The Brentwood Project

SUSTAINABLE URBAN LANDSCAPES

The Brentwood Design Project

TEAM THREE

Evolving Towards Sustainability

For Team Three, the vision of a sustainable Brentwood Town Centre evolved out of a careful understanding of the site’s existing biophysical and cultural context, together with a recognition of the temporal context within which such a long-term vision would have to be realized. The summary below highlights eight guiding principles that, taken together, constitute a vision for a compact, high-amenity, transit-oriented urban core — one that nurtures a fundamental awareness of existing ecological functions as well as fosters the kinds of important social networks that support liveable communities.

1. Allow for a variety of housing types and so create diverse neighbourhoods (e.g., tower and townhouse complex in contrast to row house development) that reflect the particular contexts within which they are located.

2.For the densest residential area, develop a block model that:
- takes advantage of the Brentwood area topography in order to maximize sun exposure and views
- allows for underground parking, thus leaving the majority of the site on natural ground and allowing for private and community gardens
- is no higher than four storeys
- accommodates midblock pedestrian routes
- gives each unit a front door on the street
- facilitates movement of garbage and recycling
- can be built in phases, as properties become available

3.Support and enhance existing industry and commerce in the area so that as many jobs as possible will be located close to the new residential areas.

4. Carefully integrate the proposed light rail line with retail and business frontage on Broadway in a symbiotic arrangement where passengers effortlessly become customers and vice versa. In other words, ensure that transit use is made easy.

5. Turn the Brentwood Mall inside out, using a fresh produce market as the catalyst, focusing on the mall as the prime neighbourhood commercial centre, and providing hotel and office buildings to reinforce the expected activity.

6. Expose surface drainage systems in innovative ways both to make residents aware of this important network and to replace expensive engineered storm drainage systems.

7.Extend the existing business parks at the south edge of the area to the east, where they can further their stewardship of Still Creek and the public recreational paths that flank it. This provides a good example of business contributing to the community.

8. Locate major civic, institutional, and recreational buildings where they can bring significance and identity. It is important to establish memorable and distinctive places in the overall fabric of the area (e.g. terminations of streetscapes, punctuating outdoor public space, marking significant corners.

Aim of the Design
Sustainability requires commitment over time. While a viable spatial distribution of activities for livable communities is essential, so is the long-range health and well being of these communities. The aim of this design is to illustrate the process of community building over time; the messy edges of spatial transitions and transformations in the community fabric are an integral part of the proposal.

In a number of locations the existing fabric of the Brentwood landscape is retained. Trees, for example, have been added to the cemeteries in the tradition of the arboreta that first animated them. In other locations a network of open spaces is proposed toassist in achieving the long-term transition from existing to future uses proposed for the community. In still others we propose a landscape pattern that reflects the opportunities that increased density offers with regard to building a pedestrian-friendly community fabric — one where kids walk to school, seniors tend community gardens, and parents socialize on the street — all within sight of each other.

One of the primary tenets of this design is to demonstrate how the social, economic, and environmental aspects of a sustainable community can be made visible in the everyday life of the community, thus adding new layers of diversity and richness to our urban habitats.

Economic
The design propose is to retain as much of the existing light industry in the area as possible, thus allowing citizens to live near their jobs and ensuring an active local economy. Brentwood Mall and the two proposed shopping streets offer amenities that could provide considerable economic strength both locally and regionally. Finally, we offer initiatives aimed at reducing the expense of civic infrastructure. These include exposing surface water management strategies to alleviate storm drainage installations, displaying active solar collection to reduce demands on the hydroelectric network, and making clear the neighbourhood recycling operations (from back door to local recycling centre) to reduce demands on city garbage disposal. All of these initiatives serve as visible reminders of a more balanced approach to infrastructure. Encountering them on a daily basis should ensure that they are neither taken for granted nor reduced to being an unaccountable part of local taxation.

