This past spring, the Dockside Green Development located in Victoria, BC, received two more awards. In May, Dockside Green Limited, the City of Victoria and VicWest Community Association were awarded a "Smarty" and top honours for their proposal and process during Dockside Green's planning stages, at Smart Growth BC's inaugural awards ceremony, held in Vancouver. The "Smarty" was presented during Smart Growth BC's Innovations in Smart Growth Housing conference. Smart Growth BC is a provincial non-governmental organization devoted to fiscally, socially and environmentally responsible land use and development.

In June, the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada awarded Dockside Green's architects, Busby, Perkins + Will with a certificate of merit in the category of Approved or Adopted Urban Design Plans as part of its 2006 National Urban Design Awards. These awards are part of a two-tier program held in co-operation with major metropolitan centers in Canada.

The development concept for Dockside Green was created by the City of Victoria, using an extensive participatory planning process with the community, which articulated twelve guiding principles founded on a balanced triple bottom line of social, economic and environmental performance.

Once complete, Dockside Green will be a community for approximately 2,500 people incorporating the very highest in green standards. It is a multi-million project that includes residential, live/work, hotel, retail, office, light industrial uses and numerous public amenities. It will comprise of 26 buildings totaling 1.3 million square feet, and will be built over 10 -12 years.

To date, the project has been honored with the following significant awards:

  • Award of Excellence Planning Institute of BC: Conferred to the City of Victoria in April 2005 in honour of outstanding accomplishments in the field of planning.

  • Award for Planning Excellence, Neighborhood Planning-Canadian Institute of Planners: Conferred to the City of Victoria in July 2005.

  • Brownie Award-Green Design and Technological Innovation: Conferred to the Dockside Green Partnership and The City of Victoria in October 2005 by the Canadian Urban Institute.

  • Brownie Award-Best Overall Project: Conferred to the Dockside Green Partnership and The City of Victoria in October 2005 by the Canadian Urban Institute.

  • Award of Excellence-Canadian Architect magazine: Conferred to Busby Perkins + Will Architects in December 2005.