[VANCOUVER] LEED Platinum Olympic Village/SE False Creek; a sustainable neighbourhood

[SFUVancouver]

In Vancouver we are building the 2010 Winter Olympics Athlete's Village to exceptional levels of sustainability. After the games three quarters of the the 1,000+ residential dwellings will be sold at market rates while approximately 250 will become non-market housing for seniors and low income singles and families. This is intended to be a demonstration of the best urban planning, architectural, and engineering practices in the world today and act as the model for future local high-density development. The larger Southeast False Creek neighbourhood, of which the Olympic Village is the first phase, will include an elementary school, a streetcar line, parks, day cares, commercial, retail, office space, at least one grocery store, a community centre, a marina for non-motorized boats and kayaks, and a mixture of subsidized and market housing for 10,000 to 15,000 people, all built to very high levels of environmental sustainability (minimum LEED Silver equivalence).

The 16 building, 1.4 million square foot, single phase Olympic Village is being built to the LEED Platinum [edit: project upgraded from LEED Gold to LEED Platinum during design and construction] standard while the Community Centre is being built to LEED Platinum. The building that will become seniors' housing is going to attempt to reach the Net-Zero standard, which represents annual energy, water, and carbon neutrality. All of the buildings will feature green roofs, passive solar design, beyond-code insulation and glazing, and low/no VOC paint and carpets. Rain water will be retained in cisterns to be used for irrigation of the green roofs and landscaping. The buildings will be heated and cooled using an in-slab hydronic system connected to a hybrid district heating/cooling system powered by high-efficiency natural gas boilers and heat exchange system that will use both ground-source heat pipes and an innovative heat exchange system tied into the sewer pipes to recover their latent heat. Electricity comes from local hydroelectric dams. A streetcar will run through the neighbourhood and connect it to two nearby rapid transit stations. All parking is underground and well below average in its parking to dwelling ratio.

As an interesting final note, after the Olympics the buyers of the Village’s apartments and rowhouses will be given the names and nationalities of the athletes who stayed in their homes while competing. I think that’s a nice touch.


Source: www.millenniumwater.com


Source: www.millenniumwater.com


Source: www.millenniumwater.com


Source: City of Vancouver


Source: City of Vancouver


Source: City of Vancouver


Aerial photo source: http://www.globalairphotos.com/image...ch2007_396.jpg


Aerial photo source: http://www.globalairphotos.com/image...ch2007_457.jpg

Buildings (Detailed models/renders)

Community Centre

Source: City of Vancouver



Source: City of Vancouver


123 West 1st Avenue

Source: www.millenniumwater.com

Parks

"Crane" Pocket Park - Public Memory of the Industrial Past

Source: City of Vancouver


My Photos


A link to a very large, hand-stitched panorama I took in the summer of 2007 showing the construction and context of the Olympic Village. There are 13 or 14 cranes visible in this photo.

The Olympic Village precinct at sunset, October 22nd, 2007.

Source: My Photo ( SFUVancouver in SSP | Vancouverite in SSC )

The Olympic Village precinct at dusk, November 10th, 2007.

Source: My Photo ( SFUVancouver in SSP | Vancouverite in SSC )

An aerial photo of the Olympic Village in the foreground with downtown Vancouver behind it. This was taken in February of 2008.


Lots more information can be found at:
City of Vancouver Olympic Village site.
www.MillenniumWater.com is the developer's sales website.
Olympic Village thread in the Vancouver section of this forum.


Thank you ImageShack for free photo hosting.

[Complex01]

That is going to look kewl. That is great they are going to sell them after the games are over. They look like they are going to have some nice views of well, man made and natural ones at that...

[zilfondel]

Cool, the only Olympics to have a barn in the village!

[mr.x]

Originally Posted by zilfondel

Cool, the only Olympics to have a barn in the village!

lol, well it has been around there since the late 1800's. they're going to restore it.

and it was actually a salt factory.

[raggedy13]

Here's a short video about it. It's not the most up to date but still worth a look.

http://vancouver.ca/Greaterdot/video...picVillage.wmv

[SFUVancouver]

I've updated one of the aerial context photos to indicate the location of BC Place stadium and GM Place stadium. The former will be used for the opening and closing ceremonies and nightly medal presentation ceremonies. The latter will be used for ice hockey.


Aerial photo source: http://www.globalairphotos.com/image...ch2007_396.jpg

[SFUVancouver]

Source: My Photo ( SFUVancouver in SSP | Vancouverite in SSC)


Source: My Photo ( SFUVancouver in SSP | Vancouverite in SSC)


Source: My Photo ( SFUVancouver in SSP | Vancouverite in SSC)


Source: My Photo ( SFUVancouver in SSP | Vancouverite in SSC)

I took these in the midst of a breathtaking, sudden fall sunset today. The light faded moments after I snapped the last photo. In order to capture the light I ran past the sales centre for the Olympic Village and there were people camped out in line in order to buy the condos and townhouses and they don’t even go on sale for five more days.

