Urbanism for All
Concord Community Pop-Up Park
Concord Community Pop-Up Park transforms a former parking lot at Northeast False Creek into a temporary public landscape, providing much-needed open space within a rapidly growing neighbourhood. Located on the former Expo ’86 lands, the park responds to a long-standing gap in waterfront access while accommodating future redevelopment of the site.
PWL led the landscape design, shaping a flexible and adaptable environment that supports informal gathering, recreation, and everyday use. The park is intentionally open and unstructured, allowing visitors to shape how the space is used through movement, play, and social activity.
Developed through a community-informed process, the project reflects strong local interest in creating accessible green space. The design responds to this input by prioritizing flexibility, inclusivity, and ease of use, creating a welcoming environment for a wide range of ages and activities.
The temporary nature of the park informed a resourceful design approach. Built over an asphalt-capped site, modular elements and lightweight interventions allow the landscape to be installed efficiently while clearly expressing its interim condition.
Connected to the False Creek seawall and adjacent parks, the project extends the public realm while offering a distinct experience shaped by its impermanence.
About
Vancouver, British Columbia | 2017-2018Owner + Client
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We conducted workshops with False Creek residents to uncover their desires for this space and what they wanted it to accomplish for their community. That direct input informed our design principles and how the area should be built—residents wanted a relatively unstructured space so a variety of different activities could happen at once.
The strong community voice shaped our design principles—not only is the project a multi-purpose green space, but it is also designed to be bright and colourful, safe for families, inclusive of all ages, and flexible for a variety of activities. One major concern for the city is that the space look temporary so it’s not confused with being a permanent park. To overcome this challenge we used Lock-Block™ units—a concrete modular material—for each wall and placed soil and plants inside. By deliberately using a less refined structure, we ensured the park doesn’t feel permanent and doesn’t create an unrealistic expectation.
The Northeast False Creek pop-up space connects to the existing Creekside Park that runs along Vancouver’s breathtaking seawall. The site is designed to complement the existing features around it while providing a new and different experience for the False Creek community to enjoy.
