Heights Bike Garden grand opening celebration June 8
June 5, 2024
The City of Vancouver and its partners invite media and members of the community to a grand opening celebration from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, June 8, for the Heights Bike Garden, 5411 E. Mill Plain Blvd., Vancouver. The first bike garden in southwest Washington – and among the largest in the world – offers children and adults a practical, fun and safe way to develop cycling skills and learn about pedestrian road safety.
The bike garden provides a temporary community use for the former Tower Mall property while work continues on the Heights District – a development plan for a vibrant, mixed-use, walkable neighborhood in the heart of Vancouver.
At 10 a.m., the City will host a brief speaker program featuring remarks by Amy Zoltie, real estate project manager at the City of Vancouver; James Brackenhoff and Jason Graf of First Forty Feet and Anne McEnerny-Ogle, Vancouver mayor. A celebratory ribbon cutting will follow.
Helmets are required for all bike garden riders per VMC 9.62.030. Bike Clark County will provide complimentary helmet fittings at the event.
On June 1, City staff volunteered time to help paint and complete the streetscape design. The finishing touches are going in this week. Explore photos below.
Thank you to our partners
The Heights Bike Garden is a City-funded project developed by the Economic Prosperity and Housing Department and made possible by the collaboration of several partners.
Garden design and planning were provided by First Forty Feet, the local urban design and planning firm hired to design Vancouver’s Heights District Redevelopment Project and downtown’s Waterfront Gateway public plaza. Fionnuala Quinn, Discover Traffic Gardens, provided consultation on the design and implementation. Architectural fabricator Keith Larson created the garden’s prism-like mural structures. Artist Gillian Wynne created the gardens’ streetscape mural. PBS Engineering and Environmental, the firm hired by the City for all infrastructure design of the future Heights District, donated picnic benches and furnished food and supplies for volunteers.
Getting there
Limited free parking is available on-site. Entrances for parking are located on Blandford Drive (west of the bike garden) or Devine Road (east of the bike garden) from Mill Plain Boulevard.
C-TRAN’s The Vine Red Line Devine Road stop provides direct access to the garden.
Media contact: Tim Becker, strategic communications manager, tim.becker@cityofvancouver.us
