table of contents
 
 
SUSTAINABLE URBAN LANDSCAPES
The Brentwood Design Charrette
TEAM FOUR  
Healthy City /  
Healthy Ecosystem
 

Still Creek


Wildlife

The mantra that guided this design was: “a healthy city equals a healthy ecosystem.” We felt that the key to achieving this balanced equation lay in achieving a high density of residential and commercial development that was centred just to the south of the Lougheed corridor and just to the east of Willingdon Avenue. Once this core decision had been made, the principles that shaped our urban design followed inevitably. These principles can be summarized as: (1) separating the light rail from the highway; (2) relocating the shopping core to the south side of Lougheed Highway; (3) establishing a high-density residential core around the light rail station; (4) creating green fingers connecting north and south throughout the site; and (5) faithfully restoring the morphology and ecology of Still Creek and its valley.

Twin Arteries: The Highway and the Transit High Street  
Unlike the other teams, we separated the light rail line in the core of the new town centre from the Lougheed corridor. This separation was intended to accomplish three objectives: (1) to allow the creation of a pedestrian precinct around the light rail station; (2) to integrate transit more closely into the fabric of the new Brentwood Town Centre; and (3) to avoid the need for grade separation at the intersection of Lougheed Highway and Willingdon Avenue. By taking advantage of existing grades, we could slip the rail line out of its usual path in the median of the highway into a short tunnel, swinging it into an alignment one-half block south of Lougheed Highway. The points at which this separation occurs (just east and west of the town centre) would announce the new Brentwood urban core and enhance its identity along the transit corridor. The new light rail alignment enters the High Street retail core of the new Brentwood Town Centre (proposed along Dawson Street, south of Lougheed Highway) via a transit station at Willingdon Avenue. With coordinated traffic signal controls, trains would be able to cross Willingdon Avenue at grade, thus eliminating the need for grade separation and so creating a closer integration of the transit system and the street network. 

Shifting the Retail Core  
In our scheme, the existing, and increasingly moribund, Brentwood Mall is removed, with shops and services relocated in phases to High Street and to the south side of Lougheed Highway. This brings the core of retail and services to the heart of the new community, while allowing the hilltop site of the mall — with its excellent views — to be redeveloped for mixed-density housing. The Lougheed Highway frontage would include shops and services dependent on passing traffic. A slow-speed boulevard parking road on either side of Lougheed Highway would allow access to these shops while also humanizing the face of this high-traffic highway. Meanwhile, the High Street would house services catering to local residents and those pedestrians who arrive by transit. We en-visioned this retail street to include a mix of service shops, with high-density residential towers set on the podiums of commercial structures. Connections between the retail and transit hub would be maintained with the new residential area north of Lougheed Highway, chiefly by a large pedestrian bridge, which is aligned with a north-south pedestrian-oriented “green street.” 

Courtyards and Point Towers: Density and Quality of Life 
We clustered high-density residential development around the urban 
core and the transit station. This meant that the bulk of new housing would occur on the south-facing slopes of Lougheed Highway. In order to maximize access to the light and warmth of the sun while maintaining an urban expression along streets, we made extensive use of four-storey courtyard buildings, arranged in a matrix of short, square blocks. These courtyard structures would be stepped towards the south, increasing solar gain into the courtyards and uphill areas. Along both sides of the Lougheed corridor (between the High Street and the Trans-Canada Highway) we proposed high-density, narrow point towers. This forest of towers would announce the town centre, allow many people to live at the heart of the community, and increase the viability of the commercial core and the transit line. Outside of this core zone, housing would be primarily ground-oriented row housing, garden apartments and narrow-lot semi-detached housing. The market demand for this housing type is strong in the region, encouraging a mix of new residents. Also, we felt that it was important to meet the existing detached housing surrounding the site in a sympathetic manner. 

The Green Structure 
An integral part of our scheme was to stitch together the town centre by using lineaments of green spaces to join the uphill urban centre with the restored natural landscapes of the Still Creek valley. A heavily planted greenway/bikeway corridor along the east side of Willingdon Avenue acts as a continuous natural corridor that will eventually connect this neighbourhood with Burrard Inlet to the north and with the Fraser River to the south. On a more local scale, a planted, pedestrian street bisects the site from a forested park at the crown of the hill (the existing location of the Brentwood Mall) to the central valley. Blocks of forest are used as gateways to define the new urban centre, distinguishing it from the succession of developments that will form along Lougheed Highway and the light rail corridor. These green gateways are concentrated along Lougheed Highway and the rail line, as well as in the Still Creek valley. 
Several historical streams that have been culverted over the years are “daylighted.” The health of these daylighted streams is ensured by densely planted, water-cleansing riparian strips on either side. Finally, we developed a system of “ecological infrastructure”: trenches filled with peat soils and with crushed recycled concrete that receive rainwater from roofs and pavements. These trenches serve to reintroduce water into the ground, and act as natural sponges to slow the flush of stormwater into the restored Still Creek. Planting of wetland plants and grasses along these trenches remove pollutants from the stormwater runoff.

Restoring Still Creek  
As part of a larger initiative to restore the health of Burnaby’s central valley, we restored Still Creek — based on a careful analysis of its morphology, gradient, sediment load, and hydrological condition. The resulting creek form is tightly meandering, with a very low bed gradient and a low velocity of flow. By creating high-density development on the uphill portion of the site, we were able to completely set aside the valley, replanting it with a native cedar-hemlock forest. The peat channels, and restored and daylighted streams that feed storm runoff from the site into the valley, will be reinforced by constructed wetlands in the peat lowlands that flank the creek, further purifying the stormwater and protecting the creek itself. Non-intensive uses, such as community gardening and passive recreation areas, are located on the fringes of the valley. Through land-swapping and density bonus incentives, current industrial and corporate structures will be encouraged to relocate outside the valley. 

Conclusion 
In summary, we believe that the strategic principles that undergird this scheme would lead to a balance between a healthy urban core and a healthy ecosystem. The high-density development of the site (higher than that called for in the design brief for the charrette) will pay dividends in the form of the restoration of Still Creek. The ecological infrastructure will reduce capital expenditure in sewers and water treatment, while also contributing to the creation of a more livable community. The creation of a viable, pedestrian-oriented commercial and transit core will draw people away from their dependence on automobiles, thus enhancing the health of the region and the social fabric of the community. 

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Lougheed commercial district


 

Commerciallized Lougheed Highway

 



Site vision

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 Team members


 

Concept  one: Circulation and Transportation

 

  Concept two: Green Structure

 

 Concept three: Land Use

 

Phase one
 

 

Phase two


 

 The Illustrative Plan 

 

  Plan Detail



  Housing section

 



  Courtyard housing neighbourhoods


 
  Row house street

 

 Neighbourhood courtyard

 

Pedestrian bridge  

 

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