In this 125^th birthday year for the City of Vancouver, this public event looks back at the Vancouver that might have been, the metropolis that it has become, and the urban challenges and opportunities that lie before us.  In collaboration with the City of Vancouver Archives, Bing Thom Architects is proud to sponsor the full digitization and public presentation of Harland Bartholomew’s Master Plan and Papers on the City of Vancouver. These documents will be freely available in a number of digital formats through the Vancouver Archives website (http://vancouver.ca/archives/).  The panel discussion on April 26 will launch this project and provide a venue for a public discussion of its significance. 

In 1926, Harland Bartholomew and Associates were commissioned by the Vancouver Town Planning Commission to develop the first master plan for the burgeoning City of Vancouver.  While A Plan for the City of Vancouver British Columbia including Point Grey and South Vancouver and a General Plan of the Region was never officially adopted, it was the first major document to unite the City which was, until then, divided between Point Grey, South Vancouver, and Vancouver.  From streets to parks to schools, Bartholomew set the stage for much of Vancouver’s current social, economic, physical, and cultural infrastructure.  Beginning with this master plan in 1926 until the end of his commission in 1948, Bartholomew wrote over 20 separate reports and documents and provided the first comprehensive urban visions and plans for today’s Vancouver.

Panel Participants: Gordon Price, Penny Gurstein, Tom Hutton, and Andrew Pask with an introduction by Leslie Mobbs, City Archivist  

Facilitated by Peter Greenwell, Chair of the City of Vancouver City Planning Commission

Hosted by Eileen Keenan, Bing Thom Architects and BTAworks

Special Thanks to the City of Vancouver's Planning Department for being the Venue Sponsor

Twitter Feeds: Bing Thom Architects (@btarchitects) and City of Vancouver Archives (@vanarchives)

Twitter Event Hashtag: #bartplan

Panel Biographies

Penny Gurstein is Professor and Director of the School of Community and Regional Planning and the Centre for Human Settlements at UBC. Dr. Gurstein specializes in the socio-cultural aspects of community planning with particular emphasis on including diverse populations in planning processes. Authored books include: Learning Civil Societies: Shifting Contexts for Democratic Planning and Governance (with L. Angeles, 2007, U. of Toronto Press); and Wired to the World, Chained to the Home: Telework in Daily Life (2001, UBC Press). 

Tom Hutton is Professor in the Centre for Human Settlements and School of Community & Regional Planning, University of British Columbia; and an Associate of the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies, UBC. Dr. Hutton’s publications include The New Economy of the Inner City: Restructuring, Regeneration and Dislocation in the 21st Century Metropolis (2007) and articles on the regeneration and dislocation in inner city Vancouver

Andrew Pask is Director of the Vancouver Public Space Network (VPSN), a non-profit profit organization working on advocacy, education and outreach pertaining to Vancouver's public realm.  You can visit the VPSN website: www.vancouverpublicspace.wordpress.com

Gordon Price is Director of the City Program at Simon Fraser University and speaks on urban issues and the development of Vancouver in cities around the world, and is also a regular lecturer on transportation and land use for the City of Portland, Oregon and Portland State University. He blogs at http://pricetags.wordpress.com/

Peter Greenwell is the current Chair of the Vancouver City Planning Commission.  Peter has coordinated the Metro Vancouver Homeless Secretariat, where he oversaw homelessness research work in the region, including the 2008 Homeless Count; as a Housing Planner with the City of Vancouver he was involved with the development of the City’s Supportive Housing Strategy; and he has served as the Director of the Gathering Place Community Centre, a community resource centre serving the Downtown South community operated by the City of Vancouver.

Eileen Keenan is a UK registered architect with BTAworks, the Research and Development division of Bing Thom Architects. Eileen has many years experience in the design, development and documentation of green building projects as well as a passion for community and for farming. She is a current member and past Chair of the Vancouver City Planning Commission.