This thesis is an examination of the problems that may arise from the location of S.T.O.L. airports within urbanized areas. The role of air transportation as a passenger travel mode is considered and the problems facing the existing air transportation system are explored. The potential role of S.T.O.L. aircraft within the air transportation system is examined in detail. Additionally, the benefits that may accrue from the use of S.T.O.L. aircraft in a regional air transport system are discussed extensively. The criteria to be used when looking for potential S.T.O.L. airport sites are examined in detail. These criteria are applied to three potential S.T.O.L. airport sites within the Vancouver urban area. In some cases the locational criteria were found to be difficult to operationalize. Data on community reaction to noise exposure is inadequate and noise standards are difficult to apply on a wide basis. The concept of land use compatibility around airports is useful but only to the extent that it does not obscure the fact that aircraft operations can cause community disruptions beyond the boundaries of the so-called compatible land uses. With specific reference to Vancouver, the available data indicates, that on the average, very little terminal access or egress time will be saved if a S.T.O.L. airport were built at a suitable location between the existing airport and the downtown area. Finally, the paper concludes by suggesting that despite the fact that S.T.O.L. aircraft cannot bring substantial time savings to regional air passengers, a S.T.O.L. air service may mean that many of the regions under utilized conventional airports could be converted to S.T.O.L. airports and yeild substantial savings in the money used to maintain and operate the publically owned airports in the province. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

The Vancouver Airport Planning Committee met from 19 73 to 1976 to examine the implications of an expansion of Vancouver International Airport proposed by the Ministry of Transport. The committee was an experiment for it included participation by eleven agencies, including eight from all levels of gov-^ ernment and three non-governmental organizations (two from industry, one from the general public). The committee concluded its activities with the release of a report presenting three decision options for further public discussion. The report is remarkable in the degree of disagreement among agencies that it displays. This study first presents four political models of public participation in the planning process. One of the models, agency-public joint planning, very closely matches the Airport Planning Committee. Then a number of normative criteria for public participation are developed, against which the experience of the committee can be evaluated. The case of the Vancouver Airport Planning Committee is presented, based on readings of reports, minutes of meetings, correspondence, memoranda, related documents, and interviews with participants. Application of the criteria to this committee process reveals a number of shortcomings, most serious of which was the failure to develop and assess alternatives which "expressed the full range of values represented on the committee. Further interpretation of the reasons for difficulties encountered in the process, reveals that the central factor was the narrow and rigid policy position adopted, by the Ministry of Transport when other agencies perceived the issue to be much broader. The narrow policy position was the result of an interpretation of the role of the committee as only to advise on measures to mitigate the specific runway proposed by MOT. Some other agencies believed that the committee's role was much broader, to study and advise on a number of alternative policies for managing the growing demand for air transportation services. Fundamental differences of values separated the agencies involved, so that the disagreement on the nature of the process was never overcome. Instead conflict characterized the committee process, conflict which is reported and recorded in the Final Report. Despite these problems the Airport Planning Committee was basically successful in expressing the range of views, and in generating relevant information on the runway proposal. Public participation was successful in stating a value position (characterized as the 'conserver' viewpoint) which governmental agencies did not express. However the committee process demonstrated an inherent flaw in the agency-public joint planning model. When a diverse set of values is represented within a small problem-solving group dealing with a single issue the necessary conditions for evaluation, bargaining, and decision do not exist. Conflict resolution must take place at the political level; it must not be expected of such a group. The appropriate and important role of such a group is to develop the relevant range of alternatives and to assess their impact on the values represented. This information must then be passed to the political level for bargaining and decision-making. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

Since its opening in 1931, the Vancouver International Airport has been a site where significant representations of the city, its geography and its population have been made. Instead of being utilitarian structures the airport terminals have been purposefully designed and decorated with art chosen specifically to communicate Vancouver's distinct qualities and culture to travelers. As culture is never static and changes continuously, the representations have also shifted over time. By considering the specific history of Vancouver's airport in conjunction with the wider history of Canadian and international airport development, patterns (such as the continuous use of symbols from native cultures to represent aspects of the colonizer's culture) and tensions (such as Vancouver's relative position as a major Canadian urban centre and the growth of visible immigrant populations) which accompany the representation of locality at the airport become apparent. Henri Lefevbre's understanding of space as an active social product, David Harvey's assessment of the impact of globalization upon the local and Siegfried Kracauer's interpretation of architecture as illustrative of broad social trends underpin my analysis. The adoption,of an historical and theoretical framework within this thesis is directed at developing an interpretation of the current art program at the Vancouver International Airport which can move beyond the point where debate regarding "authenticity" and the agency of the native artists or their communities constricts the discussion. Through an examination of airport design, both theoretical and actual, the genesis of and reactions to art programs executed at the airport since the 1960s, as well as aspects of the city's social history, I illustrate that the current art program is representative of more than a superficial thematic strategy. Instead, it points to a complex and ongoing struggle to define and represent Vancouver both to its residents and the rest of the world.

