Trinity Hills | 20m | 6s | Trinity Group

MichaelS said:
If you compare it to places like Mission or Inglewood, it might not stack up well in some areas, but compare it to just about anywhere else, especially other suburban areas, and I think it holds up quite well. Lots of retail already, including half of a pretty decent high street at Na'a Drive (with the north half approved for construction). I think this new Deveraux one will have an internal high street as well. This, coupled with quick access to the Trans Canada or Sarcee, with quick access to the mountains, is pretty appealing. Not to mention the giant natural park space integrated into the development.

Yeah, the buildings are a bit bland and not stellar architecture (although, I do think Wellings will be pretty decent), but in terms of overall urban design, I think we would be fortunate if all of our suburban nodes had this level of quality.
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I tend to agree.

I think it's main challenge is just the inter-community connectivity and the extremely hostile barriers of all edges. The development and buildings themselves are not bad - the car-dependence that is inevitable here is more of a product of the highway barriers and the general location away from any notable job centre, than it is from the design of the development itself. It's the kind of development that is pretty silly before it's built, but seems to have done a reasonably good job given our development context and the barriers in the area.

With that said, this development certainly didn't exceed or innovate to challenge any of that context and barriers to any real degree - its a better/best example of the wrong thing, rather than an example of the right thing. Totally agree this level of thought would be a major improvement for the average suburban node though.

The scale of effort that was put into major interchanges and highway connections (and capacity/quality improvements expansion) well ahead of development was impressive. Yet even basic transit/pedestrian/cycling connectivity to the community is contemplated as more a vision/long-term goal rather than a pre-requisite.

Lots of these issues are not on the developer or development only, but the interaction between development, design standards, transportation policies, societal biases etc. It's a familiar story for suburban growth, yet a frustrating persistent one for the past decades.

We could take a realist/pessimistic attitude ("well what do we expect - it's so car-oriented") but I feel we can do better here. For example, the greenspace integration is a great, unique selling feature of this development - why isn't that selling feature great enough to drive strong, direct park connectivity to our existing pathway and parkway network? It's right there but not prioritized.
 
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MichaelS said:
If you compare it to places like Mission or Inglewood, it might not stack up well in some areas, but compare it to just about anywhere else, especially other suburban areas, and I think it holds up quite well. Lots of retail already, including half of a pretty decent high street at Na'a Drive (with the north half approved for construction). I think this new Deveraux one will have an internal high street as well. This, coupled with quick access to the Trans Canada or Sarcee, with quick access to the mountains, is pretty appealing. Not to mention the giant natural park space integrated into the development.

Yeah, the buildings are a bit bland and not stellar architecture (although, I do think Wellings will be pretty decent), but in terms of overall urban design, I think we would be fortunate if all of our suburban nodes had this level of quality.
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There was a video by REM outlining this.


I still think "The Gateway" amalgamation is egregious from an urban design perspective; the rest is pretty good though.
 
Chinese_T said:
There was a video by REM outlining this.


I still think "The Gateway" amalgamation is egregious from an urban design perspective; the rest is pretty good though.
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They could have made "the gateway" area an awesome mixed use neighborhood with easy walking access to the ski lifts ... instead it's these depressing monolithic big box stores, with the residential and 'town centre' pushed west, so it's a long boring walk from the neighborhood to winsport.
 
It's funny but I'm pretty sure they've changed their plans significantly since releasing that promo.

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This photo from their website appears to show a change of plans for the western most piece on this parcel, and given the recent development permits it seems to me that they're shifting towards more density than originally proposed.
 
Urban Outdoorsman said:
It's funny but I'm pretty sure they've changed their plans significantly since releasing that promo.

View attachment 394413

This photo from their website appears to show a change of plans for the western most piece on this parcel, and given the recent development permits it seems to me that they're shifting towards more density than originally proposed.
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So they are doing multifamily residential on the westernmost parcel? That's an improvement at least. I hope the W-E oriented strip in the middle is a pedestrian boulevard with ground floor retail, oriented directly into the base of the silver carpet at Winsport, that would be really nice.
 
I'm sure there are some practical reasons, but it seems odd that you wouldn't use Parcel F in the same way as B to soften the harshest exposure to HWY 1.

They essentially ruined this view...

To preserve this view...

