UBC students in Patrick Condon’s urban design course unveil “Vancouver 2050 Vision: The Streetcar City”

UBC Urban Design Project:
Vancouver 2050 Vision

“Vancouver is one of only a few major cities in North America that does not have a physical master plan guiding change and growth,” writes Bob Ransford in an article published in the Vancouver Sun newspaper on December 11, 2010.

Plan Paints a Compelling Picture

“The Vancouver Town Planning Commission hired American urban planner Harland Bartholomew in the 1920s to draft the last city-wide plan. Bartholomew’s plan, completed in 1929, was never officially adopted, but did set the tone for much of Vancouver’s current urban structure.”

“But now, a group of architecture and planning students at the University of B.C. has recently crafted a master plan for Vancouver that paints a vivid and compelling picture of change in Vancouver over the next 40 years.”

Plan Draws High Praise from Leading Thinkers

“At a recent gathering, the framework was unveiled to some of the city’s leading urban designers, planners, and sustainability thinkers, including Gordon Price and Gordon Harris, respectively director of The City Program and president of SFU Community Trust; renowned landscape architect Cornelia Oberlander; and Vancouver planning director Brent Toderian,” adds Kim Davis in a companion article also published by the Vancouver Sun on on December 11.

These newspaper articles describes the unveiling of the UBC Urban Design Project: Vancouver 2050 Vision at an event co-hosted by the directors of the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture Leslie Van Duzer, and the School of Community and Regional Planning Penny Gurstein.

To download a copy of the article by Bob Ransford, public affairs consultant with COUNTERPOINT Communications Inc, click on Architecture students term project a first for Vancouver. Bob Ransford is a former real estate developer who specializes in urban issues and in dealing with complicated urban development and land-use challenges involving the public, governments and other stakeholders.

To download a copy of the article by Kim Davis, click on Paperwork is easy part of design; pitching to public is harder, says planner. Researcher, and Vancouver Sun columnist for the West Coast Home Section’s “Living Green,” Kim Davis has written about everything from living walls and pre-fab homes to eco-friendly paints and alternative textiles. She specializes in the emerging field of eco-design.

A Plan to Reduce Greenhouse Gases

“Our students of Landscape Architecture and Planning, with the support of architect and landscape architect James Tuer, and the City of Vancouver’s Senior Urban Designer Scot Hein, have prepared an Urban Structure Framework for the entire City of Vancouver out to the year 2050,” explains Patrick Condon, James Taylor Chair in Landscape and Liveable Environments.

Patrick Condon is the author of numerous books, with the most recent one being  Seven Rules for Sustainable Communities; Design Strategies for a Post Carbon World. This book served as the project focus.

“The plan accommodates a doubling of the city’s population over fifty years, with an emphasis on our rapidly aging demographics. The plan is also designed to reduce greenhouse gases to 80% of 1990 levels.”

“Our work is intended to table a speculative but sensible plan for urban growth that is distinctly Vancouver.”

Planning Pathway for the Future

Patrick Condon’s students have unearthed four significant themes in the city’s potential future form that may constitute breakthrough insights and provide a planning pathway for the future. They are:

• Interconnected Places: A way to use the framework of our arterials to both connect and distinguish urban places.
• Strategic Green Jobs: A strategy to locate and integrate thousands of new green jobs.
• A Green Grid: An environmental network equal to the transportation network.
• Continuous Habitat: A major new system of affordable and accessible natural areas and parks in underserved districts.

“We believe the work reinforces the Greenest City Action Team’s excellent work and objectives,” concludes Patrick Condon.

To Learn More:

A draft of the forthcoming publication from this class can be reviewed online here:  http://www.urbanstudio.sala.ubc.ca/2010/book%20templates.html

For more information about the project background, click on Kim Stephens introduces ‘Beyond the Guidebook 2010’ to UBC urban design students — The lecture was an opportunity to provide students with a window into the local goverment setting; and elaborate on what it takes to build consensus and create lasting change on the ground.

Posted December 2010