City Conversations are Back!

City Conversation #116: I can write again without fear for my reputation and income.

A new dawn when and where I heard all was okay

I have only written three City Conversations over the past four months—in the previous 2+ years (since March 2021) I averaged more than one a week, consistent with the fast pace of urban design and planning change occurring in Vancouver. Some of that CC gap is down to personal travel but as detailed in CC #112, Shall I Write no More Forever?[1], I have waited more than a year for resolution of a complaint against me to the Architectural Institute of BC (AIBC) by a prominent Vancouver architect in relation to my City Conversations about the Broadway Plan. I acknowledged this threat to my reputation and income and advised readers I would tread lightly until the matter was resolved. Six days ago a letter from AIBC’s staff lawyer advised that the complaint has been dismissed by their Investigations Committee.

However, I have learned from the experience, assisted by this recommendation from AIBC:

“The [AIBC Investigations] Committee has asked that … you take greater care to identify the limitations of any resources you rely upon to provide comments on a controversial topic; and offer a more complete and thorough analysis of processes that are not generally known to the general public, such as the building process stage, so that the context in which the commentary is presented is understood. While the public was able to follow the discussion and debate to contextualize and condition your [Broadway Plan] ‘massing’ criticisms, it would be preferable for an initial or stand-alone statement to be contextualized.”

I will happily comply with that recommendation by inserting more explanatory footnotes in my CCs, describing in more detail the underpinnings of what I say—apologies if that makes some CCs a bit longer. In fact, the more readers understand how I analyze urban design and development data, the better able they will be to form their own opinions and challenge me when they disagree with mine—those are the City Conversations I have been striving for all along.

What next for City Conversations?

With this complaint weighing on me, I have lately neglected my Homes for Whom[2] (HfW) database, which I developed to monitor larger scale multiple residential development activity[3] in Vancouver because the relevant data is seldom published and hard to find, aggregate and evaluate—I have to monitor four different city databases[4] to determine each project’s status. I will bring HfW up to date to assist folks who want a more integrated picture of what’s planned, what’s rezoned, which projects have applied for or got permits and what’s actually being built in Vancouver. I will initially focus on those updates unless time-urgent matters arise that City Conversations may need to touch on. I’ll let readers know when the HfW work is done and start publishing CCs on that as well as other subjects—HfW has hundreds of project lines and dozens of data columns, so in many cases I may summarize the data, with footnotes for those who seek more granular information.

The limits of City Conversations

I understand and acknowledge that architects cannot criticize the architecture or architects of specific developments—I have never done that and will continue to respect that professional constraint. I will also not weigh in on politics per se—I will let the data speak for themselves.

Now back to work!

Please indulge me this CC as it celebrates the lifting of a great weight from me. I look forward to waking at 3am due to jet lag rather than worries about my reputation and future. I also look forward to returning to CCs as they were originally conceived—conversations about the city we love.



[1] https://brianpalmquist.substack.com/p/shall-i-write-no-more-forever

[2] I have written a few times about HfW. For a reasonable summary see https://brianpalmquist.substack.com/p/so-where-is-the-affordable-housing

[3] I do not generally monitor single family, duplex, secondary suite or laneway and other small scale residential projects. Council’s recent decision to support development of 4-6 homes on formerly single family lots may cause me to add them to the HfW database, depending on how and where such data is captured. Stay tuned!

[4] Shape Your City is a summary and starting point for each individual planned project. Each project may also have a rezoning web site, then a different development permit website. The building department has its own website that tracks permits issued for actual construction.

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Brian Palmquist is a Vancouver-based architect, building envelope and building code consultant and LEED Accredited Professional (the first green building system). He is semi-retired, still teaching, writing and consulting a bit, but not beholden to any client or city hall. These conversations mix real discussion with research and observations based on a 45+ year career including the planning, design and construction of almost every type and scale of project. He is the author of the Amazon best seller and AIBC Construction Administration course text, “An Architect’s Guide to Construction.” and working on a book about how we can accommodate a growing population in the cities we love.