Vancouver
Infographic Evaluates the World's Greenest Cities
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.
Will Vancouver Lose It's Farming Mojo?
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.
Families WILL Choose to Live Downtown, If We Design for Kids!
What will it take to keep families in cities?
Solving Our Urban Challenges Requires Speaking Openly About Density
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.
Is Downtown Any Place to Raise a Family?
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.
Is the Success of Vancouver's Urbanism Just a Facade?
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.
Olympic Lessons for Host Cities and the Movement
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.”
In the Face of Climate Change, Vancouver Plans to Adapt
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.
Is Vancouver Ill-Prepared for the Future?
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.
Canadian Planners at a Crossroads
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.
Generation X Author Pitches Futuristic Utility Pole
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.
Office Tenants in Vancouver Flocking to Transit
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.
Can V-Poles Replace Urban Clutter?
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.
A Place to Park Your Farm
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.
Are Seattle's Trees Depressed?
Ariel Schwartz reports on an art project turning Seattle's trees an electric shade of blue in an effort to raise awareness of them.
The Greenest Cities on the Planet
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.
Exclusive: Abrupt Changing of the Guard at Vancouver Planning Department
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.
Vancouver's University in a Shopping Mall
A photo essay by Witold Rybczynski explores how a campus operates in a shopping mall in a suburban community outside Vancouver, British Columbia.
Parking Garage to be Topped with Urban Farm
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.
Putting the "Green" in Dockside Green Through District Energy
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.
Pagination
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
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