Patrick Michael Condon

Patrick Condon is a distinguished Canadian urban planner, landscape architect, and professor whose career has significantly shaped sustainable urban design. Born in 1950 in Brockton, Massachusetts, Condon earned a BSc and MLA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His early career included roles as a community organizer and landscape architect, laying the groundwork for his focus on livable environments. In 1985, he joined the University of Minnesota’s Department of Landscape Architecture, earning tenure by 1990. In 1992, he moved to Canada, taking a position at the University of British Columbia (UBC) as Chair of the Landscape Architecture Program. By 1996, he became the James Taylor Chair in Landscape and Livable Environments, a role he continues to hold, and was promoted to full professor in 2006.
Condon’s achievements center on advancing sustainable urban design. He pioneered the East Clayton project in Surrey, BC, demonstrating systemic change in city planning, and collaborated with North Vancouver on a 100-year carbon-neutral plan, earning the Canadian Institute of Planners Award for Planning Excellence and the BC Union of Municipalities Award of Excellence. Over 25 years, he has led numerous design charrettes and public engagement initiatives, emphasizing collaboration in sustainable community development. As a senior researcher at UBC’s Design Centre for Sustainability, he has influenced urban policy across the US, Canada, and Australia.
His scholarly contributions include influential books like Seven Rules for Sustainable Cities (2010), Sick City (2021), and Broken City: Land Speculation, Inequality, and Urban Crisis (2024), where he critiques land speculation’s role in housing crises. In 2018, he briefly ran for Vancouver mayor under the Coalition of Progressive Electors, advocating non-market housing, but withdrew after a stroke. Condon’s career reflects a blend of practical innovation, academic rigor, and a commitment to equitable, sustainable urban futures.