[Canadian Mind]

sexy pictures dude, this development is unprecedented. I've never seen a whole new city district built as the SE false creek flats is being developed. this is something more akin to what you would see as part of whats going on in middle eastern cities, not North America (save maybe for such developments as the re-construction of the World Trade centre site... and we all now how that is going.

[SFUVancouver]

There are 8 tower construction cranes on the site now.

The opening day of sales for first phase of the Olympic Village grossed $200 million Canadian ($213 million USD).

The new island has had three tall wooden poles added to it as part of the landscaping. These are perches for bald eagles.

The pace of construction on the site is amazing. At any given time there are four or five roaming concrete pumping rigs and excavators, dump trucks, and concrete mixers are everywhere. There is at least one on-site concrete plant in operation but, clearly, it is utterly insufficient for the demands of this 16-building, single phase project. Ocean Concrete (Heildelberg Group) is the concrete supplier for the project.

Everything is on schedule as far as I am aware. On a related note, the bored tunneling of the SkyTrain Canada Line (automated light metro rapid transit) under downtown is two weeks ahead of schedule. The first trains arrive for testing on the almost-complete Vancouver International Airport portion of the line in December.

The Olympic Village station on this line is about a five minute walk from the heart of the construction precinct. The existing Main Street-Science World SkyTrain station is a five minute walk in the other direction from the heart of the construction precinct. A modern streetcar will connect the two and continue on to Granville Island (mixed-use arts and culture precinct). Eventually this streetcar line will continue through Chinatown and Gastown (design-centric heritage precinct), to Waterfront station (multi-modal regional transit hub in a grand turn of the century train station that was once the western terminus of the Canadian Trans-Continential railway). The streetcar will then head west through Coal Harbour (new, luxury high density waterfront neighbourhood) to Stanley Park (1000 acre downtown urban forest and park).

Delerium posted a photo of a detailed sales model for one of the Olympic Village buildings. While not visible, this building also has an intensive green roof and a ground-source geothermal heat exchange system.

Originally Posted by Delirium

here's one of the buildings that went on sale this week -
this one is at 123 West First Ave. i like it.

[SFUVancouver]

Source: My Photos ( SFUVancouver in SSP | Vancouverite in SSC )

"Habitat Island" is now fully landscaped. This island will only be accessible at low tide. The three tall dead tress are perches for our local bald eagle population.

[SFUVancouver]

I went for a walk this afternoon on the new seawall section that was just opened a couple of days ago. It is nice! While it is not complete yet one can already tell how it will end up looking and I would say that it will rival the nicest parts of Yaletown and surpass it in many ways. The foreshore area will be landscaped with the seawall being set back some distance (relatively) from the water's edge. There are half a dozen or so small cantilevered jetties that project out over the water and it looks like the wooden decks are all made from recovered wood. They scream industrial in a very good way. Lots of granite cobbles and some enormous stone blocks that look like they could be used to repair the pyramids in Egypt.

The actual Olympic Village construction site has a frantic energy all its own. It looks like Athletes' Way has been built up but certainly not finished. Walter Hardwick way doesn't exist at all yet. It is a fully excavated pit. The scale of the place is decieving from 1st or the bridge. There really isn't much depth of the site at all.

In front of the Salt Building, which doesn't seem to be having any work done on it right now, a good quarter of the total depth is the seawall and Athletes' Way. Somehow they will fit two good sized buildings in there plus another street. I would say that Walter Hardwick way will be about the width of a Downtown South alley and the lots will be no deeper than a Downtown South block as well.

The scale of this place is going to be great! I was grinning as I walked away. The public is getting an exceptionally high quality public realm this time.

[raggedy13]

^I was down there this evening. I was really pleased with how it is coming together. I was thinking to myself at the time that it would be the nicest part of the seawall yet. It still has lots of work to go but you can tell it is one high quality project. And if it reflects the quality of the overall neighbourhood then the whole area is going to be amazing. Now I'm looking forward even more to exploring the area when its done. Was a beautiful evening. While I was walking around there I was trying to look at the city as if I were an athlete/journalist/tourist during the Olympics. Anyways, I arrived at the conclusion that I would be impressed by the city.

Here are some pictures I got. They don't quite do it justice though. (may be a bit blurry/dark)



Habitat Island


















Hard to see but this is where the west side of little pedestrian bridge over the water will connect






Central supports for the bridge






Xmas lights!


