Olympic Village
Location: Vancouver, B.C.
Client: Millennium Group
Long after the medals have been awarded and the athletes, officials and fans have left the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, the mixed-use development known as the Olympic Village will remain as one of Vancouver’s largest and most diverse mixed-use developments.
Developed by The Millennium Group, the village will be home to approximately 2,800 athletes and officials during the games. Early in the design process, Millennium selected Vancouver-based MetroCan Construction Ltd. to serve as the general contractor for five of the eight parcels of the project at the Southeast False Creek site in downtown Vancouver.
Unlike past Olympics, where athletes were housed in temporary modular buildings, Vancouver’s Olympic Village will be a permanent and sustainable development. The project was constructed with a goal of earning LEED gold certification or higher. To do so, the project features such ecological strategies as low-flow toilets that utilize stored rainwater, green roofs and urban agriculture and bio-thermal energy supplied by a sewer-heat recovery system. After the games, the village will be converted to a mix of high-end condominiums and affordable housing.
Through different project events, by the time MetroCan began construction the company was responsible for preparing all eight parcels on the site for construction. Site servicing for the village was substantially completed by early 2007, including roads, water, sewer and community energy and rainwater systems. Construction of the buildings started in early 2007. The site was the last remaining large tract of undeveloped waterfront land near downtown Vancouver and comprises about 80 acres of city-owned and privately owned land.