For those who don’t know, there are actually two North American cities named Vancouver. The lesser-known Vancouver is in Washington State, along the Columbia River, a large, navigable waterway that forms the border with Oregon. The city began its life as a colonial fur trading outpost, and maintains a busy commercial port to this day because of its proximity to Portland, located just across the river. Though goods still flow through the port, much of the heavy industrial activity that once occupied the shoreline has disappeared, prompting the city to rezone the site in the early 2000s and elevate a freight line that once cut off access to the water. These actions created the conditions for a spate of residential developments, a new public park, and—most recently—a large commercial office project known as Terminal One.
