Deadline Extended – Request For Statements Of Qualifications (Vancouver Airport Authority)

Deadline for response has been extended to December 22, 2011. Please see the original posting here.

Vancouver’s Mayor Announces Blue Ribbon Panel on Housing Affordability

By Jeff Lee, Vancouver Sun

December 5, 2011

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson used his inaugural speech Monday to announce he is creating a blue-ribbon panel to look into the underlying issues of housing affordability. Saying that the high cost of housing is threatening to make Vancouver unlivable, Robertson said he wants the panel to come up with short and long-term solutions, including using more of the city’s own lands. More … 

2012 Masonry Design Awards

Submissions are now being accepted for the 2012 Masonry Design Awards, sponsored by the Masonry Institute of British Columbia. These awards showcase design excellence in B.C. through projects that feature brick, block and stone. Awards in various categories will be given to project designers and owners, with masonry manufacturers and contractors also being recognized. To be eligible, projects must have been completed since June 2008, and submissions require project descriptions, details and photographs. There is no fee to enter. The deadline for submissions is February 15, 2012; the awards gala will take place May 17, 2012 at the Roundhouse Community Centre in Vancouver. Visit www.masonrybc.org for additional information and a submission form.

Canada Income Inequality: Which Canadian Cities Are Seeing The Fastest Ghettoization?

By Daniel Tencer, The Huffington Post Canada

December 5, 2011

Calgary has seen a nearly 90 per cent increase in the wealth difference between its richest and poorest neighbourhoods over the past quarter century, making the city a poster boy for growing economic segregation, according to data from a new study. Researchers from Queen’s University, the University of Toronto and StatsCan have released a working paper showing that Canadians are increasingly segregating themselves according to income. More … 

Urban Pioneers And City Settlers

By Christopher Hume, Toronto Star

December 4, 2011

We don’t think of condo dwellers as pioneers, but that’s what they are, some of them, anyway. Moving into the urban wilderness, clearing the land and cleaning the soil, they have opened up the city in ways that would never have occurred to their forefathers. More remarkable, they have accomplished all this in living units so small that breakfast in bed is a necessity, not a Sunday morning luxury. In a world of suburban sprawl, monster homes and walk-in closets, the 301-square-foot box-in-the-sky represents a new way of life, and beyond that, a repudiation of sorts, certainly a renunciation of all that’s familiar. Outside megacities such as Tokyo with its capsule architecture, this miniaturization of real estate is just starting. In a city like ours, obsessed with the price of housing, this is the new frontier. More …