[GMasterAres]

I would mirror many of the suggestions but the one thing I'd say is almost a must do if you're interested in developments is ride all the SkyTrain lines as vast majority of the region's large developments (outside of CoV) are along the SkyTrain lines. Just buy a 3-zone day pass ($9.75 I think) and hop on and off to your heart's desire. The day pass is good for the buses throughout the region too. You won't need a rental car then.

Canada Line will take you through all the Marine Drive construction and into Richmond where there is a lot of building along the line.

Millenium Line will take you through Brentwood and all the big developments right around there then through Lougheed and finally Brewery District.

Expo Line will take you through Metrotown, New West, and Surrey where there are equally large developments like 3 Civic (and others) in Surrey Central or the too many to name buildings going up in Metrotown.

And the bonus is that you'll get a good view of the region as a whole just riding all 3 lines and looking out the window between stops + you will have seen the major points in the region except Langley and the outskirts; Vancouver, Richmond, Burnaby South + North; New Westminster; Surrey. You'd be missing out on Coquitlam/Port Moody with the Evergreen Line not complete yet, but you could always just jump on a bus.

Definitely spend time downtown though and go through Gastown, China Town, then False Creek. A lot of nice things going on in those areas and you can (and should) do it all on foot.

If you want to see development I think that will get you the most bang for your buck. (1) ride all 3 SkyTrain lines and (2) Downtown+Gastown+China Town+False Creek on foot. If you have bonus time then take the Seabus over to North Van and do a little exploration there and/or jump on the 99B or a bus from downtown and head over to UBC. In additional to some nice development there, there are a lot of nice hikes and places to visit out at UBC and it is just a nice campus imo.