New Commissions

The redevelopment of this 9 acre site adjacent to Royal Columbian Hospital will include a connection to the Sapperton SkyTrain Station, office space to support the medical community, neighbourhood parks, residential development, and a commercial High Street. PWL Partnership worked with WesGroup Properties, and the design team on the Master Planning for this important project, and is now beginning the first phase of the design.

The December 2006 windstorm brought down many trees in the Prospect Point area, and has created that opportunity to redesign the road without removing existing tree cover. PWL Partnership is working with Kerr Wood Leidal Consulting Engineers on a new layout for both Park Drive and the viewpoint. This project will include sustainable stormwater management initiatives, and will provide an expanded pedestrian area to accommodate the 2 million people who visit Prospect Point every year.

PWL Partnership is leading one of the most comprehensive streetscape upgrades ever undertaken in the City’s central core, with a design team that includes the Pechet and Robb interdisciplinary design studio, Heritage Consultant Don Luxton, and Sandwell Engineering.
The redesign will include a comprehensive landscape design for the public realm on both sides of Granville Street from Cordova to Drake Street, with the overall design based on the “Modified Enhanced Existing” concept that resulted from a design study initiated in 2002.

This 50-acre community will be a showcase for sustainable development, as well as providing new housing in the centre of the city. Ecological initiatives include the creation of new shoreline habitat, and a comprehensive strategy for managing storm water. The public spaces provide for a wide range of community oriented recreational activities, including inline skating, bicycling, and field sports; and neighbourhood parks are combined with large waterfront corridors to provide key linkages to the open space network around the edge of False Creek.

PWL Partnership has recently completed the detailed design for Sections 1, 2 & 3 of the Central Valley Greenway, a 26 kilometer long pathway system for commuter and recreational cyclists, pedestrians and other non-motorized modes of transport, linking Vancouver, Burnaby, and New Westminster. Our staff designers are now in the process of creating a comprehensive wayfinding system for the entire greenway.

The Percy Norman Olympic Curling Venue will include a flexible allocation of field space to allow for adjustments as needs change. Pedestrian and cyclist connections will feature permeable materials, and the building roofs will be used for both recreation and water storage, and lighting design will minimize potential light pollution. The design will also include high efficiency irrigation systems that utilize grey water from the buildings, and plant species that adapt readily to the local site conditions.

The major public focus of this project will be to provide open relationship with Hamilton Street, with the mid–block pedestrian arcade opening onto a semi-public space to provide internal site access for residents, the CBC, and the new community uses. A new publicly accessible court and water garden will lead into the CBC arcade, and the new spaces will suggest an “outdoor studio” to complement the visible production studios. Planting will replace much of the existing paving, as well as covering the majority of lower roof surfaces.