Citizen City: Vancouver’s Henriquez Partners Challenges Architects to Engage in Partnerships that Advance Cultural Sustainability

Citizen City focuses on the incredible potential of cross-sector partnerships among private developers, nonprofits and various levels of government in attempting to harness a portion of the wealth created in the real estate development process to achieve socially valuable urban planning goals: meeting the needs of the community’s most vulnerable members, providing affordable housing, and creating community amenities to promote a vibrant urban culture. The book highlights the success and failures of such partnerships with case studies of eleven Vancouver, BC building projects. The projects, led by Henriquez Partners Architects and collaborators from all sectors, are in varying stages of development from concept to completion. It is hoped that the lessons of these cross-sector partnerships will aid the creation of a more vibrant, just, community-oriented city — a Citizen City — and continue to improve Vancouver. Additionally, these important projects may help guide other North American cities towards a more just existence. Citizen City will also touch on the role of the design community as thought leaders and relationship builders, and contains a provocative message from Gregory Henriquez challenging a new generation of architects towards greater civic engagement.