Responding to the 1960s

Abstract

In one urban region, Vancouver, Canada, the cultural transformations of the 1 960s were taken seriously, and the values and sensibilities of those socially and ecologically aware became manifest in the design of a number of neighborhoods. Twenty years ago a vision for cities and suburbs only now highlighted by neotraditional urban designers were not only proposed but studied and implemented. In downtown Vancouver and existing neighborhoods, new policies and programs emerged to enhance the quality of the public environment and, in two places, False Creek, on the margin of downtown, and Champlain Heights, a green-field site 8 miles to the southeast, two new complex neighborhoods were designed and constructed drawing on both the ideas of the day and an interactive consultative public process. These initiatives are interesting in their own right, but they also provide processes of policy development and implementation in urban design that may help meet challenges in other cities.

Lessons of Success from False Creek South and Granville Island

“…Idealistic planners and architects were seeking to tackle problems in new ways to make the world a better place (Hardwick, 1994). Christopher Alexander, an architect whose Pattern Language (Alexander, Ishikawa & Silverstein, 1977) found many followers and helped influence the design of False Creek South (Hardwick, 1994;Phillips, 1993;Ley, 1987). 3 More importantly, perhaps, this period represented "the high point of the Canadian welfare state," before the accumulation of a massive federal deficit (Ley, 2019).…”

“…Once the City set its course, direction of the planning process was turned over to Stuart Sutcliffe, a manager with a strong record of accomplishment (Hardwick, 1994;Hulchanski, 1984). Hardwick (1994) notes that in the past, members of the city bureaucracy had set policy directions and expected City Council to rubberstamp those directions. TEAM's approach turned this on its head, with politicians providing policy leadership and turning implementation over to the bureaucrats.…”

“…The City had been dithering for decades about what to do with False Creek, and a number of studies had been conducted about possibly converting what had become derelict industrial land into residential or other uses. As Hardwick (1994) writes: Canadian Planning and Policy 2021 A project of students in geography and architecture at the University of British Columbia addressed the role of these central lands. Following socioeconomic and design analyses it was recommended that industrial uses be abandoned, and the area be integrated into the fabric of the city, with residential and commercial activities placed with a major waterfront park and recreation system.…”

“…Currently, there are 614 co-op housing units in six separate complexes out of a total of 3,258 housing units in the neighbourhood (City of Vancouver Planning Department, 2017;*RePlan, 2016). In addition, there are 416 social housing units present, along with seniors' and special needs housing (City of Vancouver Planning Department, 2017;Hardwick, 1994).…”

“…Early planning documents for False Creek South included quotations from Jacobs, planners Ian McHarg and Kevin Lynch, and urban sociologist Herbert Gans. A strong emphasis was placed on the human scale and quality of life to avoid the "towers in the park" aesthetic of Le Corbusier" (Beasley, 2019;Hardwick, 1994;Spaxman, 1994). It involved an explicit rejection of the "housing project" model where poor people were warehoused in single-use high-density developments away from street life and amenities.…”