Neil Griggs, the visionary Whistler Village planner who helped design the resort’s pedestrian core and guided landmark projects across B.C. and beyond, died peacefully in June at the age of 88.
Born in 1939, Griggs was known for quiet leadership, a collaborative style and an unwavering focus on how people experience a place. Those who worked alongside him recall an optimist with a steady presence, someone who could earn trust and guide ambitious developments through challenging conditions.
Working alongside Doug Sutcliffe and Jim Moodie, Griggs co-founded Sutcliffe, Griggs Moodie Planning Consultants. In 1978, the team was awarded the contract to lead Whistler’s master development plan—a blueprint that prioritized pedestrian access, mixed-use zoning and long-term livability.
“The project involved many significant contributors over the years, including Eldon Beck, Al Raine, Nancy Greene, Terry Minger, Whistler’s original mayor Pat Carleton, and influential B.C. politician Robert (Bob) Williams,” according to a press release provided by Griggs’ son, Paul, who researched his father’s legacy. “Later, as president and general manager of the Whistler Village Land Company, Neil oversaw the planning, infrastructure and land sales that laid the foundation for what is now one of the most celebrated all-season mountain resort communities in the world.”
The work was demanding. In the early years, it often required same-day return trips on the winding, single-lane Sea to Sky highway. Paul recalled his father sometimes making the Vancouver–Whistler drive twice in a single day for meetings.
“I know Whistler was such a big part of his and our lives growing up. When the village was just an idea, we would spend weeks there as a family enjoying the mountain in the Creekside days before Blackcomb had opened. He loved sunny-day skiing,” Paul said in an interview.
“I think it was such a dynamic project with a sense of urgency and attention needed. He collaborated with a lot of different people,” he added. That collaboration, he said, helped build the consensus needed to realize a true year-round resort.
At the July 8 Whistler council meeting, Mayor Jack Crompton noted Griggs’ broad role in the early Whistler Village build-out, including being contracted for the development plan around 1979 and later serving as president and general manager of the Whistler Village Land Company. In that role, Griggs oversaw completion of the Arnold Palmer-designed Whistler Golf Club, the installation of Whistler Village infrastructure and the approval of the first wave of site proposals.
Griggs’ career stretched well beyond Whistler’s resort planning. In the 1970s, he served as project manager for the redevelopment of False Creek South in Vancouver—a risky waterfront renewal many expected to fail.
Retired architect Michael Geller first met Griggs while working for the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) in 1964. “I first met him when I arrived in Vancouver in 1964 with CMHC, and Neil was the project manager looking after False Creek,” Geller said. “Because most people expected it to fail, no one wanted to get involved. I got involved because I’d lived in England and seen how large-scale redevelopments on waterfronts could become successful. Neil believed that as well. Like Whistler, many in Vancouver also thought the redevelopment would be a huge failure.”
Those early-1980s headwinds were significant, Geller added. “He was an optimist, and he had the right personality, which gave people a certain level of confidence he would follow up on his promises," he said. "That was important in the early ’80s because the interest rates were 22 per cent, the real-estate market was in serious trouble, and developers and contractors were going bankrupt.”
By the 1980s, Griggs took on international work, moving to Australia to create Sanctuary Cove, which went from a muddy swamp to an ambitious resort community. Back in B.C., he was contracted to re-develop Oakalla Prison in Burnaby into a townhouse community, which received a Best Planned Community award in 1996 from the Urban Development Institute.
“He was a delight. He was optimistic, a decent person. He was not a bullshitter, and people liked him," Geller said. "We underestimate how important that is when it comes to getting things done."
In 1997, Griggs founded a Canadian chapter of Builders Without Borders, reflecting a long-standing humanitarian streak. “He had a big heart, which helped him succeed,” Geller said. “His moral compass was evident years earlier. When he passed away, I posted on Facebook, and it was a testament to who he was—the number of people I had no idea worked or dealt with him who commented what a decent guy he was and how pleasant he was to work with, in a very quiet way.”
Outside of work, Paul said his father enjoyed golf, sailing with family and coaching his kids’ soccer teams.
From False Creek to Burnaby to Whistler to Australia, the through-line was clear to Paul: “He always had people at heart," he said. "It was always about a great space for people to use.”
