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Calgary's Residential Highrise Boom 2000 - 2025 and Beyond

Surrealplaces

Surrealplaces

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Inspired by a memory brought back by @DiscoStu I thought I'd create a thread to look back at Calgary's 25 year high rise residential boom. After years of not much in the way of high rise apartment towers, the boom started in the west part of Eau Claire with The Pointe on the Bow, Liberte, Chateau Lacaille, and then spread to west end of downtown shortly followed by Axxis, West Pointe, and various other Pointes kicking off a boom that has seen 141 towers built and another 20 U/C since then.
This is the list I can come up with. There may be some missing, what what an explosion after decades of relatively little high rise apartment building.

1998
Liberte

1999
Chateau Lacaille
Pointe on the Bow

2000
Axxis
The Grandview

2001
West Pointe
Marquis
205 Riverfront

2002
Princeton Hall
Renaissance East
Renaissance West

2003
Discovery Pointe
LaCaille Park Place
Chocolate
The Barclay

2004
The Macleod
Emerald Stone

2005
Rouleau South
Rouleau North
Tarjan Pointe
Manchester Housing Complex

2006
Sasso
Five West (west)
Vantage Pointe
Brava
Stella

2007
Arriva
Churchill Estates
Princeton Grande

2008
Encore
Five West (east)
Vetro
Castello
Nova

2009
Colours
Union Square
The Montana
London One
Riverfront Pointe One
Xenex
Louise Station
Highbury

2010
Riverfront Pointe Two 2010
One Waterfront 2010
Nuera 2010
Ovation 2010
Keynote One 2010
Le Germain 2010
London One 2010
Oscar
Solaire

2011
Two Waterfront

2012
Luna
Lumino
Clover

2013
Keynote Two
University City Orange
University City Yellow
Vivenda 56 (Lumino)
Calla

2014
Alura
Arch
Drake
Centre 1010/Mustard Seed


2015
Aura
Outlook Waterfront
Fuse
First
The Park
The River
Glenmore Gardens
Monterey I

2016
Guardian One
Guardian Two
Versus West
Mark on 10th
Pulse
Portfolio
Fifteen15
Versus East
University City Green
University City Red
1215
The Metropolitan
Bridgeland Crossing

2017
Avenue
Vogue
Sixth and Tenth
Smith
N3
Manor Village at Fish Creek
Manor Village at Fish Creek South
Monterey III



2018
Parkside Waterfront
Park Point

2019
SODO
The Underwood
The Hat EV
Verve
INK
The Concord
The Royal

2020
Telus Sky
Upten
One Central Park
The Hub
Libra (Lumino)
The Hat 7th
Brio

2021
West Village Tower I
West Village Towerr II
BLVD North
BLVD South
Arris East
Orion (Lumino)
Dominion I
Deville I
Redstone



2022
Eleven
Oliver East
The Bridge
Dominion II
Deville II
Deville III
The Theodore

2023
Blume I
Riverwalk
Era
Neoma (Sierra Place)
West 17

2024
Arris West
Two Park Central
Wellings One
Wellings two
Oliver West
The Hat 14
Sunalta OneNude
Blume II
Uxborough
Cornerstone
Teck Place

U/C
Nest
4th street lofts
Francesco
Imperia
Lincoln
Galleria Tenth and Fourth
Yellowstone
Block 22
Aria Encore
First & Park
Deville 1V
Sovereign
Oak & Oliver
526 4th
Kit at Kensington
Eau Claire Place II
The Loft
Hannover Place
The Barron
Place 800
 
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Wow, fine work! The start of your timeline coincides with me moving to Calgary. It's easy to forget just how much highrise construction this city has seen in that time, especially when construction in the last few years has seemed to lag when compared to places like Toronto and Vancouver. I count 152 buildings, which is an insane number for a city our size.
 
Albertasaurus said:
Wow, fine work! The start of your timeline coincides with me moving to Calgary. It's easy to forget just how much highrise construction this city has seen in that time, especially when construction in the last few years has seemed to lag when compared to places like Toronto and Vancouver. I count 152 buildings, which is an insane number for a city our size.
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Thanks! Is that 152 including ones U/C?

It's actually kind of mind-blowing for a non geographically constrained city the size of Calgary. I thought the list might be 50-60. I was surprised to see it at 141 built in that time.

Out of the 141 highrises that have been built, 106 have been built in the core (including 5 in Bridgeland and 1 in Kensington)
 
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Those early days were pretty fun. I remember looking forward to the weekly David Parker articles to see if there was a new development rendering that week.

Somewhere in my parents basement there's probably a brochure for the Axxis. I remember spending way too much time looking through that thing...a real Vancouver-style condo? In Calgary? Holy shit!

Pointe on the Bow is still a bit of an underrated gem, and looks better than most of what came after it. Chateau Lacaille and the dreck from Pointe of View are probably the lowlights, and all still way too prominent in the skyline.
 
DiscoStu said:
Those early days were pretty fun. I remember looking forward to the weekly David Parker articles to see if there was a new development rendering that week.

Somewhere in my parents basement there's probably a brochure for the Axxis. I remember spending way too much time looking through that thing...a real Vancouver-style condo? In Calgary? Holy shit!

Pointe on the Bow is still a bit of an underrated gem, and looks better than most of what came after it. Chateau Lacaille and the dreck from Pointe of View are probably the lowlights, and all still way too prominent in the skyline.
Click to expand...
I had forgotten how many high-rises were build pre-2008 crash, not to mention crazy proposals like the Exchange, and Lausanne/Montreux. Thankfully one of the hot ones (Colours) got built.

Outside of 2018 and 2011 which were eventual results of the 2008 and 2015 crashes, Calgary's been consistently completing around 5-8 high-rises a year. I'm glad 6 storey wood frame came along, but I'd be curious to see how many highrises would be going if we still had 4 storey max for woodframe.
 
Surrealplaces said:
Outside of 2018 and 2011 which were eventual results of the 2008 and 2015 crashes, Calgary's been consistently completing around 5-8 high-rises a year.
Click to expand...
Honestly, I would not be surprised if that number grows higher as Calgary's population continues to increase. We could see 7-12 per year in the future.
 
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The city of Calgary has undergone major transformation through its recent trend of building highrise structures. People cannot imagine today how many new buildings appeared in Calgary after the 1990s as the city has expanded dramatically. The