Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Inspiration
- Contents
- List of figures and tables
- List of abbreviations and acronyms
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- One Introduction: Cities and public space
- Two Vancouver: (Re)presenting urban space
- Three Vancouver: Producing urban public space and city transformation
- Four Lowell: (Re)presenting urban space
- Five Lowell: Producing urban public space and city transformation
- Six Manchester: (Re)presenting urban space
- Seven Manchester: Producing urban public space and city transformation
- Eight Venturing beyond Lefebvre: Producing differential space
- Nine Conclusions: Differential space implications
- References
- Primary data sources
- Index
Three - Vancouver: Producing urban public space and city transformation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 September 2022
- Frontmatter
- Inspiration
- Contents
- List of figures and tables
- List of abbreviations and acronyms
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- One Introduction: Cities and public space
- Two Vancouver: (Re)presenting urban space
- Three Vancouver: Producing urban public space and city transformation
- Four Lowell: (Re)presenting urban space
- Five Lowell: Producing urban public space and city transformation
- Six Manchester: (Re)presenting urban space
- Seven Manchester: Producing urban public space and city transformation
- Eight Venturing beyond Lefebvre: Producing differential space
- Nine Conclusions: Differential space implications
- References
- Primary data sources
- Index
Summary
Later, however, perhaps towards the end of the period of accelerated growth, these same countries are liable to discover how [historic] spaces may be pressed into the service of cultural consumption, of ‘culture itself ‘, and of the tourism and the leisure industries with their almost limitless prospects. (Lefebvre 1991: 360)
The re-discovery of the street as a shaping element in the urban fabric – capable of giving joy and meaning rather than merely providing a right-of-way for the circulation of people and things – was a hard lesson for the city to learn … As a result, the streets of Gastown and the related open spaces of Maple Tree Square and Blood Alley became a primary focus of the revitalization process. The proper design of the street and its furnishings became as important as the buildings defining them. (Parker in Vancouver City Planning Department c1978)
Introduction
Far from remaining trapped in the past, history has a knack of influencing and shaping the present. In Vancouver the presence in the late 1960s of cheap, long-stay hotels, dating from the late 19th century, occupied predominantly by single marginalised men, was still a notable feature of Gastown and DTES. In this sense the two places merged into each other and at their margins became indistinguishable. Many of these hotels suffered gravely from lack of maintenance by the 1960s. The westward trajectory of downtown functions had left commercial buildings crumbling, empty or underused and pushed Gastown into political obscurity. In the mid-1960s massive modernist redevelopment Project 200 proposals called for the bulldozer to flatten much of Gastown to make way for an elevated freeway, offices and apartments. Such redevelopment would surely have confirmed Birmingham and Wood's worst fears and destroyed significant traces of the richness of Vancouver's heritage. It is apparent that the authors of the Restoration Report (Birmingham and Wood et al 1969) were acutely aware of the integral nature of Gastown, Chinatown and DTES, a theme pursued in this chapter.
Lefebvre's astute observation mentioned earlier about historic space and its relationship with cultural consumption and tourism has great pertinence for the examples discussed later, as Vancouver entered the era of post-industrial spatial production through projects and counter-projects on the ground.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Exploring the Production of Urban SpaceDifferential Space in Three Post-Industrial Cities, pp. 67 - 102Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2016
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