PFS Studio

Please join PFS Studio’s Kelty McKinnon as she hosts a Fireside Chat at this year’s Urban Experience Alliance Symposium: Culture in Place. Hosted on June 11 at the Emily Carr Reliance Theatre, this one day event will feature over 18 city-builder speakers across design, civic leadership, urban economics, cultural entrepreneurship, food & beverage, and hospitality exploring the cultures that shape our urban landscapes—and the tensions that exist between them. Kelty McKinnon and Brian McBay (Executive Director of 221A, a Vancouver-based cultural research and cultural space operator) will discuss their experiences “Manifesting Asian Experience in the Public Realm”. Get your tickets here: /events/uea-symposium-2026 #pfsstudio #uea

Our Imagine West End Waterfront Vision Plan is the recipient of a 2026 Award of Excellence by the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects in the Planning and Analysis category! PFS Studio led a multidisciplinary team that included co-designer @snohetta , and Coast Salish Cultural Consultants @skyspiritstudio to develop a transformative 30-year strategy to address sea level rise, climate impacts, and population growth along Vancouver’s iconic West End Waterfront. Read more about the Imagine West End Waterfront Vison Plan here: https://vancouver.ca/files/cov/imagine-west-end-waterfront-vision-april-2024.pdf Lead Consultant: @pfsstudio Client: Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation @vanparkboard + City of Vancouver @cityofvancouver Consultant Team: Snøhetta, @snohetta Sky Spirit Studio, @skyspiritstudio Bunt & Associates, @buntengineering Toole Design, @tooledesigngroup EcoPlan International, @ecoplaninternational Argyle, @argylepr Northwest Hydraulic Consultants, @nhc.water Kerr Wood Leidel, @kerrwoodleidal Archipelago Marine Research, @itsarchipelago Diamond Head Consulting, @diamondheadconsulting Inlailawatash, @inlailawatash_archaeology Arup, @arupgroup Jill Anholt Studio, @jillanholtstudio BTY Group, @bty_group #planningawards #cdnplanners #landscapearchitecture #pfsstudio #snohetta #csla

Nastaran Moradinejad is one of thirteen cross-Canada Fellows-Elect selected to join the CSLA College of Fellows in 2026. She was elected in the category of ‘Direct Service to the CSLA’ for her outstanding service to the field of Landscape Architecture through her numerous volunteer positions over her career.    Investiture to the College of Fellows is the highest honor the CSLA bestows on its members. Congratulations Nastaran! Nastaran joins our founder and partners, Chris Phillips as well as Jennifer Nagai and Kelty Miyoshi McKinnon as distinguished fellows of the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects. Congratulations to all of the 2026 Fellows. Read more: https://www.csla-aapc.ca/awards/2026-class-fellows @csla_aapc @pfsstudio

PFS Studio is very pleased to have collaborated with the City of Vancouver and an exceptional team of subconsultants and subject matter experts to help develop the Rain City Green Roof Best Practices Guide, released publicly in early 2026. The Guide represents a meaningful step forward for Vancouver and other municipalities seeking to implement green roofs as a long-term response to interconnected urban challenges and provides practical information that can help ensure green roofs consistently perform as intended over their full lifecycle. It translates years of local experience with green roofs into a practical, accessible resource that supports planners, designers, developers, and practitioners in delivering higher-quality, more resilient, and more multifunctional green roofs. By addressing real and perceived challenges of green roofs (including performance, longevity, and risk) the Guide helps move the City's aspirational goals into built reality. Most importantly, it reinforces the role of green roofs as critical green rainwater infrastructure, supporting rainwater management, climate adaptation, biodiversity, and access to nature in dense urban environments. We’re proud to have helped develop this document alongside Gord Tycho and the City of Vancouver, to strengthen the practice of green roofs and support cities in designing greener, healthier, and more climate-resilient futures. See link in bio. @arcadisarchitecture @lmdg_ltd @introba_inc @kerrwoodleidal @rjc_engineers @cityofvancouver @nastaran8mn @chiasson_jeang #greenroof #pfsstudio

A major milestone for 800 Granville — unanimous Council approval last night! 🎉 As Kerry Bonnis shared in his opening remarks to Mayor and Council last night, this moment is not just about a project, but about a place that means so much to Vancouver. The Commodore Ballroom has been at the heart of this city for generations, and we carry a deep responsibility to honour its history and protect its spirit. Our vision does exactly that: it preserves and strengthens this legacy while bringing new life to an entertainment district ready to thrive again. Granville has always been more than a street — it’s a civic stage, a cultural spine, and a place of collective memory. The Granville Street Plan provided the clarity and ambition needed to help restore that role. This proposal is about resetting the future of Granville: • creating a pedestrian‑first public realm animated day and night, • introducing a mix of cultural, commercial, hotel, and residential uses, • delivering an architectural landmark that respects the street’s historic energy, and • making a significant private investment in long‑term downtown vitality. It is designed to give back to the street — through a more inviting, porous ground plane with active edges and people‑focused spaces that encourage community life to flourish. As a catalyst for the district, it aims to help Granville become more inclusive, more animated, and more reflective of Vancouver’s aspirations as a global city. Thank you to the entire City team and our partners for your leadership and continued commitment to the future of Granville Street and our city. And thank you to the many team members whose dedication over nearly nine years made this milestone possible. Collaborators: Bonnis Properties @cityofvancouver @fastepp @pfsstudio @luxton_heritage @poonigroup @buntengineering @cimaplusca @rdhbuildingscience Vector Engineering Philips & Associates #PerkinsWill #PerkinsWillVancouver #Architecture #Vancouver #Granville

