Downtown South townhouse residents and a place for space: a model, planned, post-industrial neighbourhood

The Downtown South is a “new” neighbourhood created through the reduction in size of Vancouver’s Central Business District through rezoning done under the rubric of the Central Area Plan (CAP) in 1991. The neighbourhood is one of Metro Vancouver’s regional growth centres; developed within a planning context of managed growth and densification. Also significant in the Downtown South is the building form of the podium tower with street-fronting townhouses seen as one of Vancouver’s contributions to contemporary urban design. Downtown South is presented as a critical case study. It is recognized in North America as a model of successful mixed-use redevelopment of an urban core. Fifteen years after the articulation of the CAP, the Downtown South built out more than 10 years ahead of schedule. This research proposes an examination of how space is understood and a sense of place constructed among townhouse residents in a model, planned, post-industrial neighbourhood.