Story of Vancouver’s Olympic Village features urban agriculture

An artist’s sketch illustrates the possibilities for rooftop urban agriculture and the rich potential for community connection. Credit: Durante Kreuk, 2009

The Challenge Series tells the story of Vancouver’s Olympic Village at Southeast False Creek: Millennium Water. Published in eight monthly installments, available on the web and in print, it focuses on the visioning, planning, design and construction processes and celebrates collaboration and sustainable innovation.

By Roger Bayley Inc.

Excerpts below.

Community Demonstration Garden

Located west of Parcel 4, the community demonstration garden will be designed and constructed after the Olympics. “The idea isn’t to have little plots for people to garden, but rather a space that is programmed with the school, community centre and neighbourhood for all to use and to learn about urban agriculture,” says Robin Petri from the City of Vancouver. Specific designs and programming have not yet been determined. Because of the site’s historic industrial use, the City has begun investigating how to handle nearby contaminated soils. The garden will be separated by a membrane from the contaminated industrial soil that underlies Hinge Park.

Rooftop + Grade Food Growing Gardens

With the requirement of fifty percent of the site area having to be green, grade (street-level) growing and rooftop gardens became key. Every Millennium Water parcel includes opportunities for urban agriculture except Parcel 4, which has patios well over 100 square feet. The city’s formula for urban agriculture is that there must be 24 square feet of gardening space for 30 percent of the units whose balcony or patio is under 100 square feet. This means approximately 1,000-1,500 square feet of urban agriculture per parcel (and more for non-market parcels), which translates into approximately 20-30 twenty-four square foot plots per parcel.

Each building’s strata council will manage how gardening plots will be allocated to residents. In non-market urban agriculture areas, there are communal crops where plots are not delineated and where everyone can harvest. The grade (street level) growing gardens are owned by the strata corporations but are publicly accessible.

“There needs to be an attitudinal shift,” says Peter Kreuk. Initially, the developers were concerned about how urban agriculture would look. “The perception of urban agricultural areas as being ‘weed patches’ with timber retaining walls is changing. Developers are realizing that urban agriculture can be beautifully integrated into a garden’s design.”

Growing Veggies On Your Roof

Unlike growing produce in your backyard where there is at least a few feet of dirt, the soil depth on the roof gardens of the Olympic Village is 18 inches. “This soil depth should be plenty to grow your carrots,” says Jennifer Stamp. However, it is important to note that the soil heats up faster when you have planting on roofs, due to a thinner soil profile and the concrete underneath.

There is no irrigation system in the SEFC urban agricultural areas in part due to plumbing and health bylaws not allowing non-potable water for edible plant irrigation and in part because many gardeners are particular about watering their veggies. For each urban agricultural area, there are compost bins, hose bibs with potable water and a potting bench.

See Chapter 6 ‘Green Amenities’ here. Urban Agriculture + Community Gardens, Rooftop + Food-Growing Gardens, Urban Agriculture in SEFC.

See the complete Challenge Series here.