Vancouver city center has not seen a new park open in more than 10 years, and this green space in Yaletown has been growing for almost that long. Seven years ago, the Vancouver Park Council announced its intention to turn a 0.8-acre Smithe and Richards property into a park, and by 2020, with a budget of nearly $ 14 million, it had finally broken ground. Tomorrow afternoon (April 29) the anonymous “multidimensional park of the future”, as the board calls it, will be officially opened to the public, a year later than expected. It is estimated by the board that this site will become the hardest working park in the city with 10,000 residents and 17,000 employees living and working within a five minute walk of the area. The space has a playground with climbing windows, hammocks, seating areas, art facilities and multidimensional corridors. Plus architectural curiosities in the form of skyframes. The demand for green spaces in Vancouver has intensified and as climate concern grows, this park has been designed with priority on sustainability. 6,000 shrubs, perennials, climbers and mature trees cover a third of the park, and many pay tribute to those used in indigenous culture as food and medicine. Rain and water from the water element of the square will be collected, filtered and channeled for garden irrigation and rinsing of public toilets on site. Or it will be cleared of aquatic plants before entering the city’s storm sewers. The culmination of the park will be the latest location of local Kafka’s grill, which is expected to open in May with a green roof and serve fresh pastries, sandwiches, home-made sourdough bread and soft-serve ice cream. During the groundbreaking, residents expressed concerns about the park’s maintenance, with people fearing it would suffer like some of the other green spaces in the city center. Park Planning and Development Director Dave Hutch told the Courier at the time that he hoped the coffee would serve as an anchor and bring in a fairly large population of visitors (the council estimates over 60,000 a year) that would discourage people from engaging in certain behaviors. . “This park marks a major milestone in the transformation of downtown Vancouver. By setting a standard for innovative, high-capacity, 3D community spaces, this park shows how to offer access to nature, leisure, health and community in a “It’s a dense urban setting – and it’s not like anything Vancouver has ever seen before,” he said in a recent press release. A naming ceremony is scheduled for later June to officially announce the name of the park given by the host nations.
