{"id":2676,"date":"2011-09-12T08:48:09","date_gmt":"2011-09-12T15:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingvancouver.ca\/?p=2676"},"modified":"2013-01-21T07:19:24","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T15:19:24","slug":"price-points-gathering-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2011\/09\/12\/price-points-gathering-space\/","title":{"rendered":"Price Points: Gathering Space"},"content":{"rendered":"

What’s happening here?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A concert, yes?\u00a0 In this case, MexicoFest.\u00a0\u00a0 And the singers were pulling out all the old chestnuts – Mexican songs even gringos knew.\u00a0 I hadn’t come here specifically to attend but was captured by the catchy music a kilometre away on the Coal Harbour seawall, and so\u00a0headed for the source.<\/p>\n

“Digital Orca” on the far right in the background gives away the location: Jack Poole Plaza on top of\u00a0the new convention centre (map here<\/a>).\u00a0 It’s a big space – a trapezoid approximately 150 meters long by 50 meters wide.\u00a0 Was it, maybe, too big for events other than something scaled up to Olympian proportions?\u00a0 Would it work as a welcoming\u00a0public space even in off moments?\u00a0 Or for more modest attractions, like this one, where the numbers are in the hundreds, not thousands.<\/p>\n

The answer, I think, is that it pretty much does.<\/p>\n

The performance space is far enough north to avoid shadows from the southern towers.\u00a0 The plaza space subtly descends towards the harbour, creating a raked amphitheatre so that\u00a0all the audience can see both the stage and\u00a0the mountains rising above.\u00a0 (More images at Price Tags<\/a>.)\u00a0 Little flights of stairs break the plaza, still disabled accessible,\u00a0into three\u00a0areas between the performance area and the Olympic cauldron, each ‘room’ defined by the slight elevations.\u00a0 Activities that wouldn’t work if the whole plaza was seen as one fit nicely into\u00a0defined areas for music, booths, food and dancing.<\/p>\n

The convention centre wall and roof dramatically define the plaza space on the west, and the designers have done a good job with the other elements – the lighting stanchions, the restaurant pavillion, the vewpoints\u00a0and overlooks above – to create an enclosed and dynamic environment,\u00a0making this a comfortably scaled urban room despite its immense size.<\/p>\n

And\u00a0that 50-meter width isn’t a coincidence.\u00a0 That’s the distance Jack Poole Plaza has in common with many great public spaces around the world – as illustrated here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So it looks like Vancouver finally has an effective public square along\u00a0its northern waterfront – on the edge, not in the centre.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What’s happening here? A concert, yes?\u00a0 In this case, MexicoFest.\u00a0\u00a0 And the singers were pulling out all the old chestnuts – Mexican songs even gringos knew.\u00a0 I hadn’t come here specifically to attend but was captured by the catchy music a kilometre away on the Coal Harbour seawall, and so\u00a0headed for the source. “Digital Orca”Continue reading “Price Points: Gathering Space”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6020,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11232],"tags":[5664,11611,4925,299,214],"class_list":["post-2676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","tag-coal-harbour-seawall","tag-food","tag-jack-poole-plaza","tag-price-points","tag-vancouver-2"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPrice Points: Gathering Space - Spacing Vancouver<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2011\/09\/12\/price-points-gathering-space\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Price Points: Gathering Space - Spacing Vancouver\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What’s happening here? A concert, yes?\u00a0 In this case, MexicoFest.\u00a0\u00a0 And the singers were pulling out all the old chestnuts – Mexican songs even gringos knew.\u00a0 I hadn’t come here specifically to attend but was captured by the catchy music a kilometre away on the Coal Harbour seawall, and so\u00a0headed for the source. “Digital Orca”Continue reading "Price Points: Gathering Space"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2011\/09\/12\/price-points-gathering-space\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Spacing Vancouver\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-09-12T15:48:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-01-21T15:19:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/A-MexicoFest.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gordon Price\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gordon Price\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2011\/09\/12\/price-points-gathering-space\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2011\/09\/12\/price-points-gathering-space\/\",\"name\":\"Price Points: Gathering Space - Spacing Vancouver\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2011\/09\/12\/price-points-gathering-space\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2011\/09\/12\/price-points-gathering-space\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/A-MexicoFest.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-09-12T15:48:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-01-21T15:19:24+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/#\/schema\/person\/2ccd924eaf8e2cb7e72ac13004526550\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2011\/09\/12\/price-points-gathering-space\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2011\/09\/12\/price-points-gathering-space\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2011\/09\/12\/price-points-gathering-space\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/A-MexicoFest.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/A-MexicoFest.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2011\/09\/12\/price-points-gathering-space\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Price Points: Gathering Space\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/\",\"name\":\"Spacing Vancouver\",\"description\":\"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered | Vancouver Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/#\/schema\/person\/2ccd924eaf8e2cb7e72ac13004526550\",\"name\":\"Gordon Price\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b36df5afca7a760172ea9cbe8e7222ff?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b36df5afca7a760172ea9cbe8e7222ff?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gordon Price\"},\"description\":\"Gordon Price is the Director of The City Program at Simon Fraser University. 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