Millennium Water Olympic Village

Vancouver, Canada
Client: The City of Vancouver, VANOC
Budget: $1 billion
Area: 130,000 square meters
Issues addressed: Climate change, urban planning, passive design, healthy communities, energy management

Transformation is possible. The Millennium Water Olympic Village project shows that you can take a contaminated industrial site in the heart of a city and responsibly transform it into a sustainable community. What’s required is a leader who can foster collaboration and encourage a shared commitment to such a vision.

In his role as design manager, and working with Millennium SEFC Properties Ltd., Roger brought together a team of five architectural firms and more than 40 engineering and service companies to develop a common vision of a new way of community development. Under his leadership, he ensured that all elements – from water and energy use to community planning – contributed to the overarching goals of the project. This involved extensive public facilitation to engage stakeholders in embracing new approaches and liaising with the client team to ensure that sustainable and green building initiatives were adopted for the project.

Millennium Water, the Southeast False Creek Olympic Village, has received international recognition as a vibrant community that reduces resource use, has a minimal carbon footprint and shows us new possibilities for urban planning and healthy communities.

Completed as Principal of Merrick Architecture