For my week as guest editor of Price Tags, I intend to view Vancouver from an architectural perspective. To this effect, I will be releasing an interview with an architect, planner, or academic each day. Each person has been selected for his/her unique and timely perspectives on the city. Our discussions will highlight each person’s practice along with their notions of city building and form in Vancouver.
I’m sharing lunch with architect Nick Milkovich at Epicurean Delicatessen on West 1st Avenue near Granville Island. By chance, Bo Helliwell and Michel Laflamme are also here. This appears to be the place to go if you want to find Vancouver’s West Coast Modern legends. Nick, one of those legends, has been practicing since 1968 with Arthur Erickson and Geoff Massey before starting his own firm, Nick Milkovich Architects Inc in 1991, receiving critical acclaim for projects such as the Creekside Community Centre and Canada House at the Vancouver 2010 Athlete’s Village. Nick has generously offered the time to talk with me about his firm’s recent work and his perspective on architecture in Vancouver.
Nick Milkovich and Hiroko Kobayashi
JB: Your firm designed the plaza (now under construction) on the north side of what used to be the court house and is currently the Vancouver Art Gallery. Can you describe the design intent?
NM: We started by exploring plaza design up and down the coast. We did this study as part of our conceptual design process. A member of the city’s management team came with us to look at the layout, situation, function, and management of the plazas. We learned that although successful plazas had 300+ seemingly random events per year, these events were highly controlled. Public control was better, as private interest groups in control of plazas could make biased decisions about who could use the space. Even a publicly owned plaza will still be scheduled, and the Vancouver Police will do their best to collaborate with groups, assisting with traffic management and safety.
We also learned the value of open space. Our design includes the removal of the water fountain to privilege a large area with no built form whatsoever, and an open kiosk as part of the bus stop. The kiosk and other lighting installation will allow the plaza to be used later into the night. This layout is intended to support as diverse an array of occupation and use as possible for Vancouver’s citizens. In this way, the plaza can be whatever it needs to be when it needs to be it. This strategy took us away from previous design iterations.
Vancouver Art Gallery north plaza design by Nick Milkovich Architects
JB: Was there any push-back when you decided to remove the fountain?
NM: There was some nostalgia for the fountain, as there is when you opt to change anything. Generally, people saw it as an encumbrance to the success of the plaza and were happy to see it go.
JB: Was there any inspiration taken from the nearby work of Arthur Erickson and Cornelia Oberlander, the Law Courts and Robson Square?
NM: Certainly. Erickson always described Robson Square as a three-block complex. We are completing the third block with our design. We worked with Cornelia Oberlander to move two trees and alter the planting plan, and she calls me from time to time to let us know how we are doing.
JB: Was there anything you saw in other plazas that you want to bring to Vancouver’s?
NM: I like the ways plazas tend to operate in Europe. Many people who live in Europe do not live in large homes, and inevitably they end up using plazas and cafés as their living spaces. So they use plazas in this way, and these spaces assist in achieving a sense of shared memory, stewardship, and attachment among citizens.
We hope our design of the plaza will achieve this phenomenon as well. We tried to give Vancouverites something that they can’t get on the internet or in their apartments – open community space. We hope that people will share this public realm with great affection.
JB: If the Vancouver Art Gallery moves to a new site and a new tenant moves in, are you concerned that the use of the plaza will change?
NM: It depends who moves in, however the city will probably discourage a non-public tenant to move into the venue. The city will want a tenant that charges the surrounding open space with a supportive and creative energy. Another option that is not often considered is that perhaps the gallery could own both new and old facilities, with different faculties for art available at each site.
JB: Defining Vancouver’s heritage architecture has been a recent topic of discussion. What does heritage architecture mean to you?
NM: To me, heritage comes out of an environment and a time. In this sense, West Coast Modern architecture has managed to achieve a true sense of heritage on the west coast. It was born out of an experimentation with local materials, climate, geography, and lifestyle.
Good design begins with first principles. Arthur Erickson, my mentor, started a project by asking questions like “what is a courthouse?” or “what is a plaza?” It is questions like these that will lead you to your next generation of heritage architecture.
JB: Do you have any particular soapboxes when it comes to architecture in Vancouver?
NM: I was born on Union Street in Strathcona, and that still feels like home. For the most part, however, Vancouver has become far more urbanized. People have become escapist: they go up their elevators, point their backs to their neighbours, and look out at the view. Then, they go down their elevators and disappear out of their parking lots.
It’s a social issue. I have a “wheelbarrow theory”. If my neighbours and I shared one wheelbarrow, instead of each owning our own, whenever one of us needed it, we would have to meet first. I think people in apartments need to find their wheelbarrow. But that’s just what I think, and we’re history. Young people will find their own way to express themselves. I never could have imagined such a youthful social sharing phenomena such as Car2go.
JB: Do you have anything exciting in process at your office you can share with us?
NM: We have a great house in West Vancouver that is allowing us to test ideas. We will be excited to share what we learned!
You can learn more about Nick and his office’s work on their website milkovicharchitects.com and social media @milkovicharch.
I love that fountain.
When it was fully functional, it was the equivalent to having white water rapids in downtown Vancouver.
The benefit of the fountain is that it animated the plaza – even when there was no “programming”.
A large expanse of pavement (like QE Theatre plaza) will rely heavily on programming (and funding).
Who would want a “living space” surrounded on three sides by noisy smelly cars? It’s true that Europeans use outdoor spaces as an extension of their smaller abodes. But they are far more likely to be semi-intimate piazzas with little if any exposure to cars and traffic accessible by streets with little if any traffic.
I don’t mind the new proposal but lets not confuse it with a pleasant pace to hang out. It is a place for events or protests etc, with the benefit of high exposure to attract the curious. It is far too exposed, windswept and lacking in furniture to be a pleasant place to merely be.
I don’t fault this design. I fault Vancouver’s complete unwillingness to create urban spaces for people that offer relief from the noise, stench and carnage of automobiles.
+1 … lets keep the space and have less cars.