LIVING IN VANCOUVER

While moving to a new city can be exciting, there are always lots of questions to ask and lots of information that you need to know. We hope that you will find most of your answers in this introductory guide to Living in Vancouver.

Living in Vancouver

Quite a bit of this information is available in the Grad Guide as well.

City of Vancouver

Students who are new to Vancouver may wish to visit the City of Vancouver's website for new residents.

Province of BC

To get an idea about the province we live in, visit Welcome BC, a website for the province of BC.

Housing

Do begin looking for housing early in the summer. If you wait until the end of August, you will have a difficult time.

Graduate Housing on campus: since UBC has built the Marine Drive Residences, the opportunities are increasing considerably. If you intend to stay on campus, you should contact them immediately, even before you hear a decision from us.

But most architecture students live off campus in one of the many neighborhoods near UBC. Perhaps the best source for finding off-campus housing is the AMS Rentsline, provided by UBC's Alma Mater Society. Other good sources include:

local newspapers
bulletin boards around the University, especially downstairs in the Student Union Building
craigslist: vancouver.craigslist.org
Housing Maps: www.housingmaps.com (indexes craigslist listings using Google Maps)
My Home Vancouver: http://www.myhomevancouver.com/search.aspx
Renter’s Guide: www.rentersguide.com

And finally, sometimes you can just go to the neighbourhood where you wish to live and look for the “For Rent” signs.

Child Care

If Child care is a consideration of yours, please begin looking early.

UBC Childcare

Other Child Care Services in Vancouver

Campus Map

UBC Map

Lasserre Building

Transportation

Thanks to the U Pass, transportation for students is fairly inexpensive. The U Pass gives you unlimited access to the Translink transportation system from all over the city and the suburbs.

Translink

Translink operates bus, rail and marine transportation services from town and the suburbs. Take special note of the bus routes and try to organize your housing on one of these.

Cycling

If you are an avid cyclist, you could probably cycle 90% of the time to UBC as long as you dress for wet weather. Many bike routes have been established throughout the city. Even a moderately enthusiastic cyclist can do a partial ride and bike on some routes like the 99B line. Explore the Cycling section of Translink, as well.

And UBC Bike Kitchen is an excellent location for bicycles, repairs and assistance.

Parking

And since some will need them, the Parking Permits for the term are available from UBC Parking and Access Control Services. The closest lots to the Lasserre Building are the Rose Garden Parkade and the Fraser River Parkade.

Carpools

Think about carpooling as most first-year students have similar schedules.

Student Life

Here’s a quick selection of websites in alphabetical order to take you through the first few months of student life.

- AMS/GSS Health and Dental Plan

- Beaches – a very important part of student life.

- Disability Resource Centre

- Email Accounts through Interchange

- Financial aid

- First Nations House of Learning

- Keys – you will get keys to the building during the Introductory Workshop or first week of school

- Library cards