SOUTHEAST FALSE CREEK
MASTER PLAN AND OLYMPIC PLAZA
MASTER PLAN:
Client: City of Vancouver
Services: Urban Design, Master Planning
Completion: 2004
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia
Southeast False Creek is one of the last undeveloped pieces of land within the
saltwater inlet that defines the south edge of the Downtown peninsula. The City’s
objective in developing this site is to produce a sustainable, new community that
will serve to demonstrate new approaches in the planning and design of high
density neighbourhoods.
The firm was retained to prepare a low- to mid-rise alternative to the highrise solution that formed the basis of five years of work leading up to an
Official Development Plan application. The program included double the normal
requirement for park space in order to provide additional green space for the
Mount Pleasant neighbourhood south of the site. The resultant concept plan
contains a majority of buildings between two and seven storeys in height with
six buildings ranging from eight to twelve storeys. This significant reduction in
building height was achieved with no reductions in density and park space.
The new plan creates an urban form that can be characterized more as a
“town” with a higher percentage of ground-oriented units suitable for family
accommodation. Much of the ground floor is designated as “flex” space which
allows for transitional uses over time including housing, retail, studio, office or
institutional functions. The development program included 2 million square feet
of residential space, 200,000 square feet of commercial retail and approximately
50,000 square feet of community uses.
OLYMPIC VILLAGE:
Client: City of Vancouver
Services: Architectural, Urban Design
Cost: $4 M
Size: 4,550 sq m
Completion: 2010
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia
OLYMPIC PLAZA
DIALOG collaborated with Phillips Farevaag Smallenberg Landscape Architects
to create a public plaza at the heart of the new 2010 Winter Olympic Village
neighbourhood. The Southeast False Creek Plaza is the central gathering place for
the model sustainable community in False Creek.
The design evokes the industrial shipbuilding history of the site and contains
lighting and infrastructure to support its programming for a wide range of special
events and markets, both day and night. The space is delineated by steel ‘rib’
lights, representing the shipbuilding that once took place on the site.