For 30 years Douglas Cameron Aitken contributed to the urban sprawl around Vancouver. A graduate of the UBC School of Architecture, he helped plan and design office and commercial projects, shopping centres and liquor stores, many of them surrounded by vast parking lots to accommodate cars.

But for the past two years, he’s been trying to make amends. That’s how long he researched and compiled material for his recently-published book, Three Faces of Vancouver. The book profiles the city’s neighbourhoods and suburbs and traces the area’s history from its settlement by ancient First Nations cultures who survived natural catastrophes like massive floods and volcanic eruptions to the Coast Salish who built their economy on fishing and the trade of blankets made from the wool of specially-bred dogs about the size of a terrier to the influx of European then Chinese and Asian immigrants.

Along the way, Aitken builds the case for why Vancouver has become one of the most livable cities in the world, with its unparalleled natural setting and its dynamic blend of cultures. It wasn’t easy, though.

It’s taken a combination of good luck and good planning to get this far, says Aitken. “Somehow the planning process of Greater Vancouver came together and recognized integrated planning, with fairly high densities in balance with nature, was much more efficient than urban sprawl.”

The resistance by city planners to various proposals for highways into Vancouver’s downtown peninsula was a key turning point says Aitken. That forced developers to build up, instead of out, to house the region’s booming population. Business followed suit, to service all those residents, who discovered they could attain most of their day-to-day needs by walking.

“People suddenly changed their movement patterns and they used their feet again,” says Aitken. “But it takes a long time for that critical mass to be reached.”

The advent of SkyTrain and the development of dense town centres is starting to create a similar energy in New Westminster and other suburbs along its various routes, reversing the trend to urban sprawl that took hold in the years following World War II.

Nowhere is that more evident than in his own neighbourhood, along Kingsway, just west of Metrotown, says Aitken. Ten years ago, the sprawling Metropolis at Metrotown mall sucked in all the life around it; there wasn’t even a proper sidewalk along Kingsway from Central Park. But as more and more condo and apartment towers were built in the area, small businesses to serve those residents started to flourish. The sidewalk was finished. People started to leave their cars in the underground lots of their buildings. A neighbourhood emerged.

Now, as Aitken stands on his balcony overlooking Kingsway, if he squints hard enough he says the busy thoroughfare bordered by bustling tree-lined sidewalks reminds him of the Champs Elysée in Paris. But in Paris you’re unlikely to see a bald eagle swoop amidst the tall buildings.

“When I walk down the street I salute shopkeepers that I know,” says Aitken. “It’s walking scale, there’s a human element in that you know the people you’re dealing with.”

The same thing is happening in Burnaby’s Edmonds, Lougheed and Brentwood town centres, as well as downtown New Westminster.

“The urban culture has blossomed,” says Aitken. “It’s becoming a successful urban civilization.”

And not a moment too soon.

With the supply of fossil fuels dwindling and the growing impact of climate change, the days for our car culture are numbered.

“We’re too dependent on cheap gasoline,” says Aitken. “At the rate we’re growing, within 100 years we’ll totally fill up the Fraser Valley with urban sprawl. At some point we have to stop it.”

That means more densification, more transit to link town centres, and more protection for the Lower Mainland’s agricultural land.

“We have the potential to support our area with food produced here,” says Aitken. “With climate change, there’s problems with too much of our food being imported from areas that will no longer be able to produce it.”

Aitken says Metro Vancouver has become a model for smart growth, and that’s why it’s known as one of the best places to live.

“We have set the tone,” says Aitken. “We’re showing the rest of North America that smart growth produces an enhanced civilization.”