a better city exists
The Architecture of Public Life
Community & Civic Building Design
Year
2025-2026
Project Type
Project Playbook
The Challenge
What makes architecture feel like it truly belongs to a community?
Community buildings can do more than help meet the needs of their residents. They can become landmarks of civic life, shared living rooms for everyday connection, and places where communities see themselves reflected in the built environment.
We've decided to develop a playbook for community-building design.
It starts with listening...
The best community buildings are shaped by the voices, needs, and lived experiences of the people who will use them. Our discovery phase is where that process begins, grounding design in listening, learning, and relationship-building. We design at the speed of trust, because engagement is not a checkbox — it is part of the design process.
Through meaningful
engagement we
then develop design
principles that guide
decisions for the
project.
Guiding principles give the project a "north star" so hundreds of decisions about purpose, intent, aim, goals, and priorities add up to one clear vision. Here are examples of what guiding principles could look like.
Support Shared Cultural Expressions
The community’s many cultures are present and
evolving—through events, art, food, language, and
performance. Rotating programs and embedded
storytelling allow identity to remain dynamic,
visible, and collectively owned.
Provide a Place for Gathering and Play
Flexible interior and exterior spaces accommodate
recreation, events, performances, and everyday use.
Formal programs and informal moments coexist,
making the center active throughout the day and
across seasons.
Create Activated Edges
The building and plaza work together as one civic
space. Porous edges blur inside and outside, allowing
activity to spill outward and contribute to the vitality of
the street and public realm.
Be Radically Accessible
Spaces are intuitive, accessible, and supportive of
people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds. Clear
sightlines, visible activity, and welcoming entrances
lower barriers to entry.
Celebrate Ecology
Planting, habitat, and landscape are woven into the
architecture, creating a visible connection between
natural corridors and city life. The building becomes a
touchpoint for pollinators, birds, and seasonal change
within an urban setting.
Prioritize Movement
Walking, rolling, biking, and transit converge
seamlessly, with circulation spaces doubling as places
to pause, gather, and observe. Ramps and paths
become social connectors, not just routes from one
place to another.
Water Feature
Embedded within the plaza is a layered design ecology that tells the story of the Missoula Floods through physical form and experience. Water and play features reflect the movement and force of ancient flooding, while paving patterns draw inspiration from the fissures and scarring left on the land.
This interactive water feature brings the forces of water to life, showing how flow erodes, channels, and deposits land over time. Inspired by regional flood landscapes, subtle changes in grade, texture, and depth allow visitors to trace water’s movement across the site.
Jet streams, bubblers, and mist illustrate moments of energy, pause, and release—while shallow pools collect water in low points, echoing temporary flood lakes. Together, these elements transform geological processes into a playful, hands-on learning experience that connects people to the power of water and the landscapes it shapes.
Paving & Scavenger Hunt
Hidden Animal Discovery is a park-wide scavenger hunt embedded in the plaza’s paving, seating, and landscape. Small animal silhouettes—such as the Columbian mammoth, American mastodon, dire wolf, beaver, and river otter—represent Ice Age species that lived in the Columbia River Gorge Basin during the time of the Missoula Floods, when catastrophic flooding reshaped the region.
Set within paving patterns that reference flood-formed topography, the animals appear along paths, plazas, and near water features—encouraging exploration, movement, and discovery. Durable inlays support tactile play, storytelling, and repeat visits, transforming everyday park elements into a playful learning landscape that connects visitors to the land, water, and wildlife that shaped Vancouver’s history.
Canopies
Freestanding canopy structures mimic remnant trees, providing shade while referencing regional natural systems.
Planting & Land Forms
Planting areas, seating, and sculpted landforms echo erosion and deposition, with even the massing of the adjacent storage building conceived as part of the topographic narrative.
Pump Room & Storage
The storage and pump room is designed as a sculpted landform embedded within the landscape. Its stepped massing and faceted rooflines echo erosion and deposition, allowing the building to blend into planted terraces and seating areas rather than read as a standalone utility.
Material shifts and integrated drainage reinforce the site’s water narrative, transforming essential infrastructure into a functional and expressive part of the plaza.
Free Standing Benches
The freestanding bench logs evoke the massive driftwood carried and stranded by the Missoula Floods. Scattered throughout the plaza, they suggest the scale and movement of floodwaters while offering informal places to sit, climb, or gather. Their raw, grounded form connects visitors to the debris left behind, reinforcing the story of a landscape shaped by water and time.
Erratics as Seating
Scattered throughout the plaza, sculptural benches shaped like glacial erratics serve as both seating and storytelling elements. Their smoothed stone forms echo boulders left behind by the Missoula Floods, with each bench distinct in shape and material. Subtle engravings reveal the journeys these stones may have taken, turning moments of rest into reflection on the powerful forces that shaped the region.
Integration with
the Festival Street
Integration with
the Loop
The Impact
Connecting Everyday Life to Land, History, and a Changing Climate
The Heights Civic Plaza is intended to improve everyday life in East Vancouver by creating a shared place to gather, connect, and belong. For nearby residents, it offers space for daily routines—meeting friends, watching children play, resting in the shade, or participating in community events.
By transforming a former commercial site into a civic space, the project represents a visible, lasting reinvestment in East Vancouver. The plaza supports physical and mental well-being, encourages outdoor activity, and creates opportunities for connection across generations and backgrounds. Its relationship to a festival street and future development helps generate local activity and economic vitality, reinforcing public space as essential community infrastructure.
Just as importantly, the plaza is designed to foster appreciation for the land itself. By embedding the story of the Missoula Floods into the landscape—through water, topography, planting, play, and art—the project connects people to the forces that shaped the region and continue to influence it today. This experience-based approach is intended to raise awareness of a changing climate through daily interaction, reinforcing a shared sense of stewardship and resilience for the future of East Vancouver.
Design documentation will continue in 2026, with construction likely beginning in 2027 as funding and phasing align.
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a better city exists
CERTIFICATIONS
Emerging Small Business (ESB)
Certification No.: 13469
