Ksenia Mokrushina Thesis

intimate plazas, parks and public open spaces (Hein, personal communication, February 20, 2012; The City of Vancouver, 2009b). The Olympic Village has also shifted the way the City approaches designs streets. Thanks to the Olympic Village, the City has become aware of the importance of giving priority to pedestrians and cyclists over personal vehicles, building streets with high quality materials, making streets curbless, tree-lined and capable of draining rainwater at the surface (The City of Vancouver, 2009b).

3.3.2.4 Urban Agriculture According to the City, the Olympic Village has pushed the boundaries of urban agriculture showcasing how to integrate urban agriculture and high-density living (Millenium Challenge Series, n.d.). In the SEFC OV development, community gardens have moved to roof tops gardens and balconies, backyards and streets from parkland plots. It was a successful example of putting community health values ahead of expensive real estate and overcoming a perception that urban agriculture is impossible in high-density developments (Rob Barrs as cited in the Challenge Series, n.d.).

SEFC OV has also raised the bar of urban agriculture’s community building potential. The Community Garden Demonstration project has showed that community gardening “is not only about providing little plots for people to garden. Rather, it is a space that is programmed with the school, community center and neighborhood for all to use and to learn about urban agriculture” (Robin Petri as cited in the Challenge Series, n.d.).

Furthermore, in the Olympic Village, community gardens were envisioned hand in hand with a community kitchen and site plan provision for a farmers’ market (The Challenge Series, n.d.).

Another important urban design achievement of SEFC OV has been showcasing how urban agriculture can be beautifully integrated in the design of buildings, parks, gardens and plazas which has dispelled the perception of urban agricultural areas as being “weed patches with timber retaining walls” (The Challenge Series, n.d.).

Summarizing urban agriculture experience of SEFC OV, Rob Barrs says: “This project has educated the planning, design and building industry to include urban agriculture in their projects.” (Rob Barrs as cited in the Challenge Series, n.d.). The next step for the City is to better understand how to integrate urban agriculture into closed-loop systems (The Challenge Series, n.d.).

3.3.2.5 Urban Habitat SEFC OV project has been illuminating for the City from the point of view of restoring urban habitat (The City of Vancouver, 2009b). Thorough the environmental remediation and decontamination of the SEFC site, cleaning of the False Creek waters and development of innovative storm water management and urban wetland systems, the City has been able to bring wildlife back to Vancouver. In 2009, herring eggs were found on Habitat Island – for the first time in the modern era. Eagles and herons have been recently found to be roosting in the trees (The Challenge Series, n.d.). Finally, a whale have been recently noticed in False Creek next to the Village, which was an ultimate reward for the habitat restoration work in SEFC (Moscovich, personal communication, February 13, 2012).

39