The City of Vancouver is following on the heels of municipalities like Richmond by establishing a competition to honour urban design.
Submissions for Vancouver’s inaugural urban design awards will be accepted until 4 p.m., July 14.
Brian Jackson, the city’s manager of planning and development, is behind the competition.
“Vancouver has never held urban design awards before,” he said. “I thought it was a good idea because our design is celebrated nationally through the Architectural Institute. It’s celebrated provincially through the Georgie’s, which is a development industry-oriented award, but it hasn’t been celebrated by the City of Vancouver before, so I thought it was a really a good idea to acknowledge the contributions that architects and landscape architects and developers are making to built form in Vancouver.”
Jackson said when he worked in Richmond he started a similar program called the Lulu Awards.
He anticipates Vancouver’s version will attract a lot of interest.
“Because it’s everything from the single-family home all the way up to the highest highrise and everything in between,” he said.
The jury for the awards will include five voting members comprising professionals from the architecture, landscape architecture, art and planning communities.
Eligible projects must be located within the municipal boundaries of the City of Vancouver and have been completed (received an occupancy permit) after Jan. 1, 2012. Entries may be submitted by a project owner or a team member associated with the project.
Categories include residential buildings (small, medium or large scale), commercial buildings and government and institutional buildings.
There’s also a category for urban elements, which is defined as a single, small-scale piece of a building or landscape that contributes to the quality of the public realm such as street furniture, lighting, memorials or public art. Other categories include innovation; outstanding sustainable design; and landscape, public space and infrastructure.
A special jury award, handed out for exceptional achievement, will be selected from all entries and determined by the jury.
Jackson says Vancouver’s urban design compares well to urban design around the world.
“I was with the City of Toronto for seven years and I’ve worked in Los Angeles. I’ve worked in a lot of cities in southern California and I’ve travelled extensively throughout the world, but especially in North America, and our urban design is amongst the best in the world. The quality of our built form, how it relates to grade, the streets, the public spaces — people come from all over the world to take a look at how we do it here.”
Jackson said he likes the “little gems” around the city that show great attention to detail.
“I think there’s all kinds of hidden buildings or buildings that people just don’t consciously think about because they fit so well into the urban fabric. Sometimes people don’t even notice them but when you look at the detailing of the building, I think they really do contribute to our streetscapes and the positive attitude that we have towards our city.”
He added: “We’ve had some excellent highrises done in Vancouver over the decades and in the last couple of years, but we’ve also had some terrific laneway houses built, beautiful single-family homes — some extraordinary attention to detail and landscaping, and extraordinary things that people have done to save existing landscaping and environmental features — all of which we hope to celebrate through the urban design awards.”
Vancouver’s Urban Design Awards will be presented at a ceremony in September. In the future they’ll be held every other year. Details are on the city’s website.
noconnor@vancourier.com
