Google Earth - 3D Vancouver

Thanks to Gordon Price's tip, I have been enjoying Google Earth's 3d downtown Vancouver for a bit. It is really quite neat to be able to have 3d so easily accessible.

Now if only Street View would hurry up. Google intends to release it rather soon, and I have seen the Google StreetView car around Yaletown last November. Perhaps, the wait will be quite short.

Competition! Form Shift

The FormShift competition has been finally formally announced via the Tyee. Blurb:

The City of Vancouver has developed Climate Change Action Plans as well as the EcoDensity Charter – policies and principles to guide greener and denser development, improve building performance, reduce carbon emissions, and improve the city’s overall livability. Vancouver was the first city in Canada to adopt The 2030_Challenge for green house gas reduction, committing each of us to reducing our collective environmental impact. Vancouver City Council has taken that commitment a step further with the stated goal of becoming “the greenest city in the world”.

FormShift Vancouver challenges you to give shape to these goals through ideas and design solutions that will help shape the future of the city. Be it by expanding upon Vancouver's traditional design solutions or offering an entirely new perspective, this is your chance to build a hypothetical neighbourhood of the future, one that is in keeping with the vibrant, ecologically-friendly and sustainable city to which we aspire.

It is an open international ideas competition. There are three design categories - Vancouver Primary(purse = $6000), Vancouver Secondary($4000), and Wild Card($2000) - visit the competition website to read the category descriptions in the original bureaucrat-ese and architectural framese.

Registration deadline is March 13th.

Submission deadline is April 3rd.

It is quite unfortunate really that such a substantial competition has such a short schedule, especially, as it seems to be biting roughly on the heels of the deadline for Where's the Square?'s , which has a very civil and measured time line, filled with events and public talks, like that one happening this evening with Scot Hein. Of course, the deadline for Where's the Square? is on March 20th. It seems strange that so little time is given - just enough to make pretty pictures or to give it a good think-over, but both? Rushed. Although this economic climate is great for it - who would not want the purse? - it seems that those with stress-filled jobs/well-rounded interests will likely pass it up. Here is what the Tyee has on that:

The lull offers time to focus for idle architects and designers and other creative minds [indreamcity: really? (pauses to think of anyone who's without projects or job and is idle; comes up with no one) ] . In architectural circles it's known as a "recession renaissance." Some of the best ideas and small projects happen during busts, not booms.

And then there is that $100 dollar entry fee ($50 dollars for students and interns). Hmm... This economic climate again... Perhaps many companies will enter, if not that many individuals

However, bottom line - it is a great opportunity to come up with great ideas that will be noticed. Speaking of the jury, they are: Stan Douglas, Ian Chodikoff, David Miller, Nancy Knight, Brent Toderian.

Good luck!

Image Post: Measured as we knew them

Located in Shaughnessy, this is the last completed house, the Wolfe Avenue residence, from Measured Architecture. Measured, only a year old, have won a Lieutenant Governor's award and have been named Western Living's 2008 Architects of the Year.

All images are via Measured Architecture, excepting first - credit for the very poorly scanned photo by yours truly goes to Western Living.






A few more images can be found here.

Upcoming events

Reece Terris: Ought Apartment (sketch)

- opening reception at Jennifer Kostiuk Gallery for Reece Terris on Thursday, February 12, 6-9 pm. It is a survey of earlier works and a photographic preview of his upcoming massive site-specific installation for VAG, Ought Apartment.



- Official book launch for Vancouver Matters at Charles H. Scott gallery (designed by Patkaus and worth a visit on its own merits) from 2-4pm this Saturday, February 14th. Frances Bula calls it "a must for Vancouverophiles." The official blurb:

Vancouver Matters presents a reading of the city through multiple points of view; from professors and students at the UBC School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture to artists, architects, and designers living and working in Vancouver. Representing Vancouver's history and present materiality through writing, drawing, and photography, Vancouver Matters offers a critical examination of the city's faults and opportunities.

- And Buildex, of course. Wednesday and Thursday, Feb 11-12, 9:30-5 pm.

TVCC(The Mandarin Oriental Hotel),Beijing on fire (unfortunately)

Building was designed by OMA ..

'The fire destroyed years of hard work, said Erik Amir, a senior architect at OMA, who rushed to the site.'

more information..
previously post ..

flickr

see it at google maps