A study in Modern(ist) urbanism: Planning Vancouver, 1945-1965

Urban History

Volumn 38, Issue 1, 2011, Pages 124-149

  Liscombe, Rhodri Windsor ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY; MODERNITY; MODERNIZATION; PLANNING HISTORY; POST-WAR; URBAN HISTORY; URBAN PLANNING; URBAN POLICY; URBAN SOCIETY;

BRITISH COLUMBIA; CANADA; VANCOUVER;

EID: 79960832795     PISSN: 09639268     EISSN: 14698706     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0963926811000071     Document Type: Review

References (109)

1. The social and architectural history is examined by R. Windsor Liscombe, The New Spirit: Modern Architecture in Vancouver, 1938-1963 (Montreal, 1997),
2. bringing out Sigfried Giedion's assertion that 'Architects today are perfectly aware that the future of architecture is inseparably bound up with town planning' in his seminal book, Space, Time and Architecture, 3rd enlarged edn (Cambridge, MA, 1954), 23. The history of town planning in Vancouver is outlined in the 'Guide to the Planning Department', the City of Vancouver City Archives (hereafter CVA);
3. and related in J. Oberlander, 'History of planning in Greater Vancouver', in C.Davis (ed.), TheGreater Vancouver Book: An Urban Encyclopedia (Vancouver, 2003);
4. see also A. Morley, From Milltown to Metropolis (Vancouver, 1961);
5. J. Barman, The West Beyond the West (Toronto, 1996). The author is most grateful to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council for Canada for funding this research and to the editor and anonymous readers for their contribution to the refinement of both argument and text.
6. The communicative, if not precisely linguistic, aspect of architecture was articulated by the most internationally renowned Canadian architect of the era,Arthur Erickson - Vancouverborn and based - in his article, 'The weight of heaven', writing, 'The architect infuses meaning into forms which then become symbols, like words, units of meaning which, put together, make sense out of previous confusion', Canadian Architect, 9 (Mar. 1964), 48, article 48-63.
7. The relation between Modernist architectural discourse and media, especially journalistic and during the interview years, is examined by B. Colomina, Privacy and Publicity. Modern Architecture and Mass Media (Cambridge, MA, 1994).
8. The architectural dimension of this phenomenon is discussed by A. Colquhoun, Essays in Architectural Criticism: Modern Architecture and Historical Change (Cambridge, MA, 1981).
9. The scope for the Modern Movement, including internal contestation as by Team Ten, is summarized in K. Frampton, Modern Architecture: A CriticalHistory, 4th edn (London, 2007);
10. A. Colquhoun, Modern Architecture (Oxford, 2002);
11. and with particular respect to internal division, E.Mumford, The CIAM Discourse on Urbanism, 1928-1960 (Cambridge,MA, 2000);
12. its discursive aspects are defined by S.W. Goldhagen, 'Something to talk about; Modernism, discourse, style', Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 64 (Jun. 2005), 144-67,
13. and in A. Vidler, Histories of the Immediate Present. Inventing Architectural Modernism (Cambridge, MA, 2008).
14. In order of citation, these representativewritings are: J. Habermas, trans. H. Tsoskouunglou, 'Modern and postmodern architecture', 9H, 4 (1982), 227-35;
15. H. Heynen, Architecture and Modernity: A Critique (Cambridge,MA, 1999);
16. D.Watkin, Morality and Architecture Revisited (Chicago, 2001);
17. J.C. Scott, Seeing Like a State (New Haven, 1998);
18. J. Jacobs, Death and Life of Great American Cities (New York, 1961);
19. C. Jencks, Language of Post-modern Architecture, 6th edn (London, 1991);
20. R. Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (New York, 1966);
21. C. St J. Wilson, The Other Tradition of Modern Architecture: The Uncompleted Project (London, 1998);
22. C. Alexander, A Pattern Language (New York, 1977);
23. A. Isenberg, Downtown America. A History of the Place and the People Who Made It (Chicago, 2005);
24. S.W. Goldhagen and R. Legault, Anxious Modernisms. Experimentation in Postwar Architectural Culture (Cambridge, MA, 2000);
25. D. Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity (Oxford, 1989);
