Postmodern metropolitan regions have become marked by the process of office suburbanization. Greater Vancouver has not been immune to this. Despite regional planning policy, suburban offices have located on industrial land in isolated, autodependent business parks. The amount of office space in business parks far surpasses office space in the designated regional town centres. This thesis examines whether business park development is consistent with the goals set out in Greater Vancouver's Livable Region Strategic Plan; whether business parks are in tune with the principles of sustainability; and whether business parks are fulfilling municipal tax and employment objectives. To answer these questions, an evaluative framework of eight criteria is established. Analysis of quantitative and qualitative data demonstrates that business parks are not consistent with these goals and objectives. The land consumed, the travel patterns produced, and the taxes generated by business parks reveal a land use pattern that is far less efficient than urban centre locations. Concentrating office development in existing urban and suburban centres complements the retail, residential, community services, and transit infrastructure in centres and enables employees to work in places where they can live, shop, and play nearby. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

The thesis project reconstructs the relations between conflicting social groups through the exchange of goods and ideas in Portside Park. The project also explores how the evolution of an infrastructure is capable of criticizing the original conditions of its construction. This is completed through the design of a series of possible future events such as a pedestrian overpass, and public market in Portside Park on Vancouver's central waterfront. Robert Thayer Jr. and Bill Morrish were influential in exploring how we understand the landscape and the importance of visual ecology which expresses an ecology behind a site. A collective identity can be influenced by such ideas, and if given a place of importance, can also act as forums, adding more than just physical boundaries to the city. The project is sighted on the waterfront, a landscape that currently lies dormant and in a state of transition. The requirements for site selection were that the site must have the potential for an evolution of its own with hidden or unused elements that may be renewed and adapted to enrich the expression of the site. The starting point for the project was to speculate on a series of future events that respond to possible social and political forces affecting the site. The matrix was a method of determining the potential of the site. The moment that is detailed, for the purposes of this project, is the year 2020. At this time, the coil, a pedestrian overpass, responds to the permanence of the city through its 'building as wall' vocabulary. The wall is then transformed into a connection from the city to the park. The market shields the rail and opens up to the park. Here the boundary between the connector and enclosure has been inverted and the visitor is inserted into the market building. The visitor is released into the park in the company of others within a defined realm, shielded by a canopy of trees. The final place for quiet contemplation is the beach which remains open and exposed - the most valued and protected part of the park. Valued not for is aesthetic achievements but for its political and social meaning. The pedestrian embarks on a journey. Leaving the dense built environment of the city, the pedestrian ascends the public walkway over the tracks and gradually enters the transition of the bosk, where the mounds and trees enclose the body yet prepare him for the open water. In conclusion the project attempts to accommodate a place for the individual and the collective, it defines a place for establishing a coexistence.

The thesis project reconstructs the relations between conflicting social groups through the exchange of goods and ideas in Portside Park. The project also explores how the evolution of an infrastructure is capable of criticizing the original conditions of its construction. This is completed through the design of a series of possible future events such as a pedestrian overpass, and public market in Portside Park on Vancouver's central waterfront. Robert Thayer Jr. and Bill Morrish were influential in exploring how we understand the landscape and the importance of visual ecology which expresses an ecology behind a site. A collective identity can be influenced by such ideas, and if given a place of importance, can also act as forums, adding more than just physical boundaries to the city. The project is sighted on the waterfront, a landscape that currently lies dormant and in a state of transition. The requirements for site selection were that the site must have the potential for an evolution of its own with hidden or unused elements that may be renewed and adapted to enrich the expression of the site. The starting point for the project was to speculate on a series of future events that respond to possible social and political forces affecting the site. The matrix was a method of determining the potential of the site. The moment that is detailed, for the purposes of this project, is the year 2020. At this time, the coil, a pedestrian overpass, responds to the permanence of the city through its 'building as wall' vocabulary. The wall is then transformed into a connection from the city to the park. The market shields the rail and opens up to the park. Here the boundary between the connector and enclosure has been inverted and the visitor is inserted into the market building. The visitor is released into the park in the company of others within a defined realm, shielded by a canopy of trees. The final place for quiet contemplation is the beach which remains open and exposed - the most valued and protected part of the park. Valued not for is aesthetic achievements but for its political and social meaning. The pedestrian embarks on a journey. Leaving the dense built environment of the city, the pedestrian ascends the public walkway over the tracks and gradually enters the transition of the bosk, where the mounds and trees enclose the body yet prepare him for the open water. In conclusion the project attempts to accommodate a place for the individual and the collective, it defines a place for establishing a coexistence. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), School of / Graduate