Eau Claire Market Redevelopment | 135.02m | 35s | Harvard Developments

[IanBray]

Regarding the historic buildings in Eau Claire that will be demolished as part of this terrible development. I came across an inventory of historic buildings in Calgary that luckily still stand, for now.

http://www.calgary.ca/PDA/PD/Pages/...oric-Calgary-resources.aspx?dhcResourceId=527

The above link is for the Eau Claire & Bow River Lumber Co. This is essentially one of the most historic buildings in Calgary as the lumber trade is pretty much how Calgary become a city. Guess what? The city has not designated this amazing part of the cities history and it will be demolished very soon. What a bloody disgrace. I thought City planning was bad but not this bad.

 

[Silence&Motion]

Regarding the historic buildings in Eau Claire that will be demolished as part of this terrible development. I came across an inventory of historic buildings in Calgary that luckily still stand, for now.

http://www.calgary.ca/PDA/PD/Pages/...oric-Calgary-resources.aspx?dhcResourceId=527

The above link is for the Eau Claire & Bow River Lumber Co. This is essentially one of the most historic buildings in Calgary as the lumber trade is pretty much how Calgary become a city. Guess what? The city has not designated this amazing part of the cities history and it will be demolished very soon. What a bloody disgrace. I thought City planning was bad but not this bad.

So it is as I feared. For all of Eau Claire's problems, we'll be losing this, and ending up with something like this or this.

 

[BKha]

The new design is all about maximising as much of the FAR as they can, and less about good design. I would like to see the existing market building redone with soem residential on top, maybe in the 4-6 floor range, and then the parking lot to the south re-developed as a second market building with some residential on top, and by residential, I mean something around the neighbourhood of 6-10 floors.

In a re-done market building, Riverfront ave should also connect through to Barclay Parade. Build a wider pedestrian bridge through to Prince's Island and voila, a decent re-design without changes to the good parts that already exist.

 

[JonnyCanuck]

I am confident that the Bow River Lumber building will be salvaged when this new development starts. It will just be moved somewhere else... again. Maybe Heritage Park for example.

 

[Surrealplaces]

Just an FYI that I have added a poll to the front of thread. I'm curious to see what the general consensus is.

 

[BKha]

I would like to the restaurants, Barley Mill, Joey's, and the Buffalo Cafe stay where they are, same with the water park. Those are what gives Eau Claire what little life it has. If the small cafe has to be moved, that fine, as long as it's not moved too far away.

 

[BKha]

Just an FYI that I have added a poll to the front of thread. I'm curious to see what the general consensus is.

I voted *not good* The overall design is not bad, but just not good for that area. It would be good in a place where there is no development.

 

[Silence&Motion]

I am confident that the Bow River Lumber building will be salvaged when this new development starts. It will just be moved somewhere else... again. Maybe Heritage Park for example.

Oh great. Rather than preserving heritage buildings within living neighbourhoods, we can dump them all in a suburban theme park and charge people admission to look at them. Meanwhile we will continue to purge downtown of anything except empty, windswept plazas and blank glass building exteriors.

 

[Beltline_B]

I like the idea of removing-doing the market building, I'm not a fan of the design. Too cold and sterile IMO.

What downtown needs is an area with a collection of smaller unique buildings. Eau Claire market is halfway there, but needs done tweaking.

 

[IanBray]

I like the idea of removing-doing the market building, I'm not a fan of the design. Too cold and sterile IMO.

What downtown needs is an area with a collection of smaller unique buildings. Eau Claire market is halfway there, but needs done tweaking.

Well Eau Claire isn't getting a re-tweaking, it is getting a complete demolition and rebuild. Such a shame. If only the city had balls to dictate to the developers and not the other way around. No more water park, Barley Mill, Eau Lumber building, Joeys, Old Spaghetti Factory.

 

[Patrick.1980]

Yeah, the city has power here, and needs to use it. This is definitely a case of the developers trying to get as much as they can, not that I blame them, it's what any company trying to make money would do, but this is a case where the city has some say and can shape the outcome.

 

[haltcatchfire]

Some new renders here:
https://twitter.com/CBCScott/status/907392487907500032

 

[Surrealplaces]

Here are some of those renderings in case Twitter isn't allowed on your work pc's.

 

[IanBray]

Bloody hell. There goes any character that Eau Claire had! No more Barley Mill and Joeys. Come on city development, this is an entire area that is getting the bulldozer for developer cash..

 

[jdixon]

I think they better tie demolition to construction for this permit... Even though Eau Claire as-is isn't spectacular, I'm worried about the ambition of this one.