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

Do you support the proposal for the new arena?

  • Yes

    Votes: 89 65.0%

  • No

    Votes: 39 28.5%

  • Maybe

    Votes: 9 6.6%
  • Total voters
    137
YYCguy said:
Where did you find them?
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The link is to the DP on the city's development map. Once you click on it, open the "about" tab, and you should see a button that says "Download the available documents". That will allow you to download the plans, written submission, etc.... once you accept the terms of use. Initially, they had all of the plans as one giant package (50MB), but I think it was causing the site to crash, so they have now broken it up into multiple, more manageable files.
 
polak said:
This thread seems to be full of people who want a billion dollar arena for half price.

Can anyone produce any examples of significantly better arenas in North America that were built for $600MM (2021 CAD)?

This is exactly what I was expecting for the price tag. Its nice, I dont see any serious missteps. More street facing retail would be a nice to have but again, how many arenas in North America have that? How much use would that retail see when its freezing in the winter 3/4 of the year?

Im not surprised that an architectural forum wants something spectacular but tax payers don't want to pay for that and the owners of a small (potentially declining) market team certainly arent going to do it out of the goodness of their heart, either.
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As long as the washrooms are built tough, sinks that withstand being stood in and such.
 
MichaelS said:

The link is to the DP on the city's development map. Once you click on it, open the "about" tab, and you should see a button that says "Download the available documents". That will allow you to download the plans, written submission, etc.... once you accept the terms of use. Initially, they had all of the plans as one giant package (50MB), but I think it was causing the site to crash, so they have now broken it up into multiple, more manageable files.
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Thanks! I appreciate it! I can’t seem to view them. It seems to download then crashes.
 
polak said:
But where are people going to park??? Have you been to Flames game? The plan is to develop all of the empty lots around this site so where will 20000 people park?
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Just to bust this myth: Exactly the same place they would otherwise!!! The parkade includes exactly 190 stalls. 98% of the people entering this venue will do so on foot, from the street -- not to mention 100% of the people walking by should this become some sort of entertainment district. So the street level interaction is paramount. Ditching the parkade would enable a design with much more street interaction and would save money. The 190 millionaires can park across the street, the same as everybody else.
 
Here's a quick functional illustration of the floor plans based on the high def images. They're ordered from lowest to highest; ground level is the second one. I've coloured the areas (roughly) by use:
  • Blue: Staff and operations areas (e.g. storage, cooling, electrical, offices, dressing rooms, media, etc.)
  • Green: Attendee areas (e.g. seats, concourses, vendors, washrooms, the ice) -- dark green are 'exclusive' (club or suite) spaces, light green is the remainder of the attendee space.
  • Yellow: Public areas (accessible to people without tickets; restaurant, bar, merch store)
  • Red: Car areas (magenta - lower level - is loading docks, media truck, player parking space)
I wasn't super exact; most of the vertical circulation space (stairs/elevators) is in staff/operations. There's a west balcony on the highest level that I think is public space (and coded as such) but I'm not sure.

Arena01.png
Arena02.png
Arena03.png
Arena04.png
Arena05.png
Arena06.png
Arena07.png
 
ByeByeBaby said:
Just to bust this myth: Exactly the same place they would otherwise!!! The parkade includes exactly 190 stalls. 98% of the people entering this venue will do so on foot, from the street -- not to mention 100% of the people walking by should this become some sort of entertainment district. So the street level interaction is paramount. Ditching the parkade would enable a design with much more street interaction and would save money. The 190 millionaires can park across the street, the same as everybody else.
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The parkade appears to be a premium parking option as it's only connection to the event centre is on the suite level. The city wanted to remove the parkade to save money when the project went over budget but CSEC insisted it be kept in the design. My guess is that the only way CSEC would have agreed to it's removal is if they were allowed to build a parkade across the street but the city said no.
 
Assuming Dialog are the primary designers of the exterior while HOK designed the interior. Looking at the retail projects Dialog has worked on now makes me think they might be at fault for how terrible the street front is. For example the Edmonton studio designed the Edmonton Brewery District which has retail fronts eerily similar to the ones on the Event Centre. The Calgary Studio has only Deerfoot City listed as design credit for retail.

Edit - Looking at the elevation plans I noticed what looked like large openings for retail on Stampede Trail. Investigating further they appear to be folding glass doors.

Screenshot (24)_LI.jpg
Screenshot (24)_LI.jpg
 
Silence&Motion said:
I'm with @MichaelS . I voted no from the very beginning because it was very clear how this project was shaping up: an insular for-profit company using public subsidies to come up with a project that is ultimately designed around their own financial interests and a view of city building typical of elderly billionaires: parking, parking, parking.

This whole thing is typical of the mega-projects that have dominated North American cities from the 1970s onward: massive big-box buildings occupying huge swaths of valuable downtown real estate, designed to attract suburbanites driving in for a single night, spending all their time inside, and then driving back home when they're done. Nothing more than token gestures to the surrounding area.

I very much would have rather had the Flames leave town and let people drive to Edmonton to see aging 1960s rock bands perform than waste public funds on this mess.
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I would hate to live in your vision of Calgary and I suspect most people under 50 would agree.

Events are pretty important in a vibrant city.

Without an event center to host these types of occasions, the city will continue to bleed young people.
 
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