Her Work

Joyce’s approach to urban design was humanist, timeless and honest. It was humanist because her design choices placed people, lived experience and human comfort above economic, fashionable, or political preferences. It was timeless because she wanted designs that endured even though they responded to the existing context, setting and climate, and used contemporary methods of making and building. And it was honest in that she ensured that social, cultural, and historical influences were considered and appropriately reflected, while inviting future interpretations and interventions from an evolving community.
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MOBILITY

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LIVEABILITY

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RESILIENCE

IN HER OWN WORDS

“Our approach looks at development through three lenses: mobility, liveability and resilience. Each refers to a broad set of issues which when taken together determine whether a city works for its residents. Mobility encompasses roads and public transit but equally important, networks for walking and cycling. Liveability includes housing affordability but also density mix, availability of social housing and crucial to all of these, access to daily needs such as food, services and amenities, all elements of a complete community. Resilience, the most complex lens, refers not just to the city’s ability to respond to catastrophic events like earthquakes or windstorms but also to protecting and enhancing natural systems including water, air, plants and animals; as well, this lens considers remedies to the many stressors of urban living by giving residents access to green space or by fostering community cohesion.”

@2018 Joyce Drohan

Testimonials

"Joyce was always well prepared for meetings, most thoughtful and considered in her comments and quietly supportive of my often precarious position. I looked forward to the meetings as a welcome break in my extremely busy schedule when Joyce’s calm presence would bring a deep consideration of the overall well-being of the campus to the table."

Freda Pagani

"I got to know Joyce as we taught design studios together at UBC. She was not only a collaborator and colleague, but was a deeply influential mentor and a kind-hearted friend to me. I consider myself fortunate to have gotten to know Joyce personally, after already knowing of her thought leadership and history of positive impact in our local urbanism community with a legacy of progressive projects, some of which going back to before I was born! She was a respected colleague and mentor of many seasoned professionals I worked with - so very much a mentor of mentors.

Caner Oktem

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