Contemporary Calgary | 20m | 4s | Contemporary Calgary | KPMB

[darwink]

I wonder why they flipped the design. In the original render the new addition was on the same side as the river. Now they placed it on the side of the train and turned the river side into a park. Can’t say I hate the change, but I did like the new glass addition fronting the river. Would have made for some nice river views from inside. I also notice that the new addition seems smaller than what was originally planned. Oh well, I’ll take it and it should be a nice addition to the west end.

I suspect a combination of value engineering and keeping options open for a future phase led to this decision.

All said, I am surprised this went as far as being on DMAP. How long do approvals live again? Once renewed?

There isn’t evidence I’ve seen that they have a funding agreement for this, but perhaps things are percolating.

 

[Mountain Man]

Are they moving the art outside the old CBE building? Looks like that's what is on the corner. If this drawing doesn't show that this is begging for a pedestrian overpass or just capping 6th Ave here (with a wildlife overpass) I don't know what will. I need to look up when the final riverwalk west design is coming out...

Edit from: https://www.calgary.ca/our-leadership/articles/riverwalk-west-design.html

The RiverWalk West project team is now working to refine the conceptual design before construction can begin. An updated timeline is expected to be shared with Calgarians in late 2024.

That didn't happen...

There looks to be a pedestrian overpass towards the west end of the site on the site plan, nothing in the render though.

 

[UrbanWarrior]

In the render it's shown as a crosswalk... and bunch of people walking across the 5 lane freeway That seems crazy to me.

 

[MichaelS]

Isn't that what happens now?

Street View · Google Maps

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[Mountain Man]

D

In the render it's shown as a crosswalk... and bunch of people walking across the 5 lane freeway That seems crazy to me.

Didn't notice that, an overpass would be much better in that location.

Isn't that what happens now?

Street View · Google Maps

Explore a place in a more immersive way in Google Maps.

www.google.com

A crosswalk at an intersection tied to light signals is much better than one further down the road around a curve. The existing setup is dangerous enough too, I used to cycle through there and got tired of douchebags in trucks trying to run me over instead of waiting 4 seconds for me to cross 6th.

 

[CBBarnett]

D

Didn't notice that, an overpass would be much better in that location.


A crosswalk at an intersection tied to light signals is much better than one further down the road around a curve. The existing setup is dangerous enough too, I used to cycle through there and got tired of douchebags in trucks trying to run me over instead of waiting 4 seconds for me to cross 6th.

If 6th Ave was converted to a 2-way more normal street a lot more options would be available and would tame driver expectations to be able to run over pedestrians at speed anytime they want. As of now, particularly in this area, it's encouraged - a total car-sewer built to accommodate the 1 out of 24 hours per day, 3 or 4 days a week where the volume of cars is sufficient to suggest you need 5 to 6 westbound lanes. It's either congested, stressful rush hour driving with every driver breaking the rules to get an inch ahead, or it's so wide open everyone is going 20km/h over the limit.

Do something like below this with 3 WB lanes, 2 EB lanes and add some new intersections or yields. Plus you can decongest 9th Ave/11th Street intersection a bit.

This probably can't happen - as it would require a vision that car sewers can and should be more tamed in downtown - but addresses the actual design issue in the area (the overbuilt one-way expressway cutting off the parks and river to people), instead of pretending development is the issue here.

 

[darwink]

rescoped and funded:

Contemporary Calgary

Alberta Government Commits $40 Million to Contemporary Calgary’s Capital Renovation and Expansion Project Calgary, AB – The Government of Alberta has announced a $40 million investment in the final phase of Contemporary Calgary’s ambitious Capital Renovation and Expansion Project. This funding

www.contemporarycalgary.com

 

[boreal96]

Looks good.
It's the shame it is on an "island". It would be nice to have a large bridge above 6th ave to make the space completely integrated to the river and pathways. Something like this.

 

[ByeByeBaby]

Looks good.
It's the shame it is on an "island". It would be nice to have a large bridge above 6th ave to make the space completely integrated to the river and pathways. Something like this.

That road is in a trench. It takes about 60-70m of horizontal space to provide enough elevation to cross over a road, while still being passable to pedestrians. It's 40m from the building to 6th Ave, so we'd need to trench 6th as well as make the entire public space into a sloped bridge access rather than a public space. And this is the easy side, there's only 20m between 6th Ave and the Bow River; are we going to fill in half of the river to make that work?

There's a lot of ways to make a better connection for less money, and if we found an extra billion dollars to make tunnels to make the downtown nicer, I can think of at least one megaproject to do ahead of this one.