We’re proud of Lin Lin, our PFS Senior Associate, who served as a juror representing the British Columbia region for the Landscape Architecture Canada Foundation (LACF) 2025 and 2026 Research Grants Program. Congratulations to the 2026 LACF Research Grants recipients! Lin helped support impactful research, communication, and scholarship in landscape architecture across Canada. #landscapearchitecture #pfsstudio #lacf

Happy holidays from PFS Studio! We wish you and yours all the best for the holiday season and a very happy new year! Designed by Stewart Denny #pfsstudio #happyholidays #happynewyear

PFS Studio was thrilled to receive a copy of Professor and Landscape Architect David DuMez Hopman’s new book “Creative Regionalism: Renewing the Aesthetic Experience of Landscape in Environmental Design and Planning” – and doubly thrilled to find our Richmond City Hall project gracing the cover! The book explores Critical Regionalism as a place-based design approach that “… emphasizes and embraces combining local and regional forces – natural and cultural – into the design and planning process…”. A great read and highly recommended. #landscapearchitecture #pfsstudio #placmaking #environmentaldesign

On October 28, the Esquimalt and Songhees First Nations held a ground blessing and cedar brushing ceremony on the future site of the Japanese Canadian Monument Park in Victoria, BC — marking the official beginning of construction this fall. Led by Elder Mary Ann Thomas and speaker Carmen Dick, the traditional ceremony blessed the land where a wall of names and a garden will honour the 22,000 people of Japanese descent, most born in Canada, who were forcibly displaced from their homes on the west coast of BC during the 1940s. Members of the Victoria Japanese Canadian community, including survivors and descendants, were also present, as well as government officials, members of the design and construction teams, and representatives from the Japanese Canadian Legacies Society were present. Set for completion in 2026, the monument park — designed by @kpmbarch and @pfsstudio — will include a 100 metre long curving monument wall set within a Japanese-inspired garden offering space for reflection, commemoration and community events. We hold deep gratitude to the Esquimalt and Songhees First Nations for their blessings and to all who continue to ensure these stories are never forgotten. #pfsstudio #landscapearchitecture

As landscape architects, we often design green roofs and rain gardens to help slow, store and filter rainwater; improve air quality, reduce heat intensity, and enhance biodiversity and habitat. Green roofs and rain gardens can also enhance amenity, childcare, and urban agricultural spaces, while increasing access to nature, and expanding educational opportunities. PFS Studio’s Howard Rosenblat and his academic colleagues at the University of Toronto have been published in ‘Nature Cities Journal’. Their article, “Remote Sensing for Healthy Vegetation on Green Roofs” is a study of vegetation health across 1380 individual green roofs in Toronto, Ontario from 2011 to 2018. Their findings provide an analytical framework for the long-term assessment and design development of green roofs in urban environments. Congratulations Howard! More Information: /articles/s44284-025-00331-w #pfsstudio #landscapearchitecture #greenroofs #raingardens #remotesensing

Lennar Town Hall Plaza - Ovation PFS Studio developed the block-wide public realm plan for the Ovation project, located kitty-corner from Freeway Park in downtown Seattle. Integrated with the architecture of Perkins and Will, PFS responded to the West Coast Modern iconography of Freeway Park through terraced formwork planters, stepped plazas, and lush plantings. A large public plaza enables spill-out programming from Seattle’s beloved Town Hall, ringed by wooden amphitheatre seating, terraced water features, a lounging lawn, and stepped biofiltration planters that filter stormwater runoff. The midblock alley has been converted into a pedestrian oriented shared mews that can accommodate occasional vehicles and trucks. This north-south shared mews is supplemented with an east-west pedestrian only mid-block connector that creates an overall inviting permeability to the block, that brings life and light to the central plaza. Streetscapes around the block are improved with special paving, street trees with generous soil volumes, built in seating opportunities, and Pacific coastal understory plantings. The project daylights the movement of stormwater across the site with terraced biofiltration planters that capture, slow, and filter rainwater while reducing combined sewer overflows and minimizing adverse impacts on aquatic habitats in the Puget Sound. #pfsstudio #landscapearchitecture #seattle 📷: @cktkwok & @timricephotography

Play in Nature 🍃 📸 of the Outdoor Play Area (designed by @pfsstudio ) at Capilano University’s Fulmer Family Centre for Childhood Studies.