Southeast False Creek Art Plan

Buster Simpson

Vancouver, BC

As the City of Vancouver, BC, prepared to host the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, it developed a 55-acre parcel of land on the last remaining piece of waterfront on the False Creek Basin—an immense investment in local infrastructure.

Studies show that the long-term benefits hosting the Olympics depend critically on how well the new infrastructure can be adapted and embraced in the years following the Games, and Vancouver viewed its investment in this infrastructure as an opportunity to demonstrate innovative, sustainable community design practices. When it came to the Athlete’s Village at Southwest False Creek, the City sought to seed a thriving neighborhood that would flourish long after the Olympic crowds went home.

As a consultant to the City, 4Culture commissioned environmental artist Buster Simpson to develop a comprehensive Art Plan and consider how creative activities and interventions could help meet the social, economic, and sustainability goals for the site. Unique in Vancouver’s public art planning and programming history, the project was the City’s first attempt to adopt an art plan for an entire district.

Continue Reading ›

The artwork promotes the sustainability promise of the place, poetically revealing innovations and engaging visitors and residents in participation, understanding and caring. Artists’ ideas and works are a true catalyst of positive change and on-going stewardship of the Southeast False Creek neighborhood, and our earth. –Buster Simpson

Simpson’s plan provides guiding artistic principles and themes, identifies opportunities for artistic engagement at every stage of the development project, and details a series of implementation strategies. Through all of its recommendations, it emphasizes integration with the waterfront park and neighborhood greenspaces, the importance of water in the urban ecosystem, and the character and history of the setting.

Simpson is known for working with found and recycled materials. He has been commissioned to created dozens of public artworks in the United States, Canada, and beyond. His other 4Culture commissions include Bio Boulevard & Water Molecule at the Brightwater wastewater treatment facility.