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.