False Creek South

Location

South Shore of False Creek

Vancouver, BC

Canada

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Completion Date
1990
Site / Building Area
Site: 30 ha 2,977 residential units (Approx.5,200 residents) 25,550 m2 commercial space
Certifications & Awards
Project Team
  • Responsible Parties: City of Vancouver

Summary

Key Sustainability Features

  • 10.5 hectares of green and open space in city centre
  • Foreshore improvement
  • Brownfield redevelopment of former industrial site
  • First public access to False Creek
  • Early example of large-scale brownfield redevelopment in Vancouver
  • Precedent-setting development
  • Limits on vehicles
  • Pedestrian-oriented
  • Target of 1/3 low-income, 1/3 middle-income, 1/3 market housing
  • Housing forms include market units; townhouses and apartments for families; non-market housing in the form of co-ops and non-profit rentals

The City of Vancouver acquired the industrial lands on the south shore of False Creek in 1968 as part of a land exchange with the provincial government and Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). It then began an extensive planning process for the site. At this time, most of the industries around the Creek were closing down, and by 1973 the city had adopted a series of guidelines for the redevelopment of False Creek South. This process would lay the groundwork for one of the largest works in the city's history, the redevelopment of all False Creek's former industrial lands, which would ultimately become known as the Vancouver Model. Forty years after this first land exchange Vancouver has become an international exemplar of the liveable downtown.

The project was also notable for opening up a significant portion of the False Creek waterfront to the public for the first time in almost a century. This involved cleaning up industrial pollution, opening up bays, and lining the foreshore with an extension of the seawall. False Creek South became the model for the private development of False Creek North and for the  development of Southeast False Creek, the location of Millenium Water--the Vancouver Olympic/ Paralympic Village http://seatoskygreenguide.ca/neighbourhoods/vancouver_olympic_paralympic_village

Tours: Open to the public.

 

This post was imported from the 'Greater Vancouver Green Guide', it's part of the 'Green Guide Portal' to the Green Building Brain