Environmental
Our design also profiles initiatives that specifically address the local natural environment. For example, the reestablishing of the natural drainage for this area is manifested in the Willingdon swales as well as in surface streambeds that run through residential blocks. At the building level, there are many initiatives for mitigating the effects of the environment on the building envelope, including deep roof overhangs and porches, sun-shading devices, and openable windows. An interpretive trail that describes the restoration of Still Creek provides insight into the value of this natural feature as well as an opportunity for recreational activity.

The Willingdon axis of the existing community has been transformed. It reaches south across the valley floor to Metrotown and north to Burrard Inlet, providing a linear mark that links Brentwood to the municipality and the municipality to the regional fabric. It also serves as an integral part of a water management strategy. It is designed to capture, use, and re-use water from the roofs, sidewalks, and streets of the community. Similarly parallel urban swales find their way to Still Creek, watering gardens and flower plots in the new housing clusters. Another aim of the design is to ensure that the 9,300 units planned for Brentwood Town Centre will be diverse enough to create a rich fabric of identifiable residential precincts.

The variety of landscape structures across the community is indicative of the variety of housing options available in Brentwood Centre and the diversity of working opportunities retained or added. The Light Rapid Transit (LRT) expands the range of these opportunities enormously, while reducing our dependence on the car. Not incidentally, this very same “streetcar” will help us recapture the social dynamic of the street — the very hallmark of viable urban centres everywhere. The pedestrian core is framed by a medical centre, schools, the library, firehall, art centre, and other civic institutions that help build a sense of community belonging.

A Community Cultural Centre
Two shopping streets are foreseen as complementary options to the Brentwood Mall. The first follows the path of the LRT along Lougheed Highway and benefits from the activity around the bus transfer points. These at-grade transfers help animate the street. The second builds on the established fabric of the commercial axis along Buchanan Street. The mall has been retained and transformed, with a strong emphasis on “community commercial.” The addition of an office component, a hotel, and a daily farmer’s market (selling fresh produce in a generous outdoor covered space) all contribute to the enhancement of the mall site — the active heart of the new community. These additions and others support the need for the daily socializing that animate all good communities.

Reinforcing Established Efforts
The philosophy behind sustainable development is rather different than the one that gave rise to such other urban movements as the City Beautiful Movement. The treatment of the Still Creek basin is a case in point. Much of the industry along Still Creek is messy, and some, inappropriate. Yet, a closer look reveals sites where materials are being recycled, composting is being demonstrated, and local work opportunities are being provided. Such sites are the very essence of any strategy that focuses on sustainability. Rather than brushing these messy edges aside and sweeping the valley floor clear, we suggest a landscape framework of hedgerows and green spaces. This landscape strategy would allow different sectors of the valley floor to be transformed over time, as opportunities arise. At the same time, municipal properties would be used for urban agriculture, road widths could be reduced, and pervious surface materials could be used in lieu of asphalt.

Still Creek Stewardship
The business park has been extended eastward to the community gardens, where new tenants are expected to become active partners in the management of the Still Creek valley. As an example, MacDonald’s regional headquarters has been retained where it should never have been built, but its management strategies have been changed. Parking permits have been radically reduced, and the corporation has found parking facilities off-site (well beyond the peat lands). The parking surfaces and fertilized lawns have been replaced with vegetation appropriate to the area; pesticides and herbicides have been eliminated, and a management contract to maintain the Still Creek landscape in cooperation with the Slough Estates has been concluded in accordance with strict ecological and social guidelines that were established with full community participation.

Conclusion
As is apparent, our plan proposes significant changes to the Brentwood core. Many of these proposed changes provide opportunities to enhance water, air, soil and energy conservation; others provide opportunities to nurture social interaction and, thus, to support a convivial community. The proposed changes cannot and should not occur “as a piece,” as though the existing landscape is of little worth. In fact the search for value within the existing fabric is critical to the sense of continuity and belonging that supports any viable, sustainable community. Our proposal attempts to illustrate this need because we believe that our urban projects have all too often wiped the slate clean of both past heritage and present worth. The new components of our proposal stress conservation, diversity, and partnerships with a full range of community actors; patience and adaptive strategies will achieve the long-term goals outlined in the design brief.