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Winning Development Clinches Award
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Michael Geller, 604.291.3138, geller@university.ca
Carol Thorbes, pamr, 604.291.3035, cthorbes@sfu.ca
Michael Geller, 604.291.3138, geller@university.ca
Carol Thorbes, pamr, 604.291.3035, cthorbes@sfu.ca
June 28, 2006
Another award proves once again that UniverCity is a winning place to live, work and play. This time, the Planning Institute of British Columbia has awarded the fledgling residential and commercial development next to Simon Fraser University the award of excellence for site planning and design.
SFU Community Trust President Michael Geller, who is overseeing the development, accepted the award at the World Planning Congress, recently held in Vancouver.
Eight awards have now been bestowed on UniverCity for environmental foresight, design innovation and progressive community planning. The community’s features include a discounted transit pass for residents, a special zoning by-law that legalizes secondary suites in apartments and townhouses and development guidelines to make homes more energy and resource efficient.
Earlier this year, the Canadian Home Builders’ Association voted the village-like development, complete with town centre, the best new community development in Canada. Last year, the US based Association of University Real Estate Officials presented UniverCity with its award of excellence.
In accepting the latest award Geller says, “Since planning for this community began in 1995, a key goal has been to create a community worthy of local and international acclaim for the City of Burnaby and the university. This award further demonstrates our success in achieving this goal.”
UniverCity’s winning reputation is garnering a lot of national and international media attention, including from the Sunday New York Times and Dialogue Magazine, a Taiwanese planning publication. David Suzuki’s television program The Nature of Things has highlighted UniverCity as a healthy, walkable community.
With more than 1,000 homes nearly completed, the community recently opened a dental centre, is getting ready to welcome the Ellesmere United Church, and has plans for an elementary school. When completed in two decades, UniverCity will house up to 10,000 residents in a variety of neighbourhoods surrounding the SFU Burnaby campus.
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SFU Community Trust President Michael Geller, who is overseeing the development, accepted the award at the World Planning Congress, recently held in Vancouver.
Eight awards have now been bestowed on UniverCity for environmental foresight, design innovation and progressive community planning. The community’s features include a discounted transit pass for residents, a special zoning by-law that legalizes secondary suites in apartments and townhouses and development guidelines to make homes more energy and resource efficient.
Earlier this year, the Canadian Home Builders’ Association voted the village-like development, complete with town centre, the best new community development in Canada. Last year, the US based Association of University Real Estate Officials presented UniverCity with its award of excellence.
In accepting the latest award Geller says, “Since planning for this community began in 1995, a key goal has been to create a community worthy of local and international acclaim for the City of Burnaby and the university. This award further demonstrates our success in achieving this goal.”
UniverCity’s winning reputation is garnering a lot of national and international media attention, including from the Sunday New York Times and Dialogue Magazine, a Taiwanese planning publication. David Suzuki’s television program The Nature of Things has highlighted UniverCity as a healthy, walkable community.
With more than 1,000 homes nearly completed, the community recently opened a dental centre, is getting ready to welcome the Ellesmere United Church, and has plans for an elementary school. When completed in two decades, UniverCity will house up to 10,000 residents in a variety of neighbourhoods surrounding the SFU Burnaby campus.
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