U.N. honours Peter Oberlander posthumously

UBC Professor Emeritus H. Peter Oberlander (1922-2008), founder of the School of Community and Regional Planning (SCARP) and the Centre for Human Settlements at UBC, will be recognized posthumously by the United Nations Habitat agency (UN-Habitat) with a 2009 Scroll of Honour award.

The award, considered the most significant prize in the field of human settlements, will be celebrated in Washington D.C. and at UBC during the global observances of World Habitat Day on October 5.

Oberlander is considered a founding father of UN-Habitat. In 1952 he established SCARP, which has more than 1,100 graduates serving in communities around the world. In 1975 he established the Centre for Human Settlements at the UBC, providing faculty and students programs to engage in multidisciplinary research and furthering UBC’s global perspective of regional, urban and community development.

In 1990, the Canadian International Development Agency recognized the Centre as a “Centre for Excellence in Human Settlements Planning.”  It is home to the global repository for UN Habitat Conference archives, the Habitat Exchange, a “venue for the dissemination and discussion of best practices, action plans and other tools relevant to the pursuit of ecologically sound and socially equitable urbanization.”

A celebration of UN Habitat’s World Habitat Day, of Oberlander’s 2009 Scroll of Honour Award, and of the legacy he has left UBC will be held the afternoon of Monday, Oct. 5, at the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.  For more information, visit: www.events.ubc.ca.