The Hastings Park Restoration Plan was a multiple award winning comprehensive master plan for the transformation of the Pacific National Exhibition site into a large, high profile community park in East Vancouver.
PFS Studio was the prime consultant to the Vancouver Park Board on this project since its inception, developing the long term plan through a process of community forums and stakeholder consultation. Using a multi-phased strategy, the firm oversaw completion of the first phases of the plan; The Sanctuary, The Italian Rain Garden, and The Empire Bowl.
The Park plan was designed to express the community’s commitment to sustainable stormwater management, and the celebration of Vancouver’s rain is a unifying theme throughout the park. The Sanctuary features ponds and daylighting of the historic stream to collect and channel runoff from the site and its environs. The Italian Rain Gardens celebrate the rain as it flows in surface channels, animates gargoyles and wall details, and pools in water basins on the way to the Sanctuary.
Three Art Deco/Moderne style designated heritage buildings were planned to be adaptively reused as community facilities. The program for the outdoor areas compliments the buildings with a variety of activities structured by the formal historic pattern of building footprints and the grid of adjacent City streets. The Rain Gardens are a social heart of the park. The formal patterning of the site is expressed in paving, garden areas and structured by walls that appear as remnants of demolished buildings. The complex pattern of spaces permits a layering and juxtaposition of activities for all ages and cultural groups to achieve an intensity of use without compromising function.
In addition to Canadian Planning and Landscape Architecture awards, the park was chosen for exhibition in AIBC’s Sustainability 2001: Greening the Environment, RAIC’s Sustainable Design for Canadian Buildings, and the City of Portland Office of Sustainable Development Ten Plus Northwest – Ten Shades of Green.
