Jane's Walk: An Archaeological Tour of the Habitat Forum 1976 site at Jericho Beach

This tour unearths the history of Habitat Forum, a major public event at Jericho Beach that was part of the UN Habitat Conference on Human Settlements held in Vancouver in 1976. This was the largest UN conference that had ever been held, and it was the founding conference of UN Habitat. The Forum was the NGO and public component, and it attracted a who's who of international thinkers on cities and society including Margaret Mead, Buckminster Fuller, Paolo Soleri, Pierre and Margaret Trudeau and many others. 5 vintage WWI-era seaplane hangars (which were once situated adjacent to the building now housing the Jericho Sailing Club) had been beautifully refurbished for the Forum by thousands of volunteers, architects and craftspeople, providing beautiful conference amphitheatres, meeting rooms and social spaces. Despite public outcry, all of the hangars were burned down or demolished by 1980. This walking tour is therefore a tour of nothing, though traces of Habitat Forum remain if you know where to look. During a meandering walk around the site, the talk will also briefly touch on the fascinating history of the old seaplane base. For more information see. http://habitat76.ca

http://janeswalk.org/canada/vancouver/archaeological-tour-habitat-forum-1976-site-jericho-beach/