Frances Bula header image 2

Portrait of the new, green engineer in Vancouver

January 7th, 2011 · 40 Comments

City engineers used to rule the world. Now they never get any attention. It’s the planners who typically get all the glory.

That’s changed at Vancouver city hall in the last couple of years. The planning department is tangled in knots, as its members struggle with the Vision council’s imperfectly-thought-out plans to create rental housing or densify around transit lines.

Instead, it’s the engineering department — a department that has as many people as the city’s police force — that is steaming ahead under a green council that seems far more interested in bike lanes, composting, recycling, and other things engineering than in land-use issues.

My latest Vancouver magazine column takes a look at the guy who’s at the head of the revitalized engineering division, Peter Judd.

Categories: Uncategorized