WestUrban 37th | 16.5m | 5s | WestUrban | FAAS Architecture

I can only imagine it's a matter of time for the 17 Ave, 26 Ave and 37 Street SW corridors before they start yielding some more and better retail pockets/corridors.

Different flavours and intensities on all three corridors as all won't be full retail of course, but you can only dump so much disposable income and redevelopment pressure into an area for so long before it yields some sort of retail.

The whole area is begging for one reasonably chill pedestrian-oriented patio experience. First one who does it right will likely become a new institution for the area.
 
However it turns out, it’ll look better than what’s there now.

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HaileyDarling said:
It's really too bad they've decided to do strictly residential... (besides possibly one space for retail on the corner?). 37th has the potential to become an amazing pedestrian friendly mixed use Main Street, similar to Marda Loop. Setting this as the building standard to coincide with the recent very successful streetscape updates the city has done is really disappointing. I can't see this building aging well.
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I was in the area today - there is a new retail/commerical development that looks to be nearly complete on the west side of 37th, immediately south of the existing strip mall. Didn't get a great look as I was driving by, but it looked nice to me and most of the signs said 'Leased'. Not sure if that project has been mentioned elsewhere here.
 
I was out there this week - that 37 Street pathway/sidewalk upgrade is absolutely stellar (you can see a bit of it in the last photo on this page). It will be awesome to see how developments like this leverage a far more attractive and functional public realm right outside their doors.
 
adamyyc said:
37th felt like a weird choice to prioritize for the Main Streets. I think it turned out well, and maybe it was prioritized to try to spur development, whereas some of the other areas, development is already occurring and maybe the City thinks some of the costs for the upgrades will be borne by the developers, but yeah, I thought 37th was a weird first choice.
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Forgive the bump - but I actually think targeting 37th is a stroke of genius by the city (if they're doing it for the reason why I think they are)

Documents show that the city is very bullish on building a transit connection from Westbrook to MRU down 37th in the form of a streetcar. At first, I didn't really understand why this was necessary; the Max Teal already follows this route and it isn't capacity constrained at all. And from a pure transportation perspective, streetcars are not much of an upgrade over buses.

But, when you look at it from a city building perspective, it starts to make a lot more sense. Streetcars are proving to be extremely useful tools at spurring density and redevelopment. By targeting 37th for both a main street and a streetcar, we could create a feedback loop where the streetcar causes new density, which in turn causes new streetcar ridership. It also follows one of the principles for successful transit and TOD - "be on the way". If we pull it off right, 37th could become one of Calgary's most exciting corridors to watch.
 
lemongrab said:
I was in the area today - there is a new retail/commerical development that looks to be nearly complete on the west side of 37th, immediately south of the existing strip mall. Didn't get a great look as I was driving by, but it looked nice to me and most of the signs said 'Leased'. Not sure if that project has been mentioned elsewhere here.
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Possibly this development by Sarina? https://liveworkcloseout.com
I agree, really enjoy this scale and typology also and hope to see more of it along that street! They have done something similar on 17th ave as well.
 
Kōsō said:
Great area for development and at the right scale. My problem with the development is they should of incorporated at least one commercial space on the corner with 26th. My other beef is the roof line, which could have been broken up with maybe an extra storey closest to the corner. Right now it looks more like a wall than a place to live.
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I couldn't agree more. There is such a missed opportunity here by not building a mixed use building, especially with the commercial buildings already across the street....really disappointed by it.
 
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