co-founder of the punjabi market collective in action at the main and 50th neighbourhood plaza featuring lounge chairs and picnic tables in vancouver.
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more than just a way to address social isolation and remedy cultural disconnection, these plazas could become a blueprint for more people-friendly outdoor infrastructure in other settings, such as along the broadway corridor, said magnusson. and such public spaces that foster connection and may even soften vancouver’s chronic reputation as a one of the loneliest cities on the planet.
at the main and 14th plaza one day this week, kim, an educator, said she enjoys spending time with her dog bernie at the plaza’s picnic benches.
“this is a happy addition to the neighbourhood,” she said. “i can work and study here without feeling isolated.”
the drive for more public spaces began before the pandemic. a downtown vancouver business improvement association study in 2015 identified public gathering spaces as a major missing link in the urban landscape. vancouverites were clamouring for “more public space, including plazas, rooftop patios and alleyway activations.”
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mitchell reardon, of happy cities, an urban planning and research firm that works with municipalities, said the people-friendly plaza initiative had a grassroots start about a decade ago when three pilot plazas were put in place on underused road space.
scenes from the cambie st and 17th ave neighbourhood plaza featuring lounge chairs and picnic tables, in vancouver.
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jim deva plaza in the heart of davie village, one of vancouver’s first “pavement to plaza” projects, was created in 2016 through a partnership between community members and the west end business improvement association to honour the founder of little sisters book and art emporium. in 2017, a trial plaza at bute and robson, spearheaded by the robson business association proved extremely popular. and a plaza at 14th and main became a popular gathering spot in 2018.
the goal then, and now, was to create public “living rooms” to support social interactions.
“we wanted to take underused road space and transform them into spaces for people,” said reardon. working with a mix of community advocates and business associations ensured each would have its own unique personality, or, as reardon calls it, “community fingerprint.”
a few ingredients improved the usefulness, loneliness reduction and sense of connection in shared public spaces: greenery and other natural features, seating, art and play equipment.
the granville street and 13th avenue neighbourhood plaza featuring lounge chairs and picnic tables.
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“by simply adding some paint, some movable furniture, some chairs and some greenery, we had spaces that contributed to well-being. but the more you could engage and reflect the local community, in turn, created a care for, and stewardship of, the place.”
a comparative study in 2019 showed that people reported higher levels of safety, comfort and community connection at plazas rather than at comparable but unplanned locations, said reardon.
ivy haisell, executive director south granville business improvement association, and champion of two plazas on granville street, one at west 13th and one at west 14th, is no stranger to creating magical public spaces, or the benefits they bring to local businesses and residents.
haisell was involved in creating alley oop, the pink and yellow laneway south of west hastings street between granville and seymour streets, which opened in 2016.
along with being one of the most instagrammable laneways in vancouver, alley oop became a popular venue for events like a recent “laneway disco.”
ally oop was a learning experience about the impact of transforming public space, and understanding the uses of space, said haisell.
“there was a homeless man that lived in the alleyway. he said that after the alleyway was painted pink, people started treating him differently. people started treating him like a human being.”
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it’s the same kind of impact she hopes to make with the two plazas she helped develop in south granville.
“we have to remember we are building a community,” she said.
a vancouver neighbourhood plaza featuring lounge chairs and picnic tables.
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the city approached the south granville bia in 2020, after identifying two potential sites, at west 13th and 14th, for temporary or “pop-up” plazas. haisell, who had travelled to montreal to study their public spaces, said what montreal does differently is focus on creating beautiful and permanent infrastructure that centred people.
“vancouver was always focused on safety. and regulations prevented us from doing anything on the streets.”
so when the opportunity for the temporary plazas came up, haisell and the south granville bia ran with it, engaging the design firm hcma to design the plaza at 13th and granville.
the bia wanted it to be beautiful, not just functional. “these plazas are people’s backyards,” said haisell.
hcma came up with organic, flowing wooden structures that provide shelter as well as privacy, but offer clear sight lines, something that was particularly important for a feeling of safety, said haisell.
five years later, those two plazas are some of the most well-used in the city, and the plaza at west 14th is currently under construction to become a permanent plaza.
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“prior to the plazas, south granville had largely been a quiet, drive-up community. with these two plazas we have created more opportunity for neighbours to meet and connect. we’ve had a myriad of different events — a bonsai workshop, silent book clubs, story-time for babies, drawing classes, karaoke nights, board game nights,” said haisell.
throughout most of the day, the plaza at 13th and granville is packed with people having lunches, reading books, and working on their computers.
the vision for the plaza at 14th and granville, when it becomes permanent, will be an event space with room for up to 1,000 people, said haisell, with movie and music nights, perhaps even fifa watch parties.
ivy haisell, executive director south granville business association at neighbourhood plaza at granville and 13th ave in vancouver.
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magnusson said making plazas permanent was a natural extension after the public support for the pop-up plazas was so clear. while the city has fielded occasional complaints about lost parking, the majority have 85 to 90 per cent approval ratings.
a few haven’t worked out. one, near a liquor store, created too many problems for deliveries and was pulled out, said magnusson. another, in marpole, was shut down after an encampment and public disturbances brought about complaints from neighbours.
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the capital investment for a permanent plaza is a little higher than for a pop-up, closer to $3 to $4 million.
permanent plazas will feature even concrete surfacing, as well as electrical infrastructure so they can be used for event programming, accommodating stages and seating. they will also feature some shelter elements, as well as green infrastructure and micromobility stations, such as scooters and bikes. they also need to be near public washrooms.
“looking through a longer planning lens, we are asking: if every core retail area could have one or two plazas that are open and flexible for programming events, small markets of different kinds, performances, what would that look like?” said magnusson.
magnusson sees challenges.
“we work with partners, so those relationships may shift over time. but the core goal is to support public life in the city, and have the funding to keep those spaces alive.”
a neighbourhood plaza featuring lounge chairs and picnic tables, in vancouver.
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at a public plaza on fraser street and east 48th avenue, john and his 18-month-old daughter ellena, sit at a picnic table watching the pigeons.
he said his family spends a lot of time here as they don’t have a backyard at home.
“we love to come here to eat. the kids like to play and watch the pigeons. it’s very kid-friendly.”
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his only suggestion would be to add “no-smoking” signs.
gulzar nanda isn’t sure the punjabi market plaza will be back next year. it all depends on public feedback. qr codes that link to a survey are posted at every picnic table.
still, they’ve already been having a blast, hosting free events like an indian summer festival and the city’s first desi pride event celebrating “queer south asian & bipoc joy.”
do they want to become a permanent plaza?
“we have to see what the community wants,” said nanda. “a few people have complained about losing the parking, but for the most part, people love it.”
today we launch a new series, the next metro vancouver, to explore the innovations and ideas that can help build a thriving region.
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