26. D. Ghirardo, Architecture after Modernism (New York, 1996);
27. and R. Longstreth, City Center to Regional Mall: Architecture, Automobile and Retailing in Los Angeles 1920-1950 (Cambridge, MA, 1999).
28. The full range of literature is further indicated by such more theoretical studies as H. Lefebvre, Droit a la Ville (Paris, 1968),
29. as against situated analyses exemplified by E. Soja, Postmetropolis; Critical Studies of Cities and Regions (Maldon, MA, 2000).
30. H. Bartholomew, A Plan for the City of Vancouver, British Columbia, Including a General Plan of the Region, 1928 (Vancouver: Vancouver Town Planning Commission, 1929).
31. The work of this firm is reviewed byA. Lessoff, 'Harland Bartholomew and Corpus Christi: The faltering pursuit of comprehensive planning in South Texas', Planning Perspectives, 18 (2003), 197-232. (Pubitemid 36650325)
32. Civic Centre (Vancouver (dated St Louis Missouri), Jun. 1945), 7.
33. Ibid., 7.
34. Ibid., 7.
35. Downtown Business District (Oct. 1945), 10.
36. Administration of the Plan (Aug. 1948), 7.
37. The Appearance of the City (Oct. 1947), respectively 11 and 18.
38. Administration of the Plan, 18.
39. Ibid., 19.
40. Published from their office at 626West Pender Street, Vancouver; not paginated.
41. This background is examined by H.P. Oberlander and E. Newbrun, Houser: The Life and Work of Catherine Bauer (Vancouver, 1999).
42. For these systems see respectively C.A. Perry, Housing for the Machine Age (New York, 1939);
43. J. Gold, The Experience of Modernism: Modern Architects and the Future City, 1928-1953 (London, 1997);
44. and Mumford, CIAM Discourse.
45. Planning Vancouver, not paginated.
46. Liscombe, New Spirit, 58-61 and 101-3.
47. The Little Mountain scheme is related in Liscombe, New Spirit, 61;
48. and the Marsh Report (Vancouver, 1950) is examined in R. Windsor Liscombe, 'Leonard Marsh and Vancouver Modern', Architecture and Ideas, 1 (1996), 40-51.
49. The impact of thismagazine, and the commodification aswell as gendering of Modernism, are analysed by R. Windsor Liscombe, 'The fe-male spaces of Modernism: A western Canadian perspective', Prospects, 26 (2002), 667-700.
50. CVA, pd 335, not paginated;
51. see also R. Windsor Liscombe, 'John Bland and the modernizing of Vancouver design', La Revue d'Aerchitecture, 97 (1996), 11-17.
52. Sutton-Brown served as city planner 1952-57;
53. for his background see E.S. Morris, British Town Planning andUrban Design: Principles and Policies (London, 1997),
54. and Gold, Experience of Modernism.
55. CVA, pd 83. The full title was Vancouver Redevelopment Study. Prepared by the City of Vancouver Planning Department for theHousing ResearchCommittee;
56. itwas associated with the City of Vancouver Development Plan published that year, 1957, by the Vancouver Technical Planning Board.
57. Redevelopment Study, iii.
58. Ibid., 4.
59. Analysed in L. Cohen, A Consumers Republic. The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America (New York, 2003),
60. and linkages between the Modern Movement and suburban development are discussed by R. Fishman, Bourgeois Utopias: The Rise and Fall of Suburbia (New York, 1987).
61. Gruen's planning ideas and work is contextualized by Longstreth, City Center to Regional Mall.
62. Urban Sprawl (Vancouver, 1957), 2;
63. significantly the term has reappeared as exemplified by J.G. Mitchell, 'Urban sprawl', National Geographic, 200 (2001), 48-73.
64. For the attitudes of a renowned contemporary architectural photographer, see J. Schulman, Photographing Architecture and Interiors (New York, 1962);
65. J. Rosa, A Constricted View. The Architectural Photography of Julius Shulman (New York, 1994);
66. and for photography and Modernist design, Colomina, Privacy and Publicity.
67. Liscombe, New Spirit, 57;
68. the proposal was based on Wells Coates' typescript, 'Proposals for the formation of a new organization concerned with the study of problems in interrelated fields of the visual arts with special reference to the Canadian scene' (Vancouver, 1957), copy Canadian Centre for Architecture.
69. Liscombe, New Spirit, 173-5, for the BC Electric Building
