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Spreading the Gospel of Vancouverism

Posted by: Tim Halbur

7 April 2009 - 6:00am

As planning director of Vancouver until 2006, Larry Beasley was instrumental in the creation of the downtown's new form. Since stepping down, he's been spreading the word across the globe of what makes Vancouverism work so well.

"Mr. Beasley is identified with so-called Vancouverism, a planning movement that is "characterized by tall, but widely separated, slender towers interspersed with low-rise buildings, public spaces, small parks and pedestrian-friendly streetscapes and facades to minimize the impact of a high-density population," according to The New York Times.

Since stepping down as the city's chief planner, Mr. Beasley, 60, has taken Vancouverism abroad, to cities as distant and different as Dallas, Rotterdam and Abu Dhabi. He is putting even more emphasis on sustainable planning. Not as a catchy marketing device, but as a real, practical, technology-based solution to urban woes such as traffic congestion, pollution, and general hideousness.

He has his work cut out for him: Among his many assignments is the improvement of Ottawa."

Full Story: The Urbanizer
Source: National Post, April 4, 2009
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robbing communities of their identity

Submitted by jgzeger on Tue, 04/07/2009 - 08:12.

Larry Beasley was in Kelowna last year attending a public hearing on a waterfront high-rise proposal that he supported which would strip Kelowna of its present community character and identity and make it a carbon copy of Vancouver. It seems that Beasley will not be content until every city in the world looks like Vancouver. How sad that his weak ego needs be bolstered in this way.

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