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As a neighbourhood that's finding its place in the larger urban fabric of Calgary, the Beltline's eclectic mix of retail, office space, and residences are housed in highrise towers, human-scaled mid-rises, and preserved heritage structures. The fusion of functions has resulted in an increasingly diverse public realm activated by throbbing neighbourhood vitality. This wasn't done by accident — the Beltline Area Redevelopment Plan adopted in 2006 sets out a vision for the development of the community, guided by a series of pedestrian-focused design principles and land use policies.
The Beltline was born following the amalgamation of the Connaught and Victoria Park communities located just south of the downtown core. As part of uniting these neighbourhoods, their various planning documents — the Victoria Park East Area Redevelopment Plan, the Connaught/West Victoria Area Redevelopment Plan, and the Core Area Policy Brief — were replaced. The resulting Beltline Area Redevelopment Plan sets clear physical boundaries for the neighbourhood, defined by the Canadian Pacific Railway tracks to the north, 17 Avenue to the south, 14 Street to the west and the Elbow River to the east.
In the early 20th century, the Calgary Municipal Railway's streetcar routes were instrumental in shaping the city. In addition to the Red and White Lines, the Blue Line provided service to patrons in a circuit. The route traveled from downtown, through a railway underpass, and along 12 and 17 Avenues before returning downtown. This circular course is known as a 'belt line,' a term originally plastered across Blue Line streetcars that eventually came to represent the community as a whole.
Today, the encouragement of high-density development has spurred condominiums and office developments of all shapes and sizes. With ambitious plans of accommodating up to 40,000 residents by 2035, growing vertically is the only option, and a number of significant additions to the neighbourhood have extended the Calgary skyline southwards. A recent drone video by Forum contributor Surrealplaces highlights the evolving community and the dynamic range in building typologies.
The video begins by flying northwest over 1st Street and 15 Avenue Southwest, where Chocolate by Battistella Developments has been a neighbourhood wayfinder since 2005. The drone then moves towards The Park, an 18-storey development by Lake Placid Group of Companies. The 156-unit project features a navy blue glass facade that stands out from its brick and stone surroundings. It stands across the street from the ornately manicured Central Memorial Park, which is home to Memorial Park Library, a Boer War monument of Canadian rancher and soldier Russell Lambert Boyle, and an associated cenotaph. The popular green space will be overlooked by Qualex-Landmark's 34-storey Park Point development, whose red crane can be spotted just to the north.
The video transitions to an aerial scene further to the east, where a trio of newly finished residential developments form peaks in the skyline. The drone first flies over Bentall Kennedy's Portfolio, the most recent of the cluster to be completed. Its landmark design element is a white-framed roof extension that adds vertical emphasis to the exterior. Physically separated from Portfolio by a seven-storey apartment building, another highrise marks another development by Battistella. The 20-storey Colours, completed in 2008, features floor-to-ceiling glass windows enveloping loft-style interiors. A two-storey 'Art Wall' adorns the street-fronting base, ensuring the project lives up to its splashy name. Across the street, the Apex-developed Union Square responds to a retained heritage facade at ground level while the window-walled condominium provides vistas of the adjacent Haultain Park.
Circling back, we are presented with a view of the Vetro and Sasso condominium towers, with a sliver of the Scotiabank Saddledome — home of the Calgary Flames hockey team — visible in behind. The image below also shows buildings located just outside the established boundaries of the Beltline, with a glimpse of the Talisman Centre and its bright white roof in the distance. The multi-sport complex, formerly known as the Lindsay Park Sports Centre, has served as a world-class training facility for numerous Olympic and Paralympic athletes since its opening in 1983. After a polite greeting from an HVAC technician above 15 Avenue SE and Centre Street S, the drone flies south to St. Mary's Cathedral, a Roman Catholic place of worship. Consecrated in 1957, the Norman-Gothic structure was built with brick and sandstone accents, and its terracotta rooftop attracts attention.
This only represents a small slice of the Beltline, but it captures the neighbourhood's rich juxtaposition between heritage and modern architecture. With a coming influx of residents stimulating the demand for new condominiums, vertical growth is a reality the area has embraced with open arms. While the Beltline is maintaining the historic character that has given the neighbourhood its charm, it's also becoming an extension of the downtown core more and more, and quickly becoming inseparable from the dense cluster of office buildings in the city centre.
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