Vancouver’s viaducts are a mental marker, full of untapped potential to celebrate the distinct cultures they connect. Our design harnesses that potential while solving two challenges. Firstly, there was the structural challenge of developing beneath the massive canopies of the overpass. Secondly, the site presents a cultural challenge in connecting three culturally distinct districts in Vancouver: False Creek, Downtown, and the Eastern Core. Our solution was to flip Vancouver’s “podium” model of development—pockets of dense, vertical suburbias—on its head.

We proposed an organic, partially underground transformation that merges the character and life of the Eastern Core with the waterline of False Creek. A Day and Night Market extends underground beneath the viaduct, while an expansion of Creekside Park extends False Creek’s water edge to the boundary of Keifer Street. The market creates a community gathering space, and new bike and pedestrian bridges over Pacific Boulevard give that community a visual presence above the overpass as well as beneath it. The entire design is connected vertically with reflecting periscopes that transform both pedestrian and vehicle traffic into an artistic backdrop at each level. In turn, they mirror the street art on the structural columns of the viaduct, connecting its past and present.