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It is in part based on the results of the shadow studies that the RKHCA Development Committee conducted and the desire to allow sunlight to reach the public realm and shop windows on the north side of 33rd for a good portion of each year, to help the new Marda Loop be a place people want to...

I’m serious, by the way. I really think this is something the Marda Loop BRZ should look into! The Harry Potter days seemed to work well for Kensington.

So I guess Calgary is doomed to see its quirky Main Streets replaced with aluminum-glazed strips of chain franchises 😔. But hey, I have an idea for an attraction to spice up Marda Loop — now when I come off Crowchild at 33rd as I come down the slope from the raised interchange I feel like I am...

I wouldn’t describe Paris as a northern city. Do you also feel that Jan Gehl’s decades of research and writings on the importance of human scale to placemaking are ridiculous? Any thoughts as to why, on a sunny Saturday afternoon during a chinook, the south-facing patio at the Ship & Anchor Pub...

It’s not so much fighting density — more trying to manage it to achieve a really good outcome. As you are all likely aware by now, my concern is that taking a quirky “Main Street”, particularly one with east-west orientation in a northern city with prevailing westerlies, and lining it with 6...

Admit it — you would have missed me if I hadn’t shown up 😉

I don’t imagine that RNDSQR will need to work very hard to get Council to approve its land use redesignation application to increase those parcels’ height limit to 22m and FAR limit to 4.0, despite the fact that the current 16m and 3.0 FAR limits were only very recently set by way of a City...

Agree -- and in this case those "pretty pictures" played a big part in the project being approved despite numerous substantive non-compliances with the applicable planning policy vision as set out in the Marda Loop ARP. It seemed that any concern raised was met with swooning over "the incredible...

No, not the breezeway -- I am referring to the columns that support the cantilever along the south facade. In the picture at the top of this page they are substantial concrete columns, whereas in the renders (see pic below) they are shown as thin black posts. As these columns bifurcate the...

I too am very curious. Don’t think it will be possible for the finished product to live up to the renders — eg. not surprisingly, it looks like each floor plate will be more than 2” thick as shown in the renders — that front cantilever that floated high above the City sidewalk with minimal...

I wish the City was more focused on the long term plans for the city and its neighbourhoods, instead of just reacting to individual projects! As Chair of an inner city CA's Development Committee I saw lots of current opportunities to make our community denser, more complete and more walkable...

I agree that the City acted as "judge" in this case, but they were not an independent judge. When the Provincial Government set up the DP approval process they recognized that municipalities lacked independence on these issues, which is why they provided the opportunity for DP approvals to be...

Time will tell to what extent Courtyard33 turns out to be "a good development", or any better than any of the other mixed-use developments being built in Marda Loop and elsewhere in Calgary these days. The 2nd storey courtyard area may become a great "hidden" public space, or it may end up a...

Except in this case the land use redesignation application was specifically designed to PREVENT the merits of the development permit application from being assessed by "judges" (in this case the SDAB). If both the City and the developer were confident that it was "a good development", then why...

Based on my reading of the SDAB decision I would say that RNDSQR should feel very, very fortunate. The decision appears to completely gloss over how a set of simplified plans, containing no dimensions, attached as a schedule to a Direct Control bylaw that provides except as otherwise specified...

Neither the developer nor the City felt that retail would work in that location, but they were looking at the location in its current "pedestrian desert" state -- they failed to consider the significant stream of pedestrian traffic that will pass along the front of this building once the SWBRT...

The original plan for Lyfe (formerly ML33) had the grade along the front of the building remaining level (rather than rising to the west to match the street as it rises towards the Crowchild interchange), with "bridges" that gave the westmost 2nd storey units "at grade" access from the rising...

I completely agree. Still waiting to see the proposed Streetscape Master Plan for the Marda Loop business district from the City's Main Streets group (they did their public engagement last year and the proposed Streetscape Master Plan was supposed to go to City Council's PUD Committee in...

Not expecting the walk along the front of this project to get to/from the new BRT stations to be much fun.

Don't think there is any way to make it impossible for an appeal to be filed. It will be interesting to see whether the SDAB takes the position that Subsections 685(3) and 685(4) of the Municipal Government Act will apply in this case to limit the available grounds to appeal the approval of...