Draft Guiding Principles forum
Staff have developed a set of draft Guiding Principles to guide the development of the FUCB sub-area of the Broadway Plan over the next 30+ years. Please share your thoughts and opinions in this comment forum. The draft Guiding Principles are listed below (click here to see more):
| Topic | Guiding Principle |
|---|---|
1.Reconciliation | Work in meaningful partnership with the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam Indian Band), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh Nation) to advance reconciliation. This includes decolonizing City of Vancouver and Vancouver Coastal Health policies and practices, creating culturally safe and welcoming spaces, and visibly embedding Indigenous values, history, knowledge, and art throughout the campus in enduring and respectful ways. |
2.Supporting Clinical Hospital Needs | Prioritize excellent patient care, operational efficiency, and staff wellbeing in all aspects of campus planning, design, and operations. Development should support a world-class clinical environment that is functional, flexible, and efficient, while accommodating future growth in population, healthcare demand, and workforce needs. Facilities should be designed to evolve alongside changing models of care and clinical best practices. |
| 3.Open Space | Use public open space as a key organizing element of the campus, now and into the future. Strengthen the existing north–south Willow Street green connection and create significant, connected permanent and interim public open spaces throughout the campus as it redevelops. Open spaces should receive sunlight at key times, support safety and social interaction, connect to nature, and include long-living trees, rest areas, and a connected ‘Wellness Walk’ linking surrounding streets and avenues. |
| 4.History and Heritage | Recognize and respect the cultural heritage value of buildings on the VGH campus. Understand their physical condition, historical evolution, and past and present community significance. Heritage approaches should balance conservation with clinical, operational, and site constraints. Where retention is not feasible, redevelopment should thoughtfully commemorate and memorialize heritage values through design, interpretation, and storytelling that preserves cultural meaning for future generations. |
| 5.Built Form and Integration with Surrounding Neighbourhoods | Design new development to align with the evolving urban fabric shaped by the Broadway Plan. Built form should support increased density, transit-oriented growth, and high-quality public spaces, while integrating thoughtfully with surrounding neighbourhoods. High-quality architecture, landscape design, and building forms, with a distinct and consistent design expression, should reflect the site’s health care function. Buildings should contribute to a cohesive and adaptable high-quality campus identity; enhance comfort, accessibility, and wellbeing; and support integration with surrounding neighbourhoods. |
| 6.Building siting, Orientation, and Solar access | Optimize building siting and orientation to maximize solar access, daylight, and comfort across the campus. Explore building heights up to established view cone limits to enable more generous and functional ground-level open spaces. Development should generally align with anticipated future heights along West Broadway and in adjacent mixed-use areas, while supporting a well-scaled, efficient, and climate-responsive campus environment. |
| 7.Mobility & Connections | Integrate the VGH campus into the city-serving street and transportation network to support safe, intuitive, and efficient movement for people and goods. Prioritize accessibility and universal design across the campus, with emphasis on walking, cycling, and transit for people of all ages and abilities. Ensure efficient access for emergency and healthcare vehicles, while providing adequate drop-off, circulation, and parking for those who must drive. |
| 8.Intuitive Design, Legibility and Wayfinding | Create a campus that is easy to navigate through clear spatial organization, intuitive pathways, accessible design, and cohesive wayfinding and signage systems. Design should reduce confusion and stress for patients, visitors, and staff while reinforcing a strong and recognizable campus identity. A legible and coherent layout should support efficient movement, comfort, and a clear sense of place across the site. |
| 9.Sustainability, Resilience and Disaster Preparedness | Ensure long-term environmental sustainability and operational resilience through energy-efficient, low-carbon, seismically resilient, and climate-adaptive design. The campus should remain functional during and after disasters, climate-related events, and public health emergencies. Development should align with Broadway Plan blue-green and One Water strategies, protect high-value trees and canopy, and support the City’s goal of carbon neutrality by 2050. |
| 10.Flexibility & Phasing | Plan and design the campus to be adaptable over time, supporting both near-term needs and long-term evolution in healthcare delivery. Buildings and infrastructure should allow for future expansion, reconfiguration, and technological change. Development phasing should be logical and carefully coordinated to minimize disruption, maintain hospital operations, and ensure continued alignment with guiding principles throughout all stages of redevelopment. |
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