70. The chief architect of CMHC, Ian MacLennan, also criticized the complacency of architects and planners in a speech reprinted in the Journal of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, 3 (May 1961), 66-7.
71. The re-emergence of developer-driven and market-based urban growth is placed in an ideological and historical perspective by S. Guy, Development and Developers: Perspectives on Property, ed. J. Henneberry (Oxford, 2002);
72. see also L. Dredger, TheUrban Factor: Sociology of Canadian Cities (Toronto, 1991).
73. CVA, pd 237, 3, dated 7 Dec. 1961.
74. Respectively CVA, pd 132 and 137-F-2.
75. CVA, pd 117, dated 7 Jun. 1962.
76. Redevelopment in Downtown Vancouver, II, 17.
77. Ibid., 21.
78. Examined by S. Hazel, Conflict and Compromise: A Case Study of the Decision-Making Process in the Downtown Eastside (Vancouver, 1982),
79. and R.A. Case, Participatory Dissent; A Case Study of the Political Participation in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside (Vancouver, 1995).
80. CVA, pd 238.
81. Redevelopment in Downtown Vancouver, III (7 Sep. 1962), 14.
82. Georgia Viaduct Replacement: Preliminary Engineering Report July 1963 (Vancouver, 1963)
83. Georgia Street. Second Century (Vancouver, 1986); its construction caused the demolition of a small conclave of African-American businesses and residences.
84. Redevelopment, III, non-paginated preface.
85. D.J. Mitchell, W.A.C. Bennett and the Rise of British Columbia (Vancouver, 1983);
86. and for the ideology of this regional political party, C.H. Douglas, Social Credit (Vancouver, 1979).
87. The public debates are summarized by K. MacKenzie, Freeway Planning and Protests in Vancouver, 1954-1972 (Burnaby, 1985).
88. Among other local proposals was 'The Vancouver Board of Trade Brief on Freeways', published in September 1960. The local debate is recounted in SettyV. Pendakur, Cities, Citizens and Freeways (Vancouver, 1978);
89. for theNorth Americancontext, T. Lewis, DividedHighways: Building the InterstateHighways, Transforming American Life (New York, 1997),
90. and D.J. St Clair, The Motorization of American Cities (New York, 1986).
91. Interestingly, the British architect Maxwell Fry had included a photograph of a freeway east of the Los Angeles civic centre in Art in the Machine Age (London, 1960), illus. 22 opposite 91, with the caption, 'The freeways are magnificently free where all else is confined'.
92. The emergence of the heritage movement is examined briefly in H. Kalman, A Concise History of Canadian Architecture (Don Mills, Ont., 2000).
93. Redevelopment, III, 11.
94. CVA, Vancouver City Council Minutes, MCR-1-86, vol. 83, 115, 182, 283, 326 and 327;
95. Rathie was away 28 Apr. -19 May and 27 May -16 Jun. 1963.
96. CVA, 88-C-2, Board of Administration Reports for Mar. 1963. Van Norman's scheme is illustrated in Liscombe, New Spirit, 157, illus. 125,
97. while that by Jessiman was published in The Contract Record (May 1964).
98. J. Punter, Vancouver Achievement: Urban Planning and Design (Vancouver, 2003). Project 200 and the freeway debate form the theme of the permanent exhibition of post-World War II Vancouver at the Vancouver Museum.
99. Vancouver Sun, 11 Dec. 1967.
100. Reported in Vancouver Sun, 4 Oct. 1968.
101. An Outline Plan for the Inner Area of Vancouver (Jun. 1964), 6.
102. Ibid., 19.
103. Ibid., 46.
104. CVA, 529-D-3, 15 Jul., Community Arts Council records, 1966-67.
105. Their report was entitled 'Vancouver: a proposal for Block 61 and the downtown core' and was published as 'Proposal for Block 61 and the downtown core,Vancouver', in Architecture Canada, 43 (Aug. 1966), 42-3.
106. Erickson's urban design is briefly examined by N. Olsberg in his essay 'The common ground', in Arthur Erickson. Critical Works (Vancouver, 2006), especially 129-34.
107. CVA, 88-C-2,Board of Administration Reports,1963.
108. Cemp in conjunction with the Toronto Dominion Bank and Eatons produced a publicity booklet (copy Vancouver Public Library) with the caption, 'A magnificent heart for a great world city', unpaginated source for quotations in the next two successive paragraphs. Among the extensive press coverage is Robert Sarti, 'Pacific Centre - start of a world city', Vancouver Sun, 20 Oct. 1970.
109. CVA, pd 419.