We’ve opened a brand new park in the downtown core at Smithe and Richards streets.
This is the first park in Vancouver to be gifted a name by the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. sθәqәlxenәm ts'exwts'áxwi7, meaning 'rainbow', was chosen for this place because the land where the park now sits was once forested with large trees and had many sources of water, including a marsh where the sun and mist would form rainbows.
Listen to the pronunciation
sθәqәlxenәm
ts'exwts'áxwi7
Project update
This 0.8 acre site has been transformed into a park of the future, with innovative design, dynamic play areas, art installations, and multi-dimensional walkways that go far beyond the traditional concept of a park.
Project update: Smithe and Richards park
By City of Vancouver
This 0.8 acre site has been transformed into a park of the future, with innovative design, dynamic play areas, art installations, and walkways that go far beyond the traditional concept of a park.
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Serving downtown residents and employees
By City of Vancouver
The site is projected to serve over 10,000 residents and 17,000 employees who live and work within a five-minute walk of the area.
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Playground
By City of Vancouver
The park features two in-ground trampolines, three custom designed towers, and a smaller climbing ribbon for younger children. The park's naturally slope allows for a double-wide roller slide and various climbing and rope features. The top of the slope has a disc swing for playing on and bench seating for caregivers and those waiting their turn.
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Public art display
By City of Vancouver
Six dramatic skyframes have been installed diagonally across the park to display public art.
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Green features
By City of Vancouver
A third of the site is planted with over 6,000 shrubs, perennials, climbers, and mature trees, many of which are significant to and used in Indigenous culture, food, and medicine. Rain and water from the plaza’s water feature is collected, filtered, and channeled for irrigation and flushing toilets, or cleaned by aquatic plants before entering storm sewers. The on site café is designed with a 30% reduction in energy use and features a green roof.
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Decolonization
By City of Vancouver
This project is a significant step in the path to decolonizing the city through parks and greenspace and connecting park visitors to the unceded territory they are standing on. In collaboration with Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations, we will help to tell the story of this unceded land and those who have stewarded it since time immemorial through art installations and cultural programming. An official naming ceremony will announce the name gifted by the Nations for this park in June 2022.
sθәqәlxenәm ts’exwts’áxwi7
Directions
- Easily walkable from major destinations within the downtown core
- At the intersection of both the Smithe and Richards protected cycle lanes
- Within a five-minute walk of 39 different bus routes
- Seven-minute walk from Vancouver City Centre station (Canada Line). Four-minute walk from Burrard SkyTrain station (Expo Line)
- City and private parking lots within walking distance
