Vancouver

What will it take to keep families in cities?

September 24, 2012 - Brent Toderian

With cities such as Vancouver struggling with housing affordability, limited developable land, and residents resistant to change, Bob Ransford suggests we need open and honest debate about density and the big picture of development.

September 21, 2012 - The Vancouver Sun

Certainly, says Brent Toderian. And with children "the indicator species of a great neighbourhood," he argues that cities should be designed with families in mind.

September 10, 2012 - HuffPost British Columbia

Bob Ransford argues that the policies that have shaped Vancouver's streets and skyline over the last decades into a global icon of planning and design are an accomplishment of style over substance that fail to look at how people inhabit buildings.

August 30, 2012 - The Vancouver Sun

As Olympics excitement grows in the first week of the London 2012 Games, we in Vancouver watch with great interest, and occasional feelings of deja-vu. Last week in Atlantic Cities, I wrote about Vancouver’s 2010 Olympics experience with Olympic jitters and the host city funk, and the ability of the Games to change cities through the “power of the collective experience.”

August 3, 2012 - Brent Toderian

Kelly Sinoski and Michael Vinkin Lee detail the strategies identified in Vancouver's new plan to deal with expected increases in the effects of climate change, from street flooding and damaged forests to heat-related illnesses.

July 23, 2012 - The Vancouver Sun

Speaking at a recent Urban Land Institute series organized to discuss Vancouver in 2050, three of the city's former planning directors expressed grave concerns over the city's ability to adequately handle its future growth, reports Jeff Lee.

July 17, 2012 - Vancouver Sun

As several major Canadian cities seek to hire new chief urban planners, candidates are facing an emerging set of demographic and political challenges, while some question the role such officials should have in shaping the country's landscape.

July 9, 2012 - The Globe and Mail

Douglas Coupland, most famous for authoring the book Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, is pitching a combined street lamp / wifi / cell phone tower to bring connectivity to Vancouver's streets.

June 25, 2012 - National Post

In a pattern being repeated across Canada's major cities, office tenants are willing to pay a premium to be located close to transit in Vancouver and buildings located only a few blocks away or in suburban office parks are seeing a rise in vacancies.

June 12, 2012 - The Globe and Mail

Vancouver will attempt to address urban clutter with innovative multifunctional utility poles that house Wi-Fi and telecom services, as well as other amenities, designed by none other than famed novelist Douglas Coupland.

June 5, 2012 - National Post

A parking garage in downtown Vancouver is scheduled to be the first structure in North America to host a "paradigm shifting" 6,000-square-foot vertical farm.

May 11, 2012 - Designing Healthy Communities

Ariel Schwartz reports on an art project turning Seattle's trees an electric shade of blue in an effort to raise awareness of them.

April 12, 2012 - Fast Company Co.Exist

In a piece for GE's Ecomagination, Michael d'Estries takes a look at five cities that set the bar for cutting carbon, recycling waste, and making space for Mother Nature.

March 21, 2012 - Ecomagination

In a surprise move this week, Vancouver's city council abruptly relieved its high-profile Planning Director, Brent Toderian, of his duties, after six years on the job. Planetizen has spoken with the former director about what transpired.

February 2, 2012 - Straight.com

A photo essay by Witold Rybczynski explores how a campus operates in a shopping mall in a suburban community outside Vancouver, British Columbia.

December 22, 2011 - Slate Magazine

The City of Vancouver is building a 6,000 sq. ft. greenhouse atop a downtown parking garage as part of its goal to become the greenest city in the world by 2020.

December 19, 2011 - The Vancouver Sun

The Globe and Mail profiles Victoria B.C.'s community of Dockside Green, which, in addition to being an infill development, is powered by a district energy system.

November 23, 2011 - Globe and Mail

In Vancouver, B.C., a newly approved plan to increase density along the Cambie corridor is sending housing prices skyrocketing and causing concern among residents about the character of their neighborhood.

October 28, 2011 - CBC News

Cities like San Francisco, Portland and New York are facing a problem most people didn't expect: an overabundance of farmers' markets. Vancouver's planners are keeping the numbers trimmed to make sure the current markets don't wither and die.

September 30, 2011 - The Globe and Mail