The always-insightful Guest has a comment worth bringing forward:
(The plaza’s) success will depend on whether it is programmed with any frequency.
If there’s nothing going on, as others have noted, it’s just a big empty space.
The paving is rather busy – but is softens the vastness of the space.
The white pavilion looks better at night and provides a bright spot on the darkened plaza. The tynes on the roof provide an interesting play of light at night when walking on the other side of Howe (Nordstrom side), with the curvey side interweaving with the straight Howe side.
It’s certainly different than the North Plaza as it existed before the age of protestors.
I remember office workers lying on the grass during lunch breaks.
“Build it and they will come” is a bit of an over-simplification of how great spaces become such. Your guest is absolutely right, it needs to be programmed with some frequency. I’m hopeful that our work with the City in the coming months will result in just that.
And this morning I noticed that a Mobi bike share station had been installed at the southwest side of the plaza along the courthouse wall.