I imagine they can generate better ROI from the Save-On monolith area, but I can imagine a really cool gathering space based around retail at B, D & F with overhanging boardwalk areas connecting over the ravine (with patio space, the playground, etc). Not sure I'm describing my mind's eye well, but it would give a bit of an alpine feel, tying into COP.
 
MichaelS said:
If you compare it to places like Mission or Inglewood, it might not stack up well in some areas, but compare it to just about anywhere else, especially other suburban areas, and I think it holds up quite well. Lots of retail already, including half of a pretty decent high street at Na'a Drive (with the north half approved for construction). I think this new Deveraux one will have an internal high street as well. This, coupled with quick access to the Trans Canada or Sarcee, with quick access to the mountains, is pretty appealing. Not to mention the giant natural park space integrated into the development.

Yeah, the buildings are a bit bland and not stellar architecture (although, I do think Wellings will be pretty decent), but in terms of overall urban design, I think we would be fortunate if all of our suburban nodes had this level of quality.
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I wasn't thinking Mission or Inglewood. I was thinking more Whistler-ish Mountain Village, while its become (North) West Hills "Village". I thought they had a chance to bring something Canmore/Banff-like to Calgary. Who cares about being surrounded by highways when you don't have to leave because you live in a Village right next to a great recreation area. That was my hope for this area. That's why I'm disappointed.
 
Mountain Man said:
I'd rather any money spent by Winsport went into updating the facilities. This is a major training center for Canadian athletes, and we should be trying to improve that and build on the existing legacy.
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You can do both, and you could argue having a village like that could make Winsport an international training destination.
 
artvandelay said:
That's an interesting concept. There's still a ton of land at the base of COP (near the day lodge) that could be developed as a mountain style village.
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A bit of a meandering tangent...I don't think there is actually any land at the base area suitable for residential, but it made me wonder about the land around the ski jumps. I found an article from 2018 that the smaller jump towers were to be dismantled, but that doesn't seem to have happened. I wonder what else they'll do with that area, but it seems like the big landing zone/amphitheatre would be a really cool venue for outdoor music.
 
lemongrab said:
A bit of a meandering tangent...I don't think there is actually any land at the base area suitable for residential, but it made me wonder about the land around the ski jumps. I found an article from 2018 that the smaller jump towers were to be dismantled, but that doesn't seem to have happened. I wonder what else they'll do with that area, but it seems like the big landing zone/amphitheatre would be a really cool venue for outdoor music.
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Winsport is still holding onto hope that they can get funding to renovate the ski jumps. I suspect that area will be a rusting nothing until there is a solution than involves more ski jumping, which could be a long wait.
 
zagox said:
Winsport is still holding onto hope that they can get funding to renovate the ski jumps. I suspect that area will be a rusting nothing until there is a solution than involves more ski jumping, which could be a long wait.
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It's a pretty unique topographical plot that would take a ton of earth moving to become anything else. WRR construction would have been a good opportunity to fill it in.

I don't think my music amphiteatre idea is gonna fly:


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More recent (zipline, and increased summit height on the right side)
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It seems sometime around 2011ish they relocated the Eastside Runner (ESR mogul chair) to the ski jumps, but apparently it is rarely used. I guess they hold hope of hosting events since they keep crowded bleachers in their renderings, but gravity & mother nature have won that battle. Does anyone recall what the bleachers were like in '88?

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South Korea built an 11k seat soccer stadium at their ski jump venue.


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I thought it was just shoddy erosion fences, but the bleacher situation might actually be salvageable.

New fantasy plan:

1. Fill the bowl until you have a football field size of flat space
2. Ideally remove/sell the skilift (it was first installed in 1998...not sure if it was new or used at that point, but there actually is a market for used chairlifts), but you could also move the bottom terminal to the SE corner of the field
3. Install some permanent bleachers on the lower levels of the east side; higher rows probably need some remediation, but could eventually be a BYOC situation
4. Winter = hockey rink + leisure rink + outdoor speed rink; it should hold up pretty well with the northern exposure. Bleachers should also work for the mogul course and maybe a 'big-air' jump on the ski-jump landing zone.
Summer = soccer/football, and hopefully some music! Should be fairly insulated from a sound/noise standpoint
5. Probably some new parking and other facilities near the zipline base...seems like otherwise nothing will ever happen there .

The two biggest jumps probably aren't feasible without even more substantial earth moving, and you'd still have bad crosswinds. This would bring more facilities to make the smaller ski jump training areas a little bit better.
 
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