Granville Island 2040 Walking Tour

Join us for an exciting walking tour of Granville Island with Human Studio’s Bruce Haden and HCMA’s Melissa Higgs.

Over the past forty years Granville Island has been transformed from urban industrial land into the jewel of public space we know today. Through a combination of political leadership at all levels and visionary planning and design, Granville Island is regarded internationally as a model of vibrant urban placemaking other cities seek to emulate.

During the walking tour we’ll look back at the placemaking vision that established Granville Island and explore the tenets guiding the future redevelopment of Granville Island, encapsulated in the recently completed Granville Island 2040 plan.

We will meet in the Quarter Deck conference room of the Granville Island Hotel to start the tour.

Speaker Bios:

Bruce Haden
Bruce Haden is a Principal at Human Studio Architecture and Urban Design. Prior to that he was a Principal at DIALOG’s Vancouver Studio (Formerly Hotson Bakker Boniface Haden).

Bruce is very active in the community. He is a founding board member of the Urbanarium. He has twice chaired the City of Vancouver Urban Design Panel and he assisted both Waterfront Toronto and the City of Toronto in setting up Design Review Panels. Bruce taught at the UBC School of Architecture and was the Vancouver correspondent to Canadian Architect Magazine for ten years. In addition, Bruce was the Design Correspondent for CBC Radio’s Early Edition for two years, and had a regular design spot on Roundhouse Radio in 2016 through 2017. He was a member of Vancouver Foundation’s Four Pillars Fund and is the past Chair of the Board of Directors of the Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver.

Melissa Higgs
Melissa is passionate about creating innovative public buildings where communities come together, and is a believer in the power of architecture and design as a catalyst for positive change in the world. As a Principal at HCMA Architecture + Design, she works closely with clients and project teams to find creative solutions to unique design challenges. Her focus has been on designing arts and culture projects and community recreation facilities, including the award-winning Grandview Heights Aquatic Centre, as well as creating long-range vision plans. Melissa believes that true collaboration and cross-disciplinary design has the power to improve creative outcomes across all project types and scales, and as such, plays a key role in managing and developing our +Design services.