A Walking Tour of Mount Pleasant

On Sunday, 6 may 2012 Robert McNutt & Lewis N. Villegas lead a 2 hour walking of one of Vancouver’s oldest quartiers. 

The Flat Iron Building & The Urban Room

14 months after Vancouver City Council approved the new Mount Pleasant Community Plan, a hearing was held to re-zone a key site in the neighbourhood to 5.5 FSR (floor space ratio). Neighbours who had participated in the planning process were joined by other citizens and professionals to decry the recommendation to move beyond the mandated 3.0 FSR. In order to illustrate the 3.0 FSR opportunity, and working in consultation with members from the Resident’s Association of Mount Pleasant, we developed the following scheme.

A New Approach to Density in Vancouver

We have gone a little ‘Condo Crazy’ in Vancouver for the last 20 years. Podium-and-Tower can work Downtown. However, when it comes to the neighbourhoods, and the historic neighbourhoods, loud vocal opposition from local residents is clamouring for a new approach.

Community Forum: The Density Fallacy

Can we build high density neighbourhoods without building towers? At a Community Forum will be held in Mount Pleasant where the rezoning hearings to 19-storeys for the RIZE Development at Main and Broadway, and at the May meeting of the Grandview Woodlands Advisory Council, are turning up neighbourhood opposition for tower forms outside the downtown, and a growing groundswell of opinion supporting new neighbourhood build out that supports transportation, affordability, livability, and human scale.

The Tower on Its Side

“Tower on Its Side” (LNV 1995)

It is a fallacy to confuse “density” with “height”. We can achieve high density with buildings 3.5 stories high. Thinking about this concept, more than 15 years ago, I made the drawing “The Tower on Its Side”.

Spiro Kostof on London

In an article analyzing the 187o’s proposed plan for Rome, Kostof gives a brief summary of his view of Townplanning in the British capital.

A walking tour of Rome

The best way to get to know Rome, and to understand the ‘meaning’ of urbanism is to go for a walk. Now, Rome presents itself to the visitor as a riddle inside an enigma, so the first order of business is to have a plan. Look here in the next few days for a tour that links together the following sites: