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PSA 2: Read Vancouver history’s online now with digitized copy of Harland Bartholomew’s book on his plan for the city

April 24th, 2011 · 17 Comments

I’ve been longing to get my own copy of Harland Bartholomew’s 1928 plan for Vancouver ever since I saw it in Andy Yan’s hands. But Yan and his boss, Bing Thom, have done all of us a favour by digitizing this book for the Vancouver Archives as a birthday present for the city. The link is here to look at the plan Barthlomew created. Although not all of it came to pass, he did create a grid that city engineers today like to brag is “very robust” — i.e. it allows drivers to access the city by multiple routes, preventing the kind of major pile-ups common to cities with a few large arterials and not much else. Think Calgary.

As well, he created the foundation for future neighbourhoods by spacing school locations in such a way that communities could build up around them. And much more. But read the book.

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