Principal
Multidisciplinary Professional
Gloria Venczel, BES., B.Arch., MRAIC, RPP, MCIP is an award winning urban designer/planner and principal of Cityscape Design Inc. With over 20 years of multi-disciplinary experience, Gloria has worked in traditional architectural practice for a decade before embracing livable city planning and pedestrian oriented urban design. She is a cutting edge thinker and educator in Walkable + Vibrant + Affordable + Equitable Cities. She is a registered professional urban designer/planner with the Planning Institute of British Columbia and a member of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada.
Project Management
After many years of innovation leadership in sustainable city building in the private, NGO and public sectors, Gloria has formalized her project management experience and obtained the Simon Fraser University Certificate in Project Management.
Municipal Experience
Gloria has a proven track record in municipal rezoning processes and negotiations. As the former City of North Vancouver's Urban Designer/Development Planner and Project Manager for rezoning applications files from triplex housing to mixed use, high-rise residential/commercial projects, she has had a 99% success rate at Public Hearings. She conducted urban design reviews for all rezoning applications, oversaw the Advisory Design Panel as well as supervised & developed the urban design programming for award winning Civic Plaza + Vista Commons + City Library.
Cities Executive Coaching
Gloria currently provides Cities Executive Coaching and Consulting to the development community to meet or exceed municipal planning + community Public Hearing expectations, including neighbourhood engagement. She provides continuing education presentations to the Urban Land Institute, BC and Phoenix Group on people-centric urban design as effective marketing tools with added intrinsic neighbourhood value for strategic project win-win scenarios.
Emerging City Builders' Coaching
For elected officials private cohorts and non-design professionals, Gloria provides urban design assessment coaching & practical tools to enhance walkability + livability + social connectedness to seamlessly integrate new projects into a neighbourhood fabric. Gloria also offers strategic insight + policy options on cities regarding covid-19 + climate change. This includes community engagement options to obtain a "social license" for change.
Royal Architectural Institute of Canada- MetroVan Past Thought Leader on Cities
Gloria is the past Thought Leader of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, MetroVan's standing room only "Built City Speaker Series" , which provided a forum for joint public/professional dialogue and problem solving on hot topics in vibrant + walkable + affordable city building. Gloria has a track record of creating public outreach and capacity building programs, simplifying the complex issues around livable cities of affordable housing + proformas, vibrant public realm + social resiliency, urban design + social connectedness + climate change as well as land use, land value and the viability of local pedestrian oriented retail.
NGO Leadership on Sustainable Cities
As an early adopter of sustainability, Gloria was the Founding Executive Director of the Smart Growth Canada Network. As one of the Founding Board Members for the Cascadia Chapter of the Congress for the New Urbanism, Gloria was the Thought Leader + Organizing Co-Chair of Vancouver Summit 2015 called “The Business of NorthWest New Urbanism + Bridging Sustainability & Aboriginal Values”.
Instructor + Mentor
Gloria is a natural mentor & communicator. She has taught architectural + urban design as an Instructor at the former Royal Oak College, Vancouver. She happily mentors up and coming young urban planning professionals at the Planning Institute of British Columbia.
+ Post-Covid Recovery + Economic Equity + Climate Friendly Cities + Walkability + Vibrancy + Social Media vs Place Based Social Connectedness + Affordable Housing + Equity + Public Spaces + Social Resiliency + Micromobility + Curbside Management + Autonomous Vehicles + Data Collection + Privacy + Smart Tech + Democracy + Public Capacity Building + Process + Happiness