Robson Square

One could argue that the most iconic of Erickson designs in Vancouver is the Robson Square complex. Sprawled across three blocks in the centre of downtown, it is bookended by the Provincial Law Courts and the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Long before Erickson came on board, the plan was for a vertical building — the tallest in Vancouver. But the 1972 provincial election brought about a change in both government and architect. And when worries were expressed about the immense shadow that such a building would cast, the new architect, Arthur Erickson, declared, “Let’s turn it on its side.” His vision was for a public square that people could walk through, anchored by the law at one end and the arts at the other.

The Provincial Law Courts were completed in 1979.

The renovation of the Vancouver Art Gallery, formerly the provincial courthouse, was completed in 1983.

The result is what Vancouver considers to be its main civic square. Curiously, though, our City Hall is located some three kilometres away. Why not downtown like most cities?

Good question, but that’s a topic for another post.

Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, the landscape architect who worked with Erickson on the Evergreen Building, designed the hanging gardens with its series of cascading waterfalls.

The law courts contain courtrooms, offices, and a law library. The entire complex is multi-level, with provincial government offices above ground and a sunken plaza with an ice rink below, offering free skating in the winter and salsa and ballroom dancing in the summer.

The buildings flanking the rink contain the classrooms and offices of the downtown campus of UBC.

Robson Square takes its name from downtown Vancouver’s main shopping street, which runs through the middle of the complex. That one-block stretch of Robson Street was first closed to vehicle traffic during the Vancouver Olympics, then every summer, and then permanently in 2017.

Robson Street is named after John Robson, a business man from Upper Canada who came west during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush of 1859. He was a strong advocate for the Colony of British Columbia joining Confederation and eventually served as our ninth premier.