Calgary Event Centre | 36.85m | 11s | CSEC | HOK

ShotArch · Aug 1, 2021

darwink said:
The deal is done. I’m sure it has generous break clauses. Any expansions in scope from the city side will need to be paid for by the city. If this dies don’t expect it to come back within the decade. Nor would I count on a sports franchise being willing to partner.

there is no prospect of costs coming down - the whole inflation has ate into the budget is relatively small compared to the massive shift from 15,000 seat inverted bowl to 18,000 seat conventional layout.

I like the inverted bowl design, sounds awesome, but 15,000 would by far make it the smallest arena by capacity. On par with Winnipeg. I don't think we'd want that distinction.

haltcatchfire · Aug 1, 2021

Duck Lightning said:
I wonder how much CMLC's podium stepback policy they put into the River District Master Plan has hurt this project. There doesn't appear to be that much room for the arena after you consider the extra wide sidewalks and the retail podium. There might just not be enough room to include any windowed space in the concourse

Feeling great confusion by this post.

MissingMiddle · Aug 1, 2021

The Familia said:
The more I look at the rendering, the more I despise it. Obviously it’s not the final design, but there is no way they will deviate too far. This is basically their big idea and now they will just tweak and refine it a bit. There is literally nothing aesthetically pleasing or remotely interesting about the exterior in my opinion. I don’t even know what they can do to save it, especially with costs spiralling out of control. I guess all we can do is hope the interior and seating bowl is good.

Embarrassing work from HOK and dialog. I knew they should have went with Populous for the design. If this is all $600 million can buy than I might pull a Farkas and pull the plug until costs come down and we can build it right. Just my worthless two cents!

There are many things that make an arena well designed, and the facade shown in the rendering is low on that list. I think it'd be foolish to write it off as a failure this early, especially considering CMLC's track record of community redevelopment next door in EV and their very recent allocation of long term resources into Victoria Park moving forward.

The ground level concourse and street activation are a huge win in my opinion.

IceCreamMan · Aug 1, 2021

The Familia said:
Embarrassing work from HOK and dialog. I knew they should have went with Populous for the design. If this is all $600 million can buy than I might pull a Farkas and pull the plug until costs come down and we can build it right. Just my worthless two cents!

I agree; this is definitely disappointing so far from HOK/Dialog. Should have gone with Populous or even BIG / AECOM (who I know were chasing this project as well). I'm going to keep an open mind on this one though, and hope the design team comes through and delivers better than what we're seeing in limited capacity so far. Someone mentioned to me that the new Events Centre looks like a gigantic router, and now I can't unsee it, haha. Maybe vaccinated people will have better 5G connections in it.

darwink · Aug 1, 2021

We have one drawing that is at best an ornamented massing. The drawing shouldn’t have been released in isolation.

The Familia · Aug 2, 2021

Agreed, but it was released and people are going to share their opinions on it and rightfully so at a cost of $600 million. If we are simply judging this one picture in isolation, the exterior fails. It’s a poor exterior concept to even be thought of from a supposed arena specialist. I’ve seen Jr. High kids who could sketch a more interesting arena design.

Surrealplaces · Aug 2, 2021

I`ll definitely need to see more concrete renderings to decide how much I like it. For me a lot of what I don`t like is the seemingly thrown together mish-mash of materials. The general shape and layout isn't groundbreaking, but it`s not bad....except for maybe the large wall on 12th, but I need to see more of that.