Gosh, it was nice to read about the winners of the first City of Vancouver Urban Design Awards this morning.
It would have been even nicer to have received a news release about the nominees or, better yet, an invitation to the award presentations. But I understand: with only 33 people in the communications department at City Hall, you can’t expect them to know all the many, many blogs that specialize in Vancouver urban design, even one written by an ex-councillor.
Sigh.
It’s not clear from the award winners, though, whether these are both architecture and urban design awards. At this point, it seems more about the architecture. There’s an important difference – and the awards don’t seem to yet reflect an emphasis on the ‘spaces between’ the architecture that constitute meaningful urban design.
.
Award winners
Small Residential Buildings
Project: Cloister House
Firm: Measured Architecture Inc.
Medium Residential Buildings
Project: Monad
Firm: Lang Wilson Practice in Architecture Culture
Large Residential Buildings
Project: 6th & Fir – A Bridgehead Interface
Firm: Henriquez Partners Architects
Developer: Westbank Projects Corp.
Landscape Architect: Durante Kreuk Ltd.
Commercial Buildings
Project: Cactus Club English Bay
Firm: Acton Ostry Architects Inc.
Government and Institutional Buildings
Project: York House Senior School
Firm: Acton Ostry Architects Inc.
Urban Elements
Element: Aldo canopy, 1025 Robson
Firm: Francl Architecture
Innovation
Project: Paris Block: Paris Annex
Firm: Gair Williamson Architects with Ankenman Marchand Architects
Outstanding Sustainable Design
Project: Union Street ECOheritage
Firm: Shape Architecture Inc.
Landscape, Public Space and Infrastructure
Project: Jericho Park Restoration
Firm: Sharp & Diamond Landscape Architecture
Special Jury Awards
Architectural design excellence and innovative systems integration
Project: Monad
Firm: Lang Wilson Practice in Architecture Culture
Architectural design excellence and innovative community densification
Project: Union Street ECOheritage
Firm: Shape Architecture Inc.
Reinforcing community through collaboration and social innovation
Project: 60 West Cordova
Firm: Henriquez Partners Architects
Developer: Westbank Projects and Vancity
Team: PHS Community Services, Habitat for Humanity
Good points, Gord. Serious F***up in the communications department.
Unfortunately, from my experience in the region, “urban design” awards are almost always about building design. OTOH, municipal staffs really do most of the real urban design work or are the clients or co-authors of such by consultants. So, to be truly about urban design the recognition would basically be for staff.
Hi Gord,
Could the fact that you were an NPA councillor have something to do with the missing invitation? I may be accusing the current council of mean spiritedness but they do, often, exhibit tunnel vision.
The other interesting bit is that in this day and age of digital media there are no photos of the winning entries on the Vancouver.ca website.
“I think it is really important that people understand that excellence in urban design is not just about buildings but the space between buildings and the public spaces as well”, Brian Jackson, General Manager of Planning and Development.
And the winners are not the space between buildings and not public spaces ………………indeed some are street walls, one is a beach which by definition is not an “urban” element, some are interiors, some are objects in a landscape, some have squeaky side yards, or abutting laneways………….what is it about urban design that we need to understand?
It wasn’t just Gord who wasn’t invited. Patrick Condon wasn’t invited, Bob Ransford wasn’t invited, Lance Berelowitz wasn’t invited….but I was. Go figure!
It may be because I had previously heard about the awards presentation and contacted an individual in the planning department of the city to find out who was invited! 🙂
Nobody else, either.
For those of you interested in this matter of Urban Design Awards, I invite you to read my blog post at:
http://www.urbanforumassociates.com
and click on Blog (Vancouver’s First Urban Design Awards: A Mixed Bag).
As Michael Geller noted above, I too was not invited to attend the ceremony initially (I landed up going after I solicited an invitation), and several other noted local urbanists and designers were noticeable by their absence, so you were in good company Gord!
Lance – I read your blog and fully agree. The fact that only development application packages were to be submitted says volumes. We can only hope the COV learns from the glaring omission of members of the BCSLA, PIBC and other design professionals who perform these services.
Frank, to be scrupulously accurate, I do believe that there was at least one project that was not submitted by a developer: the Parks Board was the client, so I’m assuming the City submitted this itself, or perhaps the landscape architects? Ironically, this was the project that I found to be the most inappropriate as a submission to an Urban Design Awards program (regardless of any other merits it may possess).