Where east side of bridge will connect




One of the building sites


That's it.

[Canadian Mind]

Great pics Rag. Is this 15 construction cranes (multiple projects) I see in this photo? o.O

[raggedy13]

Thanks, and yes I can see 15 cranes.

[SFUVancouver]

15 cranes and there will be a whole lot more coming soon. The Playhouse development by Wall Financial will be built immediately behind the Olympic Village, across the street at Manitoba and 1st. It will have four towers, topping out at 154ft, and that would probably mean four more cranes in that mass. Then there are a half dozen projects to the west that should come on stream in the next year or so and about the same again by the time 2010 rolls around. A lot of tv shots will have the Olympic Village in the foreground with a forest of steel in the background.

I noticed yesterday that a tower crane has gone up at Broadway and Cambie for the Broadway-City Hall SkyTrain Canada Line station.

[Canadian Mind]

Maybe I shoud cut Dubai some slack for all the mass-development... we're just as bad. XD

[SFUVancouver]

Things are progressing well with the Olympic Village. The weather has been co-operative for construction and according to the following newspaper article posted by mr.x2 the excavation phase of the 16-building Olympic Village is now complete.

The new Seawall in front of the Village has been open for a couple weeks now and more people seem to be discovering it as time passes. I hope to have a chance to take some pictures soon to do a proper update.

Originally Posted by mr.x2

According to the Sun, there are now 15 cranes at the village:


Vanoc Update: Vancouver Athletes Village
Vancouver Sun
Published: Monday, December 17, 2007

Fifteen construction cranes now tower over the seven-block section of southeast False Creek that will be home for 3,000 athletes and officials during the 2010 Games, and then become a fully contained residential neighbourhood afterwards called Millennium Water.

Excavation of the site has now been completed with foundation work underway on all 16 of the project's residential buildings. Some 300 construction workers have started on six buildings with two more set to begin construction this month.

Millennium Water is being designed by renowned Canadian architect Arthur Erickson in collaboration with Nick Milkovich Architects, Gomberoff Bell Lyon Architects, Lawrence Doyle Young & Wright Architects, Merrick Architecture and Walter Francl Architect Inc.

At its peak, the Millennium Water project will employ 1,500 people. Work started in this spring and is on schedule to be complete by the fall of 2009.


© The Vancouver Sun 2007

[kitchener-lrt]

You guys are BOOMING out there-lucky. All I need to do now is get the Olypics to come to Kitchener .

[SFUVancouver]

Looking east at Second Avenue and Cambie towards the Olympic Village construction precinct in Southeast False Creek (SEFC). Most of the Olympic Village surrounding SEFC neighbourhood will be built to about the same approximate height as the building on the right in this photo, which is about 90 feet in height. There will be a number of buildings that reach slightly taller and others, obviously, will be shorter.


Another shot of the Southeast False Creek neighourbood, this time looking east from the Cambie Street Bridge deck. The brick building on the right is being restored and converted to lofts. A streetcar line, Vancouver's first in more than 50 years, will run down First, below, and connect to SkyTrain to the east and Granville Island to the west. Additional phases are planned.


A couple of shots of the Olympic Village showing the mass of cranes.




These folks (below) across False Creek in Yaletown are getting some new neighbours to the east of the Cambie Street Bridge.


These new towers are being built by Concord Pacific in the Cooper’s Quay precinct. Behind them is BC Place, home of the BC Lions football franchise and the site of the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics.


Things are moving along for the Olympic Village itself. Construction continued through the worst of winter without disruption. The weather is fine again, the snow has melted, and the first flowers are starting to bud. It has become a pretty busy place. 12 tower construction cranes are building the 16 buildings, the first of which is about three storeys above ground. The remainder is all below- or at- grade.

The following several shots of the new man-made marine habitat island. The very small bay to the left is where the daylighted stream will empty into False Creek. There are dozens of streams running under Vancouver, all of which were filled in or buried in sewers more than a hundred years ago. One is being daylighted and deeply integrated into the landscaping of the Olympic Village. The elementary school will be right beside it and children can be expected to play on its banks and run across its pedestrian bridges.






The new Seawall features separated pedestrian and bicycle/wheeled vehicle paths, a number of boardwalks that feature recovered wood from the old industrial piers on the site, and an inlet with pedestrian bridge adjacent a piazza and the community centre. A marina for non-motorized boats (Dragon Boat war canoes, kayaks, etc.) will be adjacent.















All photos were taken by me on January 15th, 2008.

[raggedy13]

Great update. Nice to see things progressing. I like the looks of those pristine benches too (before the weather and seagull crap get to them).