GRANVILLE PART III
Neon returns

JOHN ATKIN
One of the things that I think attracts people to a street, is if you turn a corner and you see a lot of activity and a lot of light, and different types of light, you’re kind of going, “Oh wow. What’s down there?”
 

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GRANVILLE PART III 

Neon returns

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Today, efforts are being made to bring lights and life back to Vancouver’s entertainment district. “The Great White Way” stretches across 10 blocks of Granville Street. It was unveiled in time for Vancouver’s 2010 Winter Olympic Games. While it’s not a technically neon, the Great White Way is the first new ambient light installation on Granville Street in years.

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Bill Pechet, architect and designer

BILL PECHET
I think one of the most important things about Granville Street was that it was the epicentre—and still really is the epicentre—of the kind of cultural and party life of the city.

When we began the project, and we looked a lot at historic photos, we realized that one of the things we could do in the reconstruction of the street was to evoke that energy that came from the light.

In a way, they’re a bit of an after-image of what used to be. But we tried to develop a fixture that could co-habitate beautifully with the blade signage that still exists on the street like the Orpheum sign and the Vogue.

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Dal Richards, saxophonist, big-band leader

DAL RICHARDS
I certainly approve of those white pillars. I think they’re very exciting. Very striking. And I think it will dominate Granville Street for years and years to come. It’ll be a memory, especially for visitors to the city.
 

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Mark Brand, Gastown restaurateur

MARK BRAND
I really love that stretch. Looking towards the bridge just sort of at dusk, I think it’s one of the most iconic Vancouver photos, isn’t it? Now the kids all have their iPhones, it’s non-stop on the Instagram, et cetera. It’s just like, “Boom. Look at all of this.”

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Kevin Dale McKeown, arts writer and advocate


KEVIN DALE MCKEOWN
City lighting of that sort is kind of a way of defying the darkness and saying, well, nighttime doesn’t apply here. This is 24/7, that things are exciting and happening.

JOHN ATKIN
From the 1960s until comparatively recently, we’ve been very happy to let nature be what defines us as a city. We’ve had a very non-descript city in a very spectacular setting. I think over the last 15 years, we’ve actually sort of discovered that urbanism works, urbanism is fun and “Gee, Vancouver is a better city being an urban city.”

BILL PECHET
I think that a project like the Great White Way helps to say, well, you can have something sublime that’s built by human beings. You can celebrate. Instead of celebrating something that’s in the very long distance, you can celebrate something that’s immediate. You can play with geometry. You know, it’s a design. It’s a design that comes out of people.

KEVIN DALE MCKEOWN
To me, it is, to the eye, a beautiful thing to see bright lights that say, you know,
“We’re here, we’re busy, things are happening. Come and join us.”

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