LOCAL • North Shore Area Transit Plan – another chance to provide your feedback [The Buzzer Blog] • Park board commissioner defends Cactus Club [Vancouver Courier] • Downtown Vancouver is home to 176 people per hectare: CUI report [OpenFile] • TransLink to eliminate TaxiSaver program, enhance HandyDart service with savings [Vancouver Sun] • Why Vancouver will be uninhabitable [Price Tags] • Hoping for the best in the Heights [Fraseropolis] INTERNATIONAL • World’s Subways Converging on Ideal Form [Wired] • Olympic Orbit Tower: Art or Eyesore? [Architect Magazine] • ArtPlace Looks Back at 2011 and ...

Water is Life Event Please join us on Saturday May 19th at the Roundhouse Community Centre from 1:00 PM - 4:30 PMto discuss what healthy water means to us all! Everyone is welcome to this free event. Snacks / Wheelchair accessible / ASL Sign Language Interpretation Speakers: Chief Bill Williams - Squamish Nation - Local Water Issues Celia Brauer- False Creek Watershed Society - sewers, runoff, beach health, our special events, engaging the public Bryn Davidson - St. George's Creek Blueway - daylighting a city street Christianne Wilhelmson - Georgia Strait Alliance - sewage treatment in Vancouver Dr. ...

LOCAL • New wayfinding signage is going up around the region [The Buzzer Blog] • The Name “Grandview” [Grandview Heritage Group] • Vancouver city staff make multimillion-dollar decision without minutes [Vancouver Courier] • Vancouver council limits developer incentives to rental-only construction [Globe and Mail] • Hot tub benches and digital graffiti: VIVA Vancouver summer street projects announced [OpenFile] • COUNTERPOINT | Allen Garr attacks the poor, loses all credibility [The Mainlander] • Former Vancouver mayor Sam Sullivan bringing diverse speakers together [Vancouver Sun] • The Big Download Whacks Cities [The Tyee] • Burnaby's ...

Authors: Stephanos Polyzoides, Roger Sherwood, and James Tice (2nd Edition, Princeton Architectural Press, 1992) Houses constitute that vast majority of our built landscape. In the context of the city, individual homes are not as relevant as the larger environments they create in aggregate— that is, the spaces they form as a whole and the relationships they structure. In this respect, the buildings that house us have the important role of defining the character of a cities and neighbourhoods in which we live, over and above dictating how the city functions. Over our six thousand year "civilized" history, humanity has tested countless house types. From the African BaMbuti Pygmy beehive hut to the freestanding single-family dwellings of North America, each house type was developed in response to the culture, technology and environment within which it lay. As with any other experiment, certain house types have endured longer than others - crossing the boundaries of culture and time. The courtyard house is one of these special dwellings. Generally speaking, a courtyard house is one in which the enclosed spaces of a home are distributed around a central courtyard. Their first appearance goes back to the first urban centers in human history, including Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt. Over time, this house types has proven to be extremely robust—with thousands of years of use and adaptation to different conditions. Only recently, within the past couple of centuries, has the courtyard house fallen from popularity in favour of the freestanding home. This neglect seems to be dissipating, however, as cities struggle to find house types that facilitate the creation of more compact, less energy-intensive developments that can adapt to different uses and households in an affordable and humane way. So, it is at times like this, that exemplary books of the past—such as Courtyard Housing in Los Angeles: A Typological Analysis—can be truly admired for their insight and relevance, decades after they were written.

LOCAL • Vancouver farmer's markets spring to life [Vancouver Courier] • Global warming increasing by 400,000 atomic bombs every day [Vancouver Observer] • Vancouver's "Bike Score" heat map shows the city is one of Canada's most bicycle-friendly [OpenFile] • Living car free in Surrey [Civic Surrey] INTERNATIONAL • Atlantic on the move [The Los Angeles Times] • Density Without High-Rises? [Citiwire.net] • Just How Bad Is Noise Pollution for Our Health? [The Atlantic Cities] ***

[caption id="attachment_9495" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Image courtesy of Wikipedia."][/caption] We’re a group of West End renters interested in building a web site and undertaking related activities to provide information to BC renters. In order to make sure the site meets a wide range of needs, we need input from apartment renters in Vancouver. So we’re holding a series of focus groups to present the ideas and get feedback on the proposed web site, its content and other potential services and activities. Would you be interested in participating in one of these focus groups?   CONTACT US! bcrentersgroup@gmail.com 604.696.9454

LOCAL • Langley Township 'not District 12' [Globe and Mail] • Natural-gas plans could alter B.C.'s climate-change goals [Globe and Mail] • Is the 'Living Wage' Enough? [The Tyee] INTERNATIONAL • In Beverly Hills, Preservation Gains a Toehold [The New York Times] • Walk Score Launches Bike Score [The Atlantic Cities] • Louis Curtiss, the Boley Building, and the Invention of the Glass Curtain Wall [Places: Design Observer] ***

[caption id="attachment_9500" align="aligncenter" width="271" caption="Image courtesy of Erick Villagomez."][/caption] Sunday, May 13, 11 am - 3 pm - Grandview-Woodland Open House - Mother's Day Edition We'll be having a fun, family-friendly Open House at the Waldorf Hotel.  Drop by and join us for face-painting, button-making, asset mapping and more.  We'll have an assortment of Waldorf 'bits and bites' to snack on (brunch specials also available), the awesome sounds of Joaquin Gonzalez Cardona, guitarist, and an opportunity to learn more about the community planning process and how to get involved. Takes place ...

LOCAL • COUNTERPOINT | Allen Garr attacks the poor, loses all credibility [The Mainlander] • Vancouver's second oldest fire station reopens in Renfrew-Collingwood area [Vancouver Sun] INTERNATIONAL • First Look at NBBJ’s New Amazon Complex in Seattle [The Architect's Newspaper Blog] • Habitat for Humanity Tries Big-Scale Approach to Housing in Oregon [The New York Times] • Do the density, but spare the hi-rises [Crosscut] ***

LOCAL • Winters in Vancouver can be dark [Fraseropolis] • Surrey Building Stats from 2003 – 2011 [Civic Surrey] • Reader Soapbox: Son of STIR: New rental policy proposed for Vancouver [Vancouver Courier] • Controversial 22-storey Comox tower proposal going back before council next week [OpenFile] • Metro Vancouver refugees struggle to find affordable housing [Vancouver Sun] • Marpole looks back to its future [Vancouver Sun] CANADA • Canada's oil sands means "game over" for planet, warns NASA scientist James Hansen [Vancouver Observer] • The economics of energy conservation [Globe and Mail] INTERNATIONAL • ...