Every day we share a single photo from our Flickr Pool shot by one of our faithful and talented readers (that’s you!)
It's kind of funny - I've always tried to use recently-taken photos here in this space, in an effort to make these posts as timely and as fresh as possible. But on occasion, I cross paths with an image from the pool that can persuade me to deviate from this approach - if rules are indeed made to be broken, then from time to time I reserve the right to break a self-imposed rule myself. Today is that kind of day.
While perusing the pool last night, I couldn't help but notice a photograph by Bruce McPherson that dates back to 1976 - June of 1976 to be more precise. This image sent me on a research mission that didn't reveal as much about the event depicted in the photo - Habitat '76 - as I otherwise would have liked. From the Habitat 76 website comes this description: "Habitat Forum was a non-governmental people’s forum held in Vancouver in 1976. It was an adjunct to the UN Habitat Conference on Human Settlements, also known as Habitat I. This was, at the time, the largest conference the UN had ever assembled. It was the first time the world community met to discuss the growing challenges of urbanization, the accelerating human migration from rural to urban areas, urban problems including clean water, sanitation, poverty and homelessness, as well as the nascent field of sustainable urban design."
The Vancouver event was primarily held at the then-recently reclaimed RCAF Jericho float-plane base, inside re-purposed hangers that were demolished shortly after the conference. A google search also turns up this VIA post from 2009 that includes images from an Arthur Erickson pavilion set up outside of the Vancouver Art Gallery during the conference.
Here is 1976~06~06-003.
I should further mention that if you click through the photo to view it on Flickr, you will find it part of a larger set on photos from the time, 15 in all.
Extra-bonus trivia: the railings you see in the photo are original 1938 railings from the Lions Gate Bridge; likely replaced as part of a 1975 rehabilitation of the viaduct at the north end of the bridge. The railings remain there to this day.
