The Concord Community Park at Northeast False Creek is an unexpected three acres of green space in the heart of Vancouver. This project is of high public interest as it turns a previously private—largely unused—lot into a space for public gathering. In collaboration with Concord Pacific and the False Creek Residents Association, this project serves the False Creek community by covering up acres of asphalt and turning the area into a calm respite from the bustling city core.

The residents and neighbours of False Creek were waiting for the City of Vancouver to deliver a permanent park, but development was halted due to long range plans to dismantle the Georgia viaduct. Residents placed green lights in their windows as a protest to the city to show their dissatisfaction that the park was taking so long to be built. To fulfill community demands, Concord Pacific committed to a temporary green space for five years, giving residents picnic tables, an urban beach, game play areas, a painted maze, and the green space they longed for.

We conducted workshops with False Creek residents to uncover their desires for this space and what they wanted it to accomplish for their community. That direct input informed our design principles and how the area should be built—residents wanted a relatively unstructured space so a variety of different activities could happen at once.

The strong community voice shaped our design principles—not only is the project a multi-purpose green space, but it is also designed to be bright and colourful, safe for families, inclusive of all ages, and flexible for a variety of activities. One major concern for the city is that the space look temporary so it’s not confused with being a permanent park. To overcome this challenge we used Lock-Block™ units—a concrete modular material—for each wall and placed soil and plants inside. By deliberately using a less refined structure, we ensured the park doesn’t feel permanent and doesn’t create an unrealistic expectation.

The Northeast False Creek pop-up space connects to the existing Creekside Park that runs along Vancouver’s breathtaking seawall. The site is designed to complement the existing features around it while providing a new and different experience for the False Creek community to enjoy.