About the Webinar
To address the impacts of climate change and enhance urban biodiversity, the City of Vancouver is beginning to build a network of blue-green systems across the city. The St. George Rainway is one of the first large-scale pilots to be built; it brings 4 blocks of green rainwater infrastructure to St. George Street because of a local community group that advocated to honour and daylight a buried creek. This novel infrastructure has multi-layered aims to mitigate climate impacts and build ecological and social connectivity by promoting active transportation, managing rainwater sustainably, cooling the street, and creating a space for the community, while honouring the buried creek.
The project achieved this by engaging in a multi-year public engagement process to co-create the vision for the Rainway with the community, which resulted in a nature-forward approach while creating space for people. The design reallocates 45% of the former road space to transform a regular city street into one that provides climate adaptive rainwater management, promotes active transportation, and creates areas for people to slow down and gather. The planting palette also reflects input from the community, a local indigenous ethnobotanist, and bioblitzes to understand the local fauna. This project demonstrates a new paradigm for urban infrastructure and the possibilities for Vancouver as a climate-ready and resilient city.
The presentation is a case study of the project, with team members presenting on planning, design, construction, and on-going maintenance.
This presentation is offered in English with live French translation services.
Thursday, January 29, 2:00-3:30 ET
Recommended Resources
- Shape your city
- Community group website
- Media
- Rain City Strategy
- Healthy Waters Plan
- Active Transportation Plan
- City of Vancouver GRI resources
- GRI design resources
About the Presenters
Cherie Zhi Xiao | MLA, BCSLA, CSLA, BUD
Senior Project Manager - Landscape Architect
Green Infrastructure | Engineering Services | City of Vancouver
Cherie is a registered Landscape Architect with over 18 years of local and international experience managing a wide range of highly complex public realm projects across Canada, the United States, and China. Currently, she serves as a senior project manager and lead landscape architect with the Green Infrastructure Branch at the City of Vancouver. In this role, she leads a cross-disciplinary team to deliver all phases of large-scale green infrastructure capital projects, from planning and design to implementation. Cherie specializes in integrating natural systems into urban contexts through innovative and sustainable project solutions.
Cameron Owen BCSLA CSLA | MCIP RPP
Senior Urban Designer | Urban Watershed Planning | City of Vancouver
Cameron is an Urban Planner and a Landscape Architect, with over 20 years of experience. He brings a range of international experience from master planning urban developments to habitat restoration. Cameron has worked extensively as the designer and project manager on these assignments, with expertise in following projects through from concept to completion. He has worked both in private practice and as a municipal green infrastructure and park planner, leading comprehensive greenway planning projects, and large diverse project teams. Cameron is notably a key architect of the City of Vancouver’s award-winning Rain City Strategy.
Erica Mason, P.Eng
Senior Transportation Design Engineer | Transportation Design Branch
Engineering Services | City of Vancouver
Erica Mason is a Senior Transportation Design Engineer in TDE and has been with the City since 2019. She has worked on many exciting and complex projects during this time, including the Portside Greenway, Woodland & 2nd Green Infrastructure Implementation, and the Arbutus Corridor Upgrades at King Edward.
This webinar is offered through landADAPT:
A continuing education program to promote building capacity through professional development opportunities for Canadian landscape architects, supported by Natural Resources Canada’s Climate Change Adaptation Program.