Confident prediction #2 – We won’t miss the helicopters after the Olympics. They’re a constant presence over the downtown now; one is rarely away from the whirr.
But one of the reasons they’re so audible is because the ambient noise is so much lower. Really, there’s not a lot lof traffic in the centre of the city, and, where there is energy, it’s concentrated within a couple of blocks of Granville and Georgia, and it’s mainly on foot. We’re only a few days from the street closures, and it might even happen informally along Robson as pedestrians simply occupy the curb lanes.
Here’s Robson around 7 pm – hardly a car, already with a divider down the centre – for what purpose it’s not yet clear.
Confident prediction #3 – We will miss the False Creek light show.
It’s called Vectorial Elevation – 20 robotic searchlights creating patterns in the sky at the entrance to False Creek. It’s the work of Canadian artist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer.
While the effect is stunning when you’re down at the waterfront,
I saw them last night between the highrises along Beach, and then tonight from Robson Street. The effect of the spots arcing behind the shadowed blocks of highrises evoked for me the “City of the Future” renderings that Hugh Ferriss did in the 1920s.
The illumination will continue until February 28th – and I’d recommend a stroll down to the seawall to watch the animation, which a photograph can never capture.
Oh, but Youtube can, and here’s one.
Fortunately there will be a lot of ‘legacy lights’ – a collection of light-based art sculptures you can find out about here – and which I’ll show on the blog as I discover them.
Of course, separate from the art installations, there’s the relighting of Granville Street with these particular light sticks:
I was a little sceptical when I first saw them. But now that the street is fully lit, well … judge for yourself:
One thing worth thinking about: in terms of light pollution, these lights seem to be one of the most inefficient designs anywhere in the city. I don’t know how efficient the lights themselves are, but they scatter the light everywhere rather than focusing it in a single place. Our night sky is already diluted enough, and while one street likely won’t change that much, it’s an issue that’s worth taking into account when designing these things.
I was on Granville tonight and the light sticks (or what ever they are called), just seem to distract from the neon signs and buildings along Granville that are way more interesting. Like the flex space parking, I though it might be a good idea when I heard about it but it seems to be another miss. Perhaps they might work better on another road with less things of visual interest to compete with them.
I do like the new bike racks though. They seem to be quite functional as well as being an interesting design.
Wow, the neon goddess atop the Vogue sign is lit! How many years has that been dark? Now if we can only get the Venue facade restored to its pre 1960s deco appearance.
A second thought and response to Richard, I think he’s right. I really like the effect of the lights north of Robson, but south of there it clashes with the neon.
The “wall” effect of the light pipes is really only evident in the “long view” down the strip. When you are walking down the street itself, the spacing of the light pipes, is far enough apart that they do not detract from the neon of the various signs.
Anyone else notice that the new neon of the Vogue sign isn’t nearly as bright as the Oprpheum sign? It not very visible – is that because it’s energy efficient? It would have been nicer is it was brighter – for more prominence.
WRT the focussing of the Vectorial Elevation beams, my guess is that you need a brighter ligt (higher wattage) to get the sharpness required and that the installation is meant to be more serene with diffused edges to the beams.