UofC Architecture School | 60m | 14s | U of C

[trtcttc]

Why is the 4th and 10th floors blacked out? Are they mechanical, already being leased, or something else? I find it surprising they would have two floors breaking up the continuous space.

One floor was leased to a data centre, seemingly at the same time? So, not sure why they had the data centre in the middle.

Vacant for 6 years, Calgary's former Nexen tower gets new life

The class-A former Nexen office tower in downtown Calgary, vacant since 2019, has new life with a recent renovation of its main floor and Plus-15 level and leases with two significant new tenants, including the University of Calgary.

renx.ca

 

[John Wick]

I think what originally made it what it was is:
* Mac's and McDonald's
* Sketchy Century Gardens (back when it had a ton more concrete and blind corners)
* The old C-train platform next to Mac's
* The 8th & 8th health clinic, which was kind of the Chumir of its day
* Cheap bars like Baby Blue's, Cafe Iman, etc.

Things are obviously different now, except for the Circle K and McDonald's. But I think we just needed a number of years to overcome the momentum of the other stuff.

An additional factor is that since Olympic Plaza shut down, a lot of the sketchy groups that hung out there have migrated to the current Century Gardens.

 

[Tarsus]

When the 8th and 8th medical centre closed the area improved immediately. The park reno also helped a lot.

 

[1875]

heard on the radio this morning the police were conducting a safety operation throughout the east village and downtown.

i happened to drive past century gardens in the afternoon and there were 10+ police vehicles, some quite large vans.

 

[Surrealplaces]

heard on the radio this morning the police were conducting a safety operation throughout the east village and downtown.

i happened to drive past century gardens in the afternoon and there were 10+ police vehicles, some quite large vans.

Lots of publicity coming out of this one day blitz. Drive past Century Gardens on Monday, and it'll back to the usual.

 

[trtcttc]

Lots of publicity coming out of this one day blitz. Drive past Century Gardens on Monday, and it'll back to the usual.

I don’t understand why spend the money for a one day blitz instead of 10 smaller blitz. You don’t need 6 officers walking together to talk to 3 people in a park.

 

[Surrealplaces]

I don’t understand why spend the money for a one day blitz instead of 10 smaller blitz. You don’t need 6 officers walking together to talk to 3 people in a park.

Exactly. Seems mostly for publicity.

 

[Red Star]

hopefully that part of town has its worst days behind it

I've found this area of downtown to be one of the most brutal areas of the city. The area feels cold, soulless and hostile.

I think it's because of the following:

-It feels like you're walking in a concrete canyon. There's several areas where you just walk beside a concrete wall.
-Parking lots scattered in between tall concrete buildings.
-There's ground floor retail, but it seems to lack a strong presence on the streetscape.
-5 lane roads that feel like a freeway during rush hour.

There are some interesting destinations like McDougall Centre and the bars on 8th Ave. Hopefully the 8th street retrofit and the Architecture school will more joy to the area.

 

[Red Star]

I think what originally made it what it was is:
* Mac's and McDonald's
* Sketchy Century Gardens (back when it had a ton more concrete and blind corners)
* The old C-train platform next to Mac's
* The 8th & 8th health clinic, which was kind of the Chumir of its day
* Cheap bars like Baby Blue's, Cafe Iman, etc.

Things are obviously different now, except for the Circle K and McDonald's. But I think we just needed a number of years to overcome the momentum of the other stuff.

Closing the Circle K and McDonalds would do wonders for that area.

 

[CBBarnett]

I've found this area of downtown to be one of the most brutal areas of the city. The area feels cold, soulless and hostile.

View attachment 693803
I think it's because of the following:

-It feels like you're walking in a concrete canyon. There's several areas where you just walk beside a concrete wall.
-Parking lots scattered in between tall concrete buildings.
-There's ground floor retail, but it seems to lack a strong presence on the streetscape.
-5 lane roads that feel like a freeway during rush hour.

There are some interesting destinations like McDougall Centre and the bars on 8th Ave. Hopefully the 8th street retrofit and the Architecture school will more joy to the area.

View attachment 693804
View attachment 693809

The way I'd summarize the downtown area highlighted as "soulness" is that it's the best example in the city that is explicitly not designed - in any way, formally or informally - to support the people that live there. Everything about how the public space is designed (5 to 6 lane arterials, zero trees, zero amenities etc.) and operated (brutally long signal lights, advanced turns for commuters) is not for locals.

Somewhere around 8,000 - 10,000 people live in this area (and have for decades) and I struggle to think of specific examples where an improvement was explicitly made to support local needs, especially when the trade-off was citywide commuter needs. Maybe Century Garden upgrades? But again, those didn't really require any trade-offs against the citywide commuter so were uncontroversial in that respect.

This contrasts with most other areas of the city where even relatively small potential ideas (a playground upgrade, a new crosswalk, a new townhome etc.) are debated endless for their impact to locals - impact to local access, shadows, tree canopy impacts, who will share street parking, capacity of local schools or facilities etc. Local perspectives don't (and shouldn't) always trump citywide needs, but the contrast is striking between downtown residents and the rest of the city.

Luckily - this is changing! 8th Street design is very much a win for locals, where the design dedicates substantial space and effort for people that live nearby, over the needs of car commuters. Lots of other improvements in the Beltline and river parks also are slowly adding more local benefit, winning more trade-off debates. Population growth is increasing political clout and attention which is helping too.