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“Heralded by publications worldwide as one of the most important waterfront planning precedents of our time, Granville Island remains one of Hotson Bakker Boniface Haden Architects’ trademark works. As Executive Architect to the Government of Canada since 1976, the firm has been responsible for the Island’s master plan; the design of streetworks and open spaces; children’s play features; the public market; several artist studios and workshops; traffic and parking design; shoreline edges; and the ongoing monitoring and coordination of designs done by others on the 17-hectare site.
The mixed-use environment, based on the adaptive reuse of early 20th-century industrial warehouses, has become a cultural legacy for the citizens of Vancouver. As a social focus, the Island lives up to the original mandate of creating a “people place” in the City.
Granville Island was named the ‘Best Neighbourhood in North America’ by New York-based non-profit organization Project for Public Spaces.”
“In 1980, the Bureau of International Expositions unanimously voted in favour of Transpo '86 and suggested that the False Creek site was the best alternative of all the proposals. The name Transpo '86 was changed to Expo '86 to give the fair a universal appeal. Architect Bruno Freschi was hired to design a conceptual model of a world's fair on the False Creek site.”
The theme statement of "World in Motion — World in Touch" was symbolized by a logo of three concentric circles using the figures 8 and 6 intersecting to represent transportation by land, sea, and air.
One element that is instantly visible is colour. Expo planners divided the False Creek site into six colour zones, a concept that allows visitors to explore the basically linear grounds amid buildings, benches, and flamboyant banners, all painted or dyed in vibrant Day-Glo hues, splendid when the sun is shining, as it does most of the time during a typical Vancouver summer. Indeed, the yellows, greens, pinks, blues, reds, and purples of Expo 86 have the fluorescence of spring tulips in Holland. The flowerbeds are bursting with blooms – not just tulips – all coordinated with their zone colour. They'll be replanted twice again as the seasons move toward the October closing.”
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