As the plaza slowly inches into completion — a few finishing elements become visible.
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NO! It’s a civic plaza, not a garden, a forest, a park or a beach. It’s a civic plaza. Civic plazas are all about hard surfaces of appropriate scale within the context of the built form that contains the open space.
certainly an improvement on what was before but the evil is in the details:
regarding the surface, we will need to judge once those concrete pavers get weathered with the inevitable gum-dots and other stains
…and those benches without backrest… next to giant ashtrays decorated with flower, are they that inviting? will see…
I tend to believe that simpler pattern and form couldn’t have hurt: the below is place de la Republique Paris:
http://www.lefigaro.fr/medias/2013/06/16/PHObac6a19e-d68d-11e2-975f-48f095ce2843-805×453.jpg
no back rest too, but no ashtray… and more important: multi functions…
pavement is granite, which, is much more resilient to the “daily agression of the urban life” including gum, and so require less maintenance than concrete, in addition to provide a much more “classy” feel…
I think the true test will come with the first 10 or so major events. I suggest the Vancouver Symphony should hold a mini-concert there at lunchtime with an open invitation to celebrate the opening.
I watched them laying the pavers. They are at least 75 mm thick. Concrete can be formulated to have a harder composition to withstand the wear over several decades. No doubt using all granite and basalt would have quintupled the price and blown the budget.
Below are images of the new concrete pavers at NYC’ Times Square, the finished product and under construction. Beautiful work, especially the pattern created by embedded metal discs.
http://images.adsttc.com/media/images/52ce/4e5f/e8e4/4e84/9600/007f/large_jpg/ArchDaily_Times-Square_Pavers.jpg?1389252185
http://www.tecturadesigns.com/sites/default/files/styles/product_view/public/TimesSquare04.jpg?itok=3LkN-H2i
https://cdn-business2.discourse.org/uploads/yimby/1370/66ea3158e47affe9.jpg