Vancouver

Vancouver's remarkable experiment in livable density is the envy of, and model for, cities across the world. So, after a decade of skyline expansion across Canada, why has densification 'lost steam' in the country? Doug Saunders investigates.

February 25, 2013 - The Globe and Mail

Lacking public open space in downtown Vancouver, the city is taking a nonconventional approach and closing one block off to traffic for the summer months to allow for a pedestrian-oriented public square.

February 24, 2013 - Global Site Plans - The Grid

In a photo essay on small homes and the people who love them, Sightline Fellow Alyse Nelson explains the attraction of compact living and the ways in which small homeowners are living it up by scaling down.

January 3, 2013 - Sightline Daily

Yolande Cole discusses some of the elements being considered for Vancouver's new city-wide food strategy, which "will include over 60 actions intended to expand [the city's] food system."

November 26, 2012 - Straight.com

Just two months into his job as Vancouver's Chief Planner, Brian Jackson is responding to a growing backlash from developers and residents unhappy about an opaque system for determining and implementing community benefits.

November 19, 2012 - The Globe and Mail

Planning policies related to the economy and environment are easier to measure, but Hazel Borys asks, "how do we measure national happiness, well-being, and social capital as they relate to the way we plan our neighborhoods, towns and cities?”

November 8, 2012 - Better Cities & Towns

An informative, detailed, and attractive infographic from the vacation rental website HouseTrip compares the environmental credentials of London, New York, Vancouver, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, and Stockholm, across a range of categories.

October 21, 2012 - Fast Company Co.Exist

Vancouver has the most farmland and farmers in North America. However, as Vancouver booms, the thriving agricultural belt that surrounds Greater Vancouver is at risk from an expanding city.

October 7, 2012 - Vancouver Magazine

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