Wikipedia
Vancouverism is an urban planning and architectural phenomenon in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, that is unique to North America. It is characterized by a large residential population living in the city centre with mixed-use developments, typically with a medium-height, commercial base and narrow, high-rise residential towers, significant reliance on mass public transit, creation and maintenance of green park spaces, and preserving view corridors.
Being consistently ranked among the most livable cities in the world has urban planners flocking to the city to attempt to try to emulate and implement on their own city. An article in San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association has taken note of Vancouver's approach to new development and view corridors and asks if San Francisco should pursue similar direction.
Renowned architect Bing Thom described Vancouverism this way:
It's a spirit about public space. I think Vancouverites are very, very proud that we built a city that really has a tremendous amount of space on the waterfront for people to recreate and to enjoy.
At the same time, False Creek and Coal Harbour were previously industrial lands that were very polluted and desecrated. We've refreshed all of this with new development, and people have access to the water and the views. So, to me, it's this idea of having a lot people living very close together, mixing the uses. So, we have apartments on top of stores. In Surrey we have a university on top of a shopping centre. This mixing of uses reflects Vancouver in terms of our culture and how we live together.
An important aspect to note is that Vancouverism is an ideal that was developed in Vancouver but is not present in all regions of the city of Vancouver. Additionally, while outlying regions of Metro Vancouver, such as Surrey, has adopted aspects of these ideals, they did not originate outside the city of Vancouver.