Places for People, Vancouver, BC

Places for People,
Vancouver, BC

Years
2018 - 2020

Client
City of Vancvouer, BC, Canada

Services provided
Public Space Public Life study
Urban Design
Streetscape design

Partners Involved
Sofie Kvist (Gehl)
Celsa Dockstader (Gehl)
The City of Vancouver Planning
Urban Design and Sustainability and Engineering Departments

Collaborators
Sofie Kvist and Celsa Dockstader (Gehl)

Like all cities, Vancouver’s public spaces— the plazas, squares, streets, laneways, pathways, parks and waterfront — are where public life happens. These are the places of daily interaction, and the spaces where people work, play, create, explore and connect. Often, cities overlook how important public space is in shaping residents lives, and how its quality and functionality can support daily activities.

As Vancouver’s population increases, the demands on its public realm have grown significantly. To meet this shift, the city commissioned a comprehensive Public Space Public Life Study to inform and develop strategic directions for a people-first vision of the city’s public realm over the next 30 years.

John Bela, as a partner and director at Gehl, led the effort (alongside the excellent team at Gehl and the City of Vancouver) to coordinate the study, train volunteers, orchestrate the study (engaging 270 volunteers to conduct surveys across over 40 locations in the Downtown peninsula) and develop strategic recommendations. The strategies address not only the growth of the city, but also the challenges of climate change and sea level rise, changing demographics, new technologies, social isolation, homelessness, and prioritizing public spaces in an increasingly dense city. We also crafted a Public Life Data Collection Plan that outlines how to integrate public life data with spatial data to prioritize public life across all city Departments.

In June 2020, the Vancouver City Council unanimously approved Places for People Downtown. Vancouver’s Downtown Public Space Strategy provides a framework to shape the public realm in Downtown Vancouver over the next 30 years. The plan serves as a framework to guide present and future planning efforts across the Downtown peninsula, and to inform future strategic planning efforts across the entire City of Vancouver.

This work was conducted while as a partner and director at Gehl.