Arts Commons | 18m | 4s | City of Calgary | KPMB

Mountain Man said:
That's kind of heartbreaking actually, Olympic Plaza had it's faults, but there were some great parts of it too. Not looking forward to a dirt field for the next few years...

Wonder if the area around it will be different without all the junkies hanging out in the trees.
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I never thought about that... with this closed, where do those people go? Crazy to think this will be closed for years.
 
I still find it shockingly appalling that renders for the new Olympic Plaza have not already been released before the demolition. I’m not sure how the process works, but is there any room for public feedback once the design is revealed or are we stuck with it? I know I took part in the public planning surveys, but it seems to me like whatever they reveal will just be force fed as the final design without any room for feedback or redesign.
 
The Familia said:
I still find it shockingly appalling that renders for the new Olympic Plaza have not already been released before the demolition. I’m not sure how the process works, but is there any room for public feedback once the design is revealed or are we stuck with it? I know I took part in the public planning surveys, but it seems to me like whatever they reveal will just be force fed as the final design without any room for feedback or redesign.
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Agreed there should be renders. Technically council can reject the DP but it's essentially a rubber stamp for these kind of projects. For such a landmark location, I'm not sure why there wasn't a design competition like River Walk West. While not a full design, there's ability for public to provide input on the overall direction.
 
Totally agree that there should have been a design competition. What is with this city being so against design competitions? The only competitions I can think of were for Studio Bell and the St Patrick pedestrian bridge. I remember both of those projects had some really cool concepts. Neither of the two chosen designs were ones that I would have picked haha.
 
And so it begins
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The Familia said:
Totally agree that there should have been a design competition. What is with this city being so against design competitions? The only competitions I can think of were for Studio Bell and the St Patrick pedestrian bridge. I remember both of those projects had some really cool concepts. Neither of the two chosen designs were ones that I would have picked haha.
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The central library was a design competition but I don't think the proposed designs were initially revealed. However, the proposals were eventually leaked.

https://competitions.org/2014/12/2014-12-22-23-36-52/

Not buildings, but the East Village master plan and the West Riverwalk design were also design competitions.
 
Colinfill said:
The central library was a design competition but I don't think the proposed designs were initially revealed. However, the proposals were eventually leaked.

https://competitions.org/2014/12/2014-12-22-23-36-52/

Not buildings, but the East Village master plan and the West Riverwalk design were also design competitions.
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That Rex/Group 2 design is interesting...and terrifying! Does anyone know of any real life stacked clusters with that scale of overhang? I found some good examples here: https://www.amusingplanet.com/2016/01/buildings-that-look-like-stacked-boxes.html - but nothing looks quite as ambitious
 
the central library we got is pretty awesome and I wouldn’t trade it for anything, but I do really love the public plaza concept of the Rex design. It reminded me that Calgary really has a dearth of good outdoor public spaces that are well integrated with high quality public architecture. As I’ve said before, I’m quite disappointed at the design for arts commons with its very bland interaction with the public realm. Hopefully the design of the plaza itself will be exceptional but I’m not holding my breath
 
CallmeCatbread said:
the central library we got is pretty awesome and I wouldn’t trade it for anything, but I do really love the public plaza concept of the Rex design.
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A bigger plaza around the library sounds nice in theory, but I'm glad they didn't got for it as I think it would've ended up being an empty wasteland. Apart from the library itself, what exactly would be the draw to hang out at that location? Every successful plaza has a perimeter of things that people are drawn to...shops, amenities, architecture, art/cultural institutions, etc. As things stand, the library is facing the ass-end of city hall, a senior's residence, the Salvation Army, and is book-ended (heyooo) by two parking garages. Exciting stuff.

That, and there's already a plaza a block away in Olympic Plaza, that already looks to serve the same purpose. Instead of trying to make one great plaza, you'd probably have two mediocre ones.

The library that we did end up with already has a decent enough outdoor public space, and it's not exactly bustling out there (at least not with the demographic one typically hopes for).
 
DiscoStu said:
A bigger plaza around the library sounds nice in theory, but I'm glad they didn't got for it as I think it would've ended up being an empty wasteland. Apart from the library itself, what exactly would be the draw to hang out at that location? Every successful plaza has a perimeter of things that people are drawn to...shops, amenities, architecture, art/cultural institutions, etc. As things stand, the library is facing the ass-end of city hall, a senior's residence, the Salvation Army, and is book-ended (heyooo) by two parking garages. Exciting stuff.

That, and there's already a plaza a block away in Olympic Plaza, that already looks to serve the same purpose. Instead of trying to make one great plaza, you'd probably have two mediocre ones.

The library that we did end up with already has a decent enough outdoor public space, and it's not exactly bustling out there (at least not with the demographic one typically hopes for).
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Yeah no I agree what we got was better. I more mean in abstract as a concept it's nice.

I guess BMO Centre is really the only building I can think of that really makes an effort to engage with its associated public space. It does it quite well, though unfortunately the entire area is completely dead 50 weeks out of the year. Hopefully that will change in the future with rivers district getting built out and the event centre nearby
 
Agreed, the plaza is a cool concept, but would have been dead most of the time, except for the colourful residents of east village lol.
 
CallmeCatbread said:
I guess BMO Centre is really the only building I can think of that really makes an effort to engage with its associated public space. It does it quite well, though unfortunately the entire area is completely dead 50 weeks out of the year. Hopefully that will change in the future with rivers district getting built out and the event centre nearby
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How so? Isn't it hundreds of meters of blank wall along the 17th ave extension? With the only doors onto that lawn being for people who are paying to attend a conference there?
 
I'm really only thinking of the canopy part lmao. That part is pretty cool but yeah everything else is a monolithic blank wall
 
MichaelS said:
How so? Isn't it hundreds of meters of blank wall along the 17th ave extension? With the only doors onto that lawn being for people who are paying to attend a conference there?
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What matters for that plaza is what replaces the dome. If the BMO Plaza becomes an anchor for river access off 17th and whatever happens along Stampede Trail I think it can work well with a shelter for shade or to hide from the weather and a small green space. We'll see.
 
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