Can Other Cities Emulate The Success of New York’s High Line?

By Alan Davies, Crikey
October 16, 2012

New York’s new elevated linear park, the High Line, is one of the highest profile urban design successes of recent years. It’s all the more remarkable because, says architecture critic Paul Goldberger, New York is a place where “good things rarely happen easily and where good designs are often compromised, if they are built at all.” More … http://blogs.crikey.com.au/theurbanist/2012/10/16/can-other-cities-emulate-the-success-of-new-yorks-high-line/.

Midcentury West Coast Modernism Comes Alive in Selwyn Pullan Book

By Janet Smith, Georgia Straight
October 11, 2012

Selwyn Pullan: Photographing Mid-Century West Coast Modernism is just the book for retro-interior-design fans to display on their curvy Danish teak coffee tables. But it’s also a remarkable reminder of how livable the style—so often coldly reinterpreted in 2012—could be. The new publication (put out by Douglas & McIntyre) brings alive an era known to most only through vintage-furniture-store remnants, and celebrates the West Coast as the centre of the midcentury-modernist movement. More … http://www.straight.com/article-805351/vancouver/midcentury-comes-alive-selwyn-pullan-book.

ASLA Medal for Oberlander

AIBC Honorary Member Cornelia Hahn Oberlander OC L.L.D. (Hon) FCSLA BCSLA has been awarded the American Society of Landscape Architects Medal, the ASLA’s highest award in recognition of her career as a pioneer in sustainable landscape architecture. She has been an innovator in the design of rooftops and playgrounds, and is known for her collaborations with architects Arthur Erickson (Robson Square, the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia) and Moshe Safdie (Vancouver Public Library, National Gallery of Canada). In announcing its selection, the ASLA also noted that Oberlander, who opened her a Vancouver firm in 1953, was one of the first women in the post-World War II era to establish her own practice.

B.C. Limitation Act Update

B.C. Minister of Justice and Attorney General Shirley Bond has announced that the Limitation Act, a new piece of provincial legislation that sets the amount of time people have to file civil lawsuits, will come into effect on June 1, 2013. This act will set out new limitation periods, including a single, two-year limitation period for most civil claims, such as those that involve personal injury. In addition, there will be an ultimate limitation period for legal matters that may not be discovered right away, in which case people will have up to 15 years to file most civil lawsuits. Note: limitation periods impact things such as record-keeping practices, professional training requirements, and the cost and availability of insurance. These reforms, which have been welcomed by many professionals whose work is often exposed to long-term liability risk, are consistent with reforms taking place throughout Canada, better aligning B.C.’s law with other provinces. For more information, visit http://www.ag.gov.bc.ca/legislation/limitation-act/2012.htm.