2013 University of Saskatchewan Planner in Residence Larry Beasley will deliver a free public lecture entitled Sustainable and Healthy New Neighbourhoods: The Fundamental Building Blocks of Tomorrow’s Saskatoon. The event takes place on Wednesday, March 20 at 7:00pm at the Roxy Theatre in Saskatoon.
After more than 30 years leading initiatives to transform Vancouver’s inner city, its neighbourhoods and development approvals, Larry Beasley now teaches and advises on urbanism around the world. In his talk Dr. Beasley will argue that the postwar suburban model with its vast streets, single-use buildings, strip malls, unaffordable services, and dependency on the car, has to be transformed. He will also argue for an image that existing suburbanites can embrace and are prepared to freely pay for and consume.
Beasley chairs the National Advisory Committee on Planning, Design and Realty of Ottawa’s National Capital Commission; is on the Board of the Canadian Urban Institute; is Senior Advisor on Urban Design in Dallas, Texas; serves on the International Economic Development Advisory Board of Rotterdam in The Netherlands; and has just completed five years of service as the Special Advisor on City Planning to the government of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. For three years he was the vice-president of a major Canadian development company, Aquilini Development and is now Special Development Advisor to Concord Pacific Developments. Among his recent primary projects, he has completed an award-winning plan for the City of Moscow, Russia.
Beasley has a Master’s degree in planning and has also studied architecture, geography and political science. He has been awarded two honorary doctorate degrees, is Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Planners, Honorary Member of the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects, and was awarded an Advocate for Architecture by the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. Beasley is a recipient of the Kevin Lynch Prize from MIT, the most prestigious award in American planning. He is a Member of the Order of Canada, Canada’s highest civilian honour for lifetime achievement, and was recently awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.
A reception will follow the lecture, hosted by The Two Twenty. For more information, please visit www.facebook.com/events/304071079718803/.