Flag of Burlington, Vermont

Flag of Burlington, Vermont (1990-2017)

In 1990, a group of students at Edmunds Middle School, led by eighth grader Cara Wick, designed a 2:3 proportioned flag for Burlington as part of a leadership project.[2] The background of the flag depicts the westward view from the city over Lake Champlain of the Adirondack Mountains in New York and the Four Brother Islands, including Juniper Island.[3] There is a yellow scroll across the top reading "BURLINGTON," below which sits a quartered shield. The first quarter, blue with a white dove, symbolizes peace and the city's sister cities.[3][lower-alpha 1] The second quarter, red with a yellow genie lamp, represents the colleges and universities in Burlington, namely University of Vermont, Champlain College, Burlington College, and Trinity College of Vermont.[3] The third quarter, yellow with several pine trees, represents environmental conservation; pine trees were chosen because it is "the state tree of Vermont," but the state tree is actually the sugar maple.[3] The fourth quarter, blue and white with sock and buskin represents the arts."[3] The globe in the center of the shield represents the theme "we are one world;" atop the globe, separating the first and second quarter of the shield, is city hall. The reverse of the flag is a mirror image, except the name "BURLINGTON" is lettered correctly.[4]

The North American Vexillological Association ranked the 1990 flag of Burlington as one of the worst city flags in the United States in a 2004 survey. The flag came in at 107 out of 150 cities, earning a 3.23 out of 10.[5] Of the Association's five principles of good flag design, the 1990 flag breaks most, if not all of them.[lower-alpha 2]

Inspired by Roman Mars' viral 2015 TEDTalk on flag design, Mayor Weinberg announced in January 2017 the city would be changing its flag to better represent the community.[2] This came after the nearby city of Montpelier, Vermont updated their flag in 2015 after Mars said of the flag, among others, "there is a scourge of bad flags and they must be stopped."[7] Burlington City Arts, the city's art commission, decided they would hold a public contest to design the new flag.[8] Residents had six weeks to submit their designs beginning September 1; 138 submissions were received.[9] Those 138 were narrowed down to seven by a local committee of designers, students, teachers, and Ted Kaye, secretary of the North American Vexillological Association.[2] The process then opened up to the public, who had one month to vote online; voters ranked each flag on a scale of one to ten and the design with the highest average score would become the new flag.[10] 1,427 residents of Burlington voted and the winning design was the one created by seventh graders and twin brothers Owen and Lucas Marchessault.[11] The new flag was officially adopted by the city council on November 27, and first raised on New Year's Eve 2017 as a part of Burlington's First Night celebrations.[1]