From June-December 2009 I had a great opportunity to help tell the stories of the building of Vancouver’s Olympic Village. The publication is called The Challenge Series, the brainchild of Roger Bayley, who served as design manager for this sustainable community development and who recognized the importance of collecting and preserving what was learned there.
The development is quite amazing. Of course, there are inevitably places they could have done more or pushed harder, but for a comprehensive effort to integrate water, energy, and material efficiency with social sustainability, brownfield recovery, densification, public and private realm and quality of life (on such a large scale on such an incredibly tight deadline), you won’t find many other examples.
Along with two other writers, my job was to interview engineers, architects, contractors and the developers to understand and explain the innovations at this site. The work is published in seven on-line “chapters” – all of which are available in web and pdf format. The work was also printed and is available for purchase in hard copy. If you’re involved in sustainable/green building, these are great stories to know about.
Check out the entire series and website, or a few of my own favourite pieces:
Celebrating Water (a wonderful opportunity to consider our relationship to water in the urban environment)
Energy Design (I learned a lot writing this section, particularly about radiant energy)
Mixed Use Design (This contains brief stories about each individual building and the architects’ challenges and triumphs)
Parks and Waterfront (Just because the parks and waterfront are really so tremendous – a treat to tell these stories!)
The Challenge of Change (“We might build more neighbourhoods like this one… because we’re happy that way.”)
If you know someone involved in green building – do pass on the link for www.thechallengeseries.ca. It’s mostly promoted by word of mouth, and it’s information that deserves to be shared, and learned from.
