Art Phillips, whose two terms as mayor in the early 1970s set in motion Vancouver鈥檚 later emergence as a model for livable downtown density, has died.
He was 82 years old.
Phillips served as mayor from 1973 to 1976, at a time when urban reform movements were reshaping civic politics and planning in many North American cities.
In Vancouver, these reformist forces created TEAM (The Electors鈥� Action Movement) 鈥� and Phillips, as mayor, was its leader.
鈥淗e was a remarkable golden boy for that time,鈥� said Gordon Price, a former city councillor.
鈥淗e was a striking guy, almost matinee-idol handsome. But with the gravitas of an investment manager.鈥�
Phillips assumed power at city hall after making a fortune with his investment firm, Phillips, Hager and North.
In contrast to previous pro-developer regimes, the centrist TEAM led by Phillips kept real estate development under a tighter leash and made sure city planners took into account environmental and quality of life concerns 鈥� not just the wishes of developers.
Phillips and TEAM helped establish a new consensus about development that crossed all political lines 鈥� one that stressed local neighbourhood planning, public consultation and inclusive neighbourhoods with mixed income.
鈥淚t so clearly defined the movement of the city from one era to another,鈥� said Price.
鈥淗e and TEAM set the foundations for the city that are still serving the city today.鈥�
Under Phillips and TEAM, highrises and freeways were out, livability and local neighbourhood planning were in.
The city鈥檚 32nd mayor was given the city鈥檚 highest honour, Freedom of the City, by Mayor Gregor Robertson in 2010.
Asked about Phillips鈥� time in office after the honour was announced, former mayor and premier Mike Harcourt told The Vancouver Sun: 鈥淭hat was when we marched to a different drummer, when we said no to a freeway and yes to a livable city.
鈥淎rt was so much the person behind all of this.鈥�
Also at the time of the 2010 honour, another former mayor and premier, Gordon Campbell, said Phillips 鈥渃hanged Vancouver forever, from his fight against a waterfront freeway to his fight for neighbourhoods and saving the Orpheum Theatre.
鈥淭he things we take for granted today are the things he started. In my mind, he was the best mayor Vancouver ever had.鈥�
Phillips and his party came to power on a wave of citizen activism, which had forced previous mayor Tom Campbell (dubbed Tom Terrific) to kill plans to build a freeway through Strathcona and Gastown, among Vancouver鈥檚 most significant cultural and architectural neighbourhoods.
Campbell came to be seen as the conservative nemesis of Vancouver鈥檚 vibrant 鈥�60s counterculture. Phillips was seen as the anti-Campbell, more in tune with the new baby boom generation that was beginning to flex its demographic might.
TEAM鈥檚 approach was an abrupt switch from that of the long-ruling Non-Partisan Association, which had promoted the freeway and continued industrial development of False Creek.
Phillips, along with other TEAM councillors like Walter Hardwick, had a different vision for the south shore of False Creek 鈥� a neighbourhood that would become mixed income, high density but non-highrise
The redevelopment of False Creek and adjacent Granville Island were federally funded but were planned under Phillips鈥� TEAM.
The planning approach nurtured during Phillips鈥� two terms as mayor would later inspire what became known worldwide as Vancouverism 鈥� the creation of high-density neighbourhoods with plenty of community amenities around the central downtown core.
鈥淎rt and his TEAM council were responsible for the transformation of Vancouver into the livable city it is today,鈥� said Michael Geller, a real estate consultant and media commentator.
鈥淗is council鈥檚 success in redeveloping the south shore of False Creek and Granville Island from derelict industrial areas into a model neighbourhood set the stage for the subsequent redevelopments of the north shore of False Creek and Coal Harbour.鈥�
Phillips also created the property endowment fund, which protectively holds all of the city鈥檚 investments in lands and leases, in response to what he saw as previous councils鈥� wrong-headed sales of land in order to balance annual budgets.
Phillips鈥� star quality was cemented when he married Carole Taylor, a striking broadcast journalist from Toronto. The two met when Taylor interviewed Vancouver鈥檚 mayor for CTV鈥檚 W5. A long-distance courtship ensued, followed by marriage and two children. Taylor would become a successful politician in her own right, first as a city councillor and later as provincial finance minister.
Journalist Allan Fotheringham said Phillips and Taylor 鈥渨ere the city鈥檚 glamour couple. They were the city鈥檚 version of John and Jackie Kennedy or Brian and Mila Mulroney.鈥�
Shortly after their marriage, the couple moved to a condo in the fledgling False Creek South neighbourhood, immediately giving it credibility.
鈥淧eople were skeptical about whether anyone would want to live in False Creek South,鈥� recalled Price.
鈥淏ut once Art Phillips and Carole Taylor bought a townhouse in Leg in Boot Square, it became popular.鈥�
Phillips was born Sept. 12, 1930. He attended Lord Byng secondary school in Vancouver and studied commerce at the University of sa国际传媒 The tall, athletic Phillips was a basketball star at both schools.
Shortly after graduation, Phillips married his first wife, Patti. They had two girls and three boys.
Phillips had a brilliant career as an investment manager, making millions by the time he was 40. He formed Phillips, Hager & North, a leading investment firm on the West Coast, which by 2007 managed assets of more than $66 billion.
When Phillips entered politics as a TEAM alderman on Vancouver city council in the late 鈥�60s, it was assumed that he would eventually seek and win the top job.
In 1972, Phillips was described by a Vancouver Sun columnist this way: 鈥淗e sits by the side of the Bayshore Inn pool, looking terribly rich, terribly handsome and terribly successful. Ald. Art Phillips is the man who has everything and looks it.鈥�
Phillips won election as mayor under the TEAM banner in 1972 and 1974.
When he quit civic politics after his second term, many assumed that he would become a national political figure, perhaps federal finance minister.
Phillips did win election to Parliament in 1979 as a Liberal in Vancouver Centre, but was defeated the following year in his bid for re-election.
After his defeat, Phillips returned to his investment firm. He re-entered public life in 1985, when the Social Credit government named him critical industries commissioner.
Phillips bowed out of the job after two years and returned again to his investment firm.
He would maintain a low public profile from then on, content in his role as the husband of Taylor, who would become one of sa国际传媒鈥檚 best-known public figures.
鈥淗e was a modest and self-effacing guy,鈥� said former councillor Price.
鈥淗e didn鈥檛 like to do interviews and never, as far as I know, wrote about this era. 鈥淚 guess he assumed that his accomplishments would speak for themselves, and I guess, to some degree, they have.鈥�
