Moshe Safdie, the internationally renowned and prolific architect, is about to do something he says too many of his cohorts fail to do: A postmortem.
Safdie is heading to Vancouver to speak on the 10th anniversary of his Library Square. The invitation to return, he says, “is an opportunity to revisit how the structure has lived up to, or failed, its environment.”
It will not be his first visit back. Safdie walked into the Vancouver Public Library during a business trip a month ago, when he served on the jury for the University of B.C.’s University Boulevard design competition.
At Library Square, Safdie’s Roman architectural quotations form a curious backdrop to the many young, caffeine-addled ESL students milling about its bright, day-lit atrium. Today, VPL is unquestionably one of the city’s most lively public spaces.
“It was packed, absolutely packed inside,” Mr. Safdie remarked. “Outside, it is weathering its use superbly. I think everything we hoped to happen has happened. You walk around and realize, I think, that it’s the scheme of the space that is making this possible.”
Considering the controversy that plagued VPL’s construction—some of his critics showed at the launch in togas—it’s no wonder Safdie is pleased. By contrast, his Ford Centre for the Performing Arts across the street languishes in relative disuse. Now the equally awkwardly named Centre in Vancouver for the Performing Arts, the structure has never enjoyed the attention heaped on the Library Square.
But VPL is victim to a less noticeable disuse: the rooftop garden, designed by landscape architect Cornelia Oberlander (who also did Robson Square), that remains off-limits to the general public. Last May, in a New York Times Magazine essay featuring a prominent photo of the VPL garden, urban planning guru Jane Jacobs enthused that “there is no better place to look than Vancouver, where a partnership with nature is altering the urban skyline.” But in reality, VPL’s rooftop garden is such a non-entity that many locals do not even know it’s there.
During the project, Mr. Safdie insisted on providing public access to the garden, but eventually relented. “I deeply regret agreeing to such a serious compromise. In Salt Lake City, the rooftop garden is a very popular, central attraction.”
His Salt Lake City Public Library, a cousin creation to the VPL completed two years ago, has drawn extremely favourable reviews. Safdie views it as an extension of the VPL project, and the resemblance is striking.
“There is an obvious genetic relationship between the two, and it begins with the fact that the organizing committee for Salt Lake City visited Vancouver and apparently liked what they saw. The resulting competition was a clear reflection of what they felt we achieved here.”
Libraries are favoured projects for Mr. Safdie. “I love libraries, the way they span human history. They have become the cultural commons in our cities.”
He notes that in Philadelphia, where he is currently expanding the public library, all along the enormous parkway, amid the museums and galleries, the only freely accessible public space is the library. “Libraries are populist by nature,” he adds.
Meanwhile, Mr. Safdie is keeping busy. On Monday, April 23rd, his latest project was announced, a public art museum to be built in Bentonville, Arkansas at the bequest of the Sam Walton family, scions of the Wal-Mart retail empire. Last week, The Power of Architecture, a new documentary of his life and work, screened at the Montreal Jewish Film Festival. At the same time, Mr. Safdie is involved in numerous projects worldwide, including a June synagogue opening that effectively commemorates his three decades of work with the Yad Vashem holocaust museum in Israel.
Almost forty years after designing Habitat ’67 in his mid-twenties, Mr. Safdie is a rare species in his profession: a prodigy whose career has lived up to its initial promise and hype. Despite his success, Mr. Safdie remains reflective.
“We as a profession don’t come back to our buildings often enough, and yet postmortems are valuable. The question of how our buildings meet their promise is an important aspect of our profession-and for improving it.”
Moshe Safdie will lecture on public architecture on May 30 at 7 p.m. in the Alice MacKay Room of the Vancouver Public Library, 350 W. Georgia St., phone number to come. Admission is free.
