Friday, October 16, 2009

Millennium Water - Vancouver's Last Waterfront Community (Introducing the Southeast False Creek Millennium Development)

Click here for the Millennium Water marketing website.

From industrial work yard to sustainable Vancouver waterfront community


The 2010 Athlete's Village will be the future home of a sustainable Vancouver real estate development along the southeast False Creek waterfront district at Millenium Water.Millennium Water is a new sustainable community that will be situated on the waterfront of Vancouver’s Southeast False Creek (SEFC), a former industrial site. The project has been designated as the home of the Olympic and Paralympic Village Vancouver during the 2010 Winter Games. Environmental sustainability is a priority for Millennium Water, affecting every aspect of the design – the project will be Canada’s first LEED™ Gold neighbourhood, with LEED ™ Platinum being targeted for the community centre.

• Millennium Water comprises seven hectares, a total of 1,122 residential units and 70,000 square feet of commercial space.

• The residential units are a mix of market, rental and affordable housing to accommodate seniors, singles and families.

• All residences are being designed to meet the Safer Home™ initiative, which ensure that housing is safe and accessible to people of all ages and physical abilities.

• The neighbourhood will contain an array of residential, commercial and community amenities.

• Millennium Water is the product of extensive collaboration between the public and private sectors, numerous designers, engineers and consultants and, most importantly, the public at large.

Millennium Water Vancouver - A new kind of community


Vancouver real estate's last waterfront community is now located at the Millennium Water neighbourohod of southeast False Creek.A diverse community of seniors, young people and families will enliven the Millennium Water neighbourhood and provide a social balance unlike any other residential development in Vancouver. Following the 2010 Winter Games, the 1,122 residential units will be converted to permanent housing – approximately 736 of the units will be sold as market housing, 119 will be rentals, and 253 of the units will be non-market (affordable) housing. Virtually a self-sustaining community, the neighbourhood at Millennium Water will offer a variety of long-term environmental, health, social and economic benefits to residents:

• The promotion of alternative transportation and active living through proximity to transit, designated bicycle and pedestrian areas and car share programs;

• Employment opportunities and day-care facilities located within the neighbourhood;

• Parks, gardens, green roofs and urban agriculture projects to augment the local environment, create recreational opportunities and provide a source of local food production; and

• Enhanced community life through public, shared amenities, such as public art, non-motorized boating facility, community centre, pedestrian plaza and commercial district.

Millennium Water Southeast False Creek - Setting a new standard in Vancouver sustainable design

Millennium Water will establish a new standard for sustainable community development in Canada and North America, with green buildings that use less energy, are based on renewable resources and help protect our environment for future generations. Millennium Water buildings will be a showcase of sustainable development, and will offer an exquisite collection of homes featuring water savings, energy efficiency, eco-friendly materials selection and indoor environmental quality.

• The buildings at Millennium Water are designed to be Canada’s first LEED™ Gold neighbourhood. The waterfront community centre at Millennium Water will be designed to achieve LEED™ Platinum, also a first for a community centre in Canada.

• Canada’s first multi-unit residential "net-zero” building will include residential units and affordable seniors’ housing. The design approach incorporates five key principles of sustainability: health, energy, resources, environment and affordability. The net-zero building will have an aggressive low-energy design, and will use renewable energy systems which allow the facility to produce as much energy as it uses on an annual basis.

• Urban agriculture is incorporated into the landscape design with the intent of creating opportunities for onsite food production and distribution.

• A water use reduction strategy will aim to reduce the use of potable water by 30 per cent below conventional standards, and storm water runoff will be reduced 25 per cent through the use of green roofs, swales and retention ponds.

• Energy is conserved using passive design strategies including operable shading devices to control heat gain, widened stairwells and public corridors to maximize natural lighting, and enhanced building envelopes that reduce energy loss and include high performance rain-screen, insulation and glazing systems.

• Millennium Water’s leading sustainable design exceeds the City of Vancouver’s Green Building Strategy and the sustainability principles of the Official Development Plan for Southeast False Creek.

• Building to Safer Home™ criteria will mean that residential units will be safe, comfortable and adaptable for people of varying ages and physical abilities. Safer Home™ design criteria include features such as widened hallways and stairwells, lowered light switches, and pressure/temperature control valves on shower faucets.

• The Neighbourhood Energy Utility (NEU), a community energy system, will use sustainable heat sources like sewage waste to provide space heating and hot water to all buildings.

Accommodating the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games and its legacy at Millennium Water False Creek

As the Olympic and Paralympic Village Vancouver, Millennium Water will temporarily house an international delegation of approximately 2,800 athletes, coaches and officials. The project is already being recognized around the world as a model for future host cities. Adaptability was key in the design of the Village, as the design team had to find flexible, workable solutions to the challenge of creating buildings with two distinct purposes: accommodating the event, as well as its legacy.

• The Village “overlay period” applies to a six-month “Exclusive Use Period” in which the site will be controlled by VANOC, and includes provisions for temporary housing, dining, fitness and health care facilities, and security.

• Residential suites will be protectively retro-fitted for the duration of the overlay period in order to safeguard luxury furnishings such as hardwood floors and kitchens.

• All of the ground floor commercial spaces will be fitted out to accommodate operational facilities for the athletes.

• Legacy features include silhouettes of athletes that will take shape in the vegetation on the buildings’ green roofs, as well as local street names, including Athletes Way.

Waterfront Park at Vancouver Millennium Water – a post-games legacy for all of Vancouver to enjoy

Waterfront Park represents the first phase of SEFC’s primary park and open space system, and will be a significant addition to Vancouver’s iconic seawall. Through walkways, bicycle paths, diverse seating and gathering areas, the park will provide a variety of vital green spaces that will reconnect SEFC residents and visitors alike with the heritage-rich waterfront, and offer unique and memorable experiences unlike any other in Vancouver.

• The multifunctional waterfront promenade offers recreational and social opportunities, extends the seawall by 650 metres, and connects to green spaces and walkways throughout the neighbourhood.

• Native and adaptive shoreline planting will add a soft edge to the hard elements inspired by the former industrial site. The tidal terraces allow access to the water and pier remnants speak to the site’s shipyard heritage.

• The bridge crossing over the shipyards inlet is inspired by the form of a canoe. The steel grating of the arching deck offers a unique experience when crossing the inlet by allowing views through the decking to the water below, and creates fewer shadows on the water in order to maximize habitat value.

• The habitat island and naturalized segments of the shoreline will host aquatic, riparian and upland ecologies. The island includes vertical snags, native vegetation and a natural shoreline which have attracted perching bald eagles and a variety of waterfowl. The natural shoreline demonstrates the ability to reintroduce natural habitat back into the urban environment; a connecting segment of land will emerge at low tide, providing limited access to the public.

• Herring have laid eggs on approximately 1 km of shoreline starting on Habitat Island and eastward. Marine biologists confirm that the environmental cleanup and shoreline habitat creation is a huge success.

Millennium Water Websites

Millennium Water: www.millenniumwater.com
City of Vancouver: www.vancouver.ca/olympicvillage

For more information, please contact:
Valerie Wan, NATIONAL Public Relations, 604-691-7397, vwan@national.ca OR Richard Gilhooley, NATIONAL Public Relations, 604-638-7451, rgilhooley@national.ca

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