Repair the Square!

Every town has its ceremonial central public square. Nanaimo's is Dallas Square, one block from the waterfront promenade. It's home to the Cenotaph and shares the site with St. Paul's Anglican Church, built in 1931. The original Anglican Church on the site was built in the 1860s.

It has been neglected and harm was done to it some years ago with the creation of a single lane traffic ramp to align with Church Street. At the cost of effectively the loss of nearly half of the potential area of the public square, turning right from Front St. onto Church St. was made slightly more convenient for motorists.

Downtown Urban Design Plan and Guidelines recognizes Dallas Square's importance in "the development of an open space and pathway network throughout the downtown. Existing city owned lands and rights-of-way, combined with private property redevelopment, provide the opportunity for a coordinated park, pathway and open space plan..."

A modest improvement would be the immediate removal of the ramp and a design competition to generate ideas to renovate the square and better connect it to the walkway that leads to the waterfront promenade and parks. The Design Guidelines offered this starting point for fresh design ideas for the square.

More ambitiously, consideration should be given to the acquisition from the Anglican Church of its adjacent property, currently a parking lot. Church parking lots offer a win-win opportunity for steadily densifying downtowns: badly needed revenue for the churches and the creation of badly needed pedestrian scale public squares for the City.

St. Paul's would anchor a brilliant new central public square, modeled on the public squares of European cities.

The renovation of Dallas Square could also signal a badly needed tipping point for Nanaimo: a return to designing human scale public space.

From the Design Guidelines document:

DOWNTOWN PARKS

This downtown plan anticipates further research and design work towards the development of an open space and pathway network throughout the downtown. Existing city owned lands and rights-of-way, combined with private property redevelopment, provide the opportunity for a coordinated park, pathway and open space plan to be incrementally established over time.

With the redevelopment of numerous sites at or adjacent to the downtown waterfront, a number of park sites along the waters' edge walkway and adjacent to Front Street will require redesign. The increased number of residents, as well as a greater number of people attracted to the area in the future, will cause more intensive use and greater demand on walkways and other park amenities. This means that paving, lighting, seating and other features will have to be developed in concert with the building redevelopments neighbouring these parks, paths and public open spaces.

Georgia Park

Redesign and redevelopment should be considered for Georgia Park and Dallas Square. Georgia Park requires attention to good public visibility and safe access across Front Street.







More at: http://parksgo.ca/nanaimo/dallas-square-cenotaph/