Initial Image Formation (1999)

The Regeneration document conceived of a “Science Playground” at the base of an

“Urban Treehouse” in the public space of Creekside Park supported by the Expo Deck.

Figure 19: Initial Image of the Environmental Trail

Source: ReGeneration document (1999). Reprinted with permission by Science World

Figure 19 shows an August 1999 presentation of these concepts by an internal designer on the Science World team. The Treehouse was illustrated as a series of “elevated canopied pods”

containing interactive exhibits connected by walkways to the main building. Underneath would be a pond and stream with the Science Playground surrounding it. This illustration is evidence of the earliest presentation found in my research. From here, we can understand how the initial 1989 idea of an outdoor science park evolved between 1998 and 1999.

It was the Urban Treehouse vision that initiated the design process resulting in the 2013 creation of the TDET and the Ken Spencer Science Park. The KSSP was the counterpart to the public exhibits of the TDET: its entry fee rendering access semi-private (Ford, 2012). The interplay of public and semi-private built into the TDET and the KSSP was initiated here in descriptions of the Science Playground and the Urban Treehouse:

Science Playground

First appearances are critical. In keeping with the concept of exploring and enjoying science in daily life, we are proposing that visitors first encounter an outdoor Science Playground when they approach Science World. Situated on parkland at

the north side of the existing building, the playground will include interactive kinetic sculptures such as whisper dishes, large levers, giant pin wheels, and other simple machines. It will also feature a pond and a stream that courses around the legs of the giant pods of the Urban Treehouse. The playground will be accessible to all visitors to the park. The approach to the building will be modified to mirror the feeling of the playground and impart a sense of fun and interactivity. Colour and motion will surround visitors as they arrive. (Science World, 1999, page number not found, emphasis added)

Urban Treehouse

The Urban Treehouse (accessible to paying visitors from an entrance off the Living Planet on Level II) literally sprouts up out of the Science Playground as a series of elevated, canopied pods of various diameters. Walkways link the pods to the main building. Visitors can turn giant water screws that lift water to create water arcs, waterfalls and fountains… Colourful windmills, air socks and kinetic sculptures will further animate the area. (Science World, 1999, page number not found, emphasis added)

For Science World, these two visions implied one other: they represented an animation of both a public and a semi- private realm. The public realm would include a playground with its pond remaining open to all visitors, while the treehouses would be accessible only to paying visitors who entered through an elevated walkway from within. From the description of the Science Playground, then, we find the first traces of the Environmental Trail’s physical conception. The playground introduced the concept of “exploring and enjoying of science in everyday life” as one approached Science World through the public space of Creekside Park.

With “colour and motion”, one’s arrival brought the larger themes of “earth, sun, water, and wind” literally into play with “a sense of fun and interactivity”. BT describes this further:

BT: Science World was not about content. It’s not that we wanted to teach you about the content of science. Simplistically, we want to do two things. First, we want to raise people’s understanding that science is important, science is everywhere, science affects your life and your quality of life. The design of the chairs we’re sitting in. That’s all science. Second is thinking. We want people to think like a scientist, be curious be inquisitive. The way you do that, is to talk about things in people’s lives…You have got to find the hook.

BT explains how this conception targeted the public accessing Creekside Park, raising their understanding of the importance of science. While both concept and initial design (“image”) were viewed by Science World’s 1999 organization as “desirable form”, Creekside Park was not under its ownership. The project could not simply be built at will. The site was

owned by the City of Vancouver and managed by Vancouver’s Park Board (VBPR).³⁸VBPR had jurisdiction over Creekside Park, and needed to be convinced that the concept would meet their criteria as “acceptable form”. In the initial “tests” with the Park Board in 1999-2000, Science World hired the landscape architecture firm Phillips Farevaag Smallenberg (PFS: later renamed PFS Studio) to begin refining the initial “image”: semi-private Urban Treehouse and public Science Playground.

BT: I remember [a PFS Planner] accompanying me to a Park Board presentation in 1999- “Your Park Board should give us authority to develop an experience in the land surrounding Science World, for the benefit of the community”.

While Science World designers conceived the initial image, they did not have the level of professional experience to follow through the redesign of an outdoor park, hence their decision to hire PFS. The landscape architects’ vision for the public space also imposed a canopied semi-private treehouse onto public space under jurisdiction of the City of Vancouver Park Board (VBPR). Science World needed to show how its vision could align with VBPR’s mission “to provide, preserve, and advocate for parks and recreation services to benefit all people, communities and the environment” (City of Vancouver, n.d).