New Urbanists Debate Merits of Glass Towers

By Bob Ransford, Vancouver Sun

May 26, 2012

A significant feature of Vancouver’s urbanism was put on trial recently. One of the godfathers of the New Urbanism movement charged that highrises, especially Vancouver’s ubiquitous glass towers, are a fundamental mistake and an assault against human scale. It wasn’t the first time that neo-traditional architect and urban theorist Leon Krier attacked the form of high-density residential development that defines Vancouver’s inner city. This time, the spirited debate he sparked at the 20th annual meeting of the Congress for the New Urbanism in Florida two weeks ago still wages on in blogs and on Twitter. More …