New Olympic Village Elementary School to feature rooftop play area

$150 million in new provincial funding to build Vancouver Olympic Village elementary school

New Coal Harbour waterfront building with social housing and elementary school takes shape

New elementary school serving Senakw gets big capacity boost

"Recess!" This new Vancouver school features slides from the second level

New mass timber elementary school opens in Vancouver's Kitsilano neighbourhood (PHOTOS)

The new school building will stand 62 ft. tall with four storeys, encompassing approximately 64,600 sq. ft. of total floor area — significantly larger than the previously envisioned structure reaching 44 ft. tall with three storeys containing 40,000 sq. ft. of space.

Part of the increased height is also attributed to the need for a higher elevation to address floodplain requirements, given the site’s proximity to the False Creek shoreline. Stairs and ramps are needed to elevate the ground floor of the school above the one-metre flood line.

Due to the geotechnical challenges from the size of the site and the poor soil conditions, no underground parking is planned, as it would be technically challenging and financially unfeasible, according to the application.. As a result, the project will only provide four accessible vehicle parking stalls at ground level.

As initially announced in April 2024 when the provincial government set aside $150 million for the project, this new school will have a larger capacity for 630 students — more than than the approximate 500 students originally envisioned. In terms of enrolment capacity, this would make it one of VSB’s largest elementary schools.

There will also be a school-aged childcare facility, providing 60 before- and after-school care spaces.

VSB is pursuing vertical stacked schools where real estate comes at a premium, particularly areas in and around the downtown Vancouver peninsula, such as the 2017-built, four-storey Crossroads Elementary School and the new Coal Harbour Elementary School integrated into an 11-storey, mixed-use social housing building, which will reach completion later this year.

Notably, Olympic Village Elementary School will become VSB’s first “vertically stacked” urban school to feature a rooftop outdoor play area — a design approach commonly seen in dense urban centres like New York City and across parts of Asia. This innovative solution addresses the lack of available ground-level space for outdoor recreation.

The rooftop will be secured by a screened enclosure and will include approximately 10,700 sq. ft. of uncovered outdoor play space and nearly 4,100 sq. ft. of covered outdoor play area.

In addition to classrooms, the school will have other facilities such as a gymnasium and community spaces.

The project’s design firm is McFarland Marceau Architects, which is known for its experience in designing school and institutional buildings, including VSB’s recent projects of the new Lord Nelson Elementary School and Dr. George M. Weir Elementary School.

Since the late 2000s, the City has reserved the 29,000 sq. ft. parcel of land adjacent to Hinge Park in the Olympic Village neighbourhood for the future elementary school. In the meantime, the site has been maintained as an open grassy area, serving as an informal extension of the park space. This temporary field for the school footprint is located at the southwest corner of the intersection of Columbia Street and Athletes Way, and immediately south of the seawall and Habitat Island.

In 2021, the City and VSB entered into a 99-year nominal lease for the use of the site as a school.

Construction is now expected to begin in 2027 for a completion and opening in 2029,

For many years, there have been growing calls from local residents to expedite the construction of the school, as the neighbourhood has seen significant population growth from ongoing residential developments. This demand is only expected to increase with further densification planned for the area, including the nearby Broadway Plan area.

According to VSB, the nearby 1958-built Fraser Elementary School has a capacity for 182 students, but in the 2023/2024 school year it had an enrolment of 342 students due to the area’s limited capacity. This capacity-strained school includes a large portion of students living in the Mount Pleasant and Olympic Village neighbourhoods.

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