Brent Toderian

<p> <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial">This past Saturday, I had the honour of joining a group of invited urbanists and sustainability experts, in a special dialogue put on by <a href="http://www.princes-foundation.org/" target="_blank">The Prince&#39;s Foundation for the Built Environment</a>, </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial">and Vancouver&#39;s Simon Fraser University. Among other things, the event was to launch a new partnership between these two innovative organizations around research and curriculum for sustainable urbanism.

<span style="font-size: x-small"> <p> I&#39;m sure much will be written on the observations and learning&#39;s from the 2010 Vancouver-Whistler Winter Olympics and Paralympics process - at least once all those working tirelessly on it have had some time to catch our breath after next year&#39;s monumental event. As you can imagine, we&#39;re already inundated with visitors, questions and critiques, and we still have months to go and much hard work to do. </p>

<p> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">A quick post to note that on Tuesday of last week, Vancouver City Council unanimously approved bylaws to put into place Vancouver&#39;s new &quot;suites within suites&quot; housing option, across the City. Also referred to as &quot;lock-off suites&quot;, these secondary suites within apartments are meant to represent an opportunity for housing flexibility, with such suites usable as a rental mortgage helper (a “mortgage helper in the sky”, as one article puts it), a separated but related unit for an elderly parent or aging teenager, a unit for a care-giver, or any other relationship an apartment owner might need.

<p> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Courier New'">Over various blog posts through the last few years, I&#39;ve shared some of the key steps and stages leading to the eventual unanimous Council approval of <a href="/node/33517" target="_blank">Vancouver&#39;s EcoDensity Initiative</a>. Since then the EcoDensity Charter and new policies have been changing the way we think about density, green building and site design, and our ecological footprint in and outside of city hall. We&#39;ve also been moving forward on various EcoDensity actions approved in principle by Council back in 2008.

<span style="font-size: x-small"> <p> This weekend, friends, family, colleagues and admirers got together to celebrate the life, and mourn the death, of a man many consider to be the most talented architect Canada has ever produced. Frank Gehry may have been born in Canada, but Arthur Erickson began, remained and died a great Canadian. He was also one of the World&#39;s architectural greats, and a &quot;citizen of the World&quot;. </p>