The Heights envisions a new urban community stitched into the existing context of Vancouver, Washington. As part of a district planning team, Walker Macy led the conceptual design of complementary civic and neighborhood parks connected to a larger public realm and open space network encouraging healthy lifestyles and easy access to nature. Early in the process, we collaborated with the City and consultant team to rethink master planned park locations and orientations to create a more connected open space framework, with parks as gateways along primary corridors. Design inspiration was found in the landforms created by the ice age floods that directly shaped the Heights and its surroundings.
The Civic Park and Festival Lane are flexible and informal community gathering spaces that include a generous range of amenities, including seating, water play elements, covered stage, comfort station building with restrooms and retail café space, and direct connection to the Grand Loop connecting corridor. The adjacent curb-less Festival Lane provides direct connection to activated ground-level retail spaces and can be closed to traffic to support larger events and gatherings.
The Neighborhood Park is inspired by prevalent riparian forms and provides a softer open space more oriented to local residents with a large open lawn, accessible playground, picnic areas and seating, and an urban dog park. The park is seamlessly connected to the larger community open space framework with the Grand Loop along the South and East park edges and incorporates a new cycle-track along Devine Road while preserving a stand of existing canopy trees.