Since its opening in 1931, the Vancouver International Airport has been a site where significant representations of the city, its geography and its population have been made. Instead of being utilitarian structures the airport terminals have been purposefully designed and decorated with art chosen specifically to communicate Vancouver's distinct qualities and culture to travelers. As culture is never static and changes continuously, the representations have also shifted over time. By considering the specific history of Vancouver's airport in conjunction with the wider history of Canadian and international airport development, patterns (such as the continuous use of symbols from native cultures to represent aspects of the colonizer's culture) and tensions (such as Vancouver's relative position as a major Canadian urban centre and the growth of visible immigrant populations) which accompany the representation of locality at the airport become apparent. Henri Lefevbre's understanding of space as an active social product, David Harvey's assessment of the impact of globalization upon the local and Siegfried Kracauer's interpretation of architecture as illustrative of broad social trends underpin my analysis. The adoption,of an historical and theoretical framework within this thesis is directed at developing an interpretation of the current art program at the Vancouver International Airport which can move beyond the point where debate regarding "authenticity" and the agency of the native artists or their communities constricts the discussion. Through an examination of airport design, both theoretical and actual, the genesis of and reactions to art programs executed at the airport since the 1960s, as well as aspects of the city's social history, I illustrate that the current art program is representative of more than a superficial thematic strategy. Instead, it points to a complex and ongoing struggle to define and represent Vancouver both to its residents and the rest of the world. / Arts, Faculty of / Art History, Visual Art and Theory, Department of / Graduate

This work deals with the notion of hybridity; an ideal moment of cultural negotiation which results, in the words of Homi Bhabha, in the creation of a 'third space.' This theoretical plateau is formed by two parties whose agendas, while ostensibly conflicting, overlap enough so that each informs the space but neither dominates it . In this case I examine a specific site of hybridity, the "Arrivals Passengers Only" area of the Vancouver International Airport. Here, the space is informed by the presence of works, created by the Coast Salish Musqueam people, in the Airport Terminal, created by the Vancouver International Airport Authority. While this sort of negotiation can be described using positive and progressive terms, and the creation of a third space represents a compelling ideal, I argue that the moment of hybridity within the airport is ultimately undermined by other areas of the building in which no negotiation has taken place. The airport's role as a business necessitates marketing strategies aimed mainly at tourists and other business interests. Since virtually the entire building is devoted to that market, the negotiated hybrid space becomes hidden so that its potential impact is lost. Although participating in the creation of a working model of culture with the Musqueam people, the Airport ends up destabilising that model and the space, the ‘third space,’ which contains it. This particular example points to a site specific aspect of contemporary North American culture by drawing on the local community as a source for investigating that discourse. The thesis, then, has two points of entry; the ephemeral discourse of cultural negotiation and the locally grounded freeze-frame view of one site in contemporary Vancouver.

This work deals with the notion of hybridity; an ideal moment of cultural negotiation which results, in the words of Homi Bhabha, in the creation of a 'third space.' This theoretical plateau is formed by two parties whose agendas, while ostensibly conflicting, overlap enough so that each informs the space but neither dominates it . In this case I examine a specific site of hybridity, the "Arrivals Passengers Only" area of the Vancouver International Airport. Here, the space is informed by the presence of works, created by the Coast Salish Musqueam people, in the Airport Terminal, created by the Vancouver International Airport Authority. While this sort of negotiation can be described using positive and progressive terms, and the creation of a third space represents a compelling ideal, I argue that the moment of hybridity within the airport is ultimately undermined by other areas of the building in which no negotiation has taken place. The airport's role as a business necessitates marketing strategies aimed mainly at tourists and other business interests. Since virtually the entire building is devoted to that market, the negotiated hybrid space becomes hidden so that its potential impact is lost. Although participating in the creation of a working model of culture with the Musqueam people, the Airport ends up destabilising that model and the space, the ‘third space,’ which contains it. This particular example points to a site specific aspect of contemporary North American culture by drawing on the local community as a source for investigating that discourse. The thesis, then, has two points of entry; the ephemeral discourse of cultural negotiation and the locally grounded freeze-frame view of one site in contemporary Vancouver. / Arts, Faculty of / Art History, Visual Art and Theory, Department of / Graduate