Integrating housing, ecology, and everyday life at UBC

Integrating housing delivery with ecological and social resilience

Located at the south end of UBC’s Vancouver campus, Wesbrook Place South expands the Wesbrook Neighbourhood Plan to support Campus Vision 2050 with new housing, amenities, and open space. The plan strengthens connections to the surrounding forest while supporting UBC’s academic mission and growing campus community.

Gehl led the planning and urban design with 3XN (architecture) and Hapa Collaborative (landscape architecture), creating a plan that balances density with a human-scaled public realm. Adjacent to Pacific Spirit Regional Park, the site required careful environmental stewardship. Building form balances housing with ecological sensitivity and livable public spaces. Slender towers line the forest edge to reduce shadow and visual impact, while mid-rise buildings frame comfortable streets, courtyards, and parks. Gehl also supported a comprehensive engagement process, translating input from residents, youth, seniors, and service providers into priorities.

The public realm is the neighbourhood’s backbone. Alongside 2,100 new homes, 5 hectares of open space form a connected network of parks, greenways, streets, and courtyards – that support recreation, gathering, learning, play, and respite. An expanded Research Park adds multi-sport courts, informal play areas, community gardens, and covered gathering spaces for all ages and abilities. A new ecological park extends the forest into the neighbourhood with nature-based play, trails, meadow and wetland areas, and outdoor learning spaces.

Wesbrook Place South demonstrates how campus growth can integrate housing, ecology, and public life within a connected, inclusive, climate-responsive neighbourhood.