2329 West Mall, Vancouver, BC
Vancouver BC, Canada
July, 2010 - March, 2011
Agricultural Road, University of British Columbia
The 2009 UBC Public Realm Plan endeavors to re-direct the Vancouver Campus to embrace its spectacular natural setting, historic context, and memorable series of open spaces, key to the vitality of the Campus. The original Beaux-Arts planning for the new university on a hill imagined such a place; time, development, and the insistent automobile have kept the historic design intent from being fully realized.
It is an ambitious plan. However, the genius is in the delivery method – identify specific spaces and pathways that can be addressed within this well-supported master plan. Each completed segment will revitalize a campus space, maximizing the value of the investment. To be successful, these pathways must be well connected to the surroundings – providing easy access ranging in scale from that of the immediate neighborhood to the quad to the campus to the water. These connections must be physical and visual, making this a place to be as well as a place to pass through.
Construction is underway for this first segment of the Public Realm Plan -- Agricultural Road. The new Agricultural Road will create and support great 'edges' along the central walk. The block frontages adjacent the project include dignified old and new buildings, and several pending new development opportunities.