From childless tower to child-full density: families and the evolution of vancouverism

Abstract

ABSTRACT Vancouverism – amenity-rich neighbourhoods comprised of thin residential towers set on street-defining podiums – has been globally promoted as a new model of urbanism: high-density yet livable, even for families with children. Boosters claim profitable sustainability on a human scale; critics decry a sanitized elite vertical suburb. Lost in these debates is the little-known history of how this foundationally low-density city – where the single-family detached home dominated both the landscape and policy – became an international symbol of livable density. This history starts with a single confined mid-rise apartment zone in the 1920s designed to protect the majority detached-home city. In the 1950s policy promoted towers for childless professionals to bolster the tax base. Negative public reaction to the towers led to the election of an anti-density, yet anti-highway city council in the 1970s. Ironically, a cancelled highway spurred the council to build moderately-dense equitable family housing near downtown. After residents reported a desire for higher densities, Vancouverism was born.