In parallel with City-run public workshops and open houses to introduce the plan to the community, elementslab partnered with City of Vancouver staff to develop a digital model and metrics of proposed land uses, building types, densities and heights along the corridor. The information would help staff, elected officials and the public to understand what the redeveloped corridor would look like, if and how the proposed land uses and densities would support transit ridership, and where the proposed urban form changes would support community energy systems.

The results of our analysis demonstrated that the different land uses, densities and building heights proposed in sub-areas of the Plan would enable the corridor to grow into a chain of successful transit-oriented communities. Several sub-areas would have sufficient energy densities to support low carbon community energy systems. These results demonstrated that the city’s sustainability targets could be achieved with a diverse palette of building types, including high- mid- and low-rise forms.  The 3-d models from which these measurements were derived became the base for a series of illustrative aerial and streetscape images used by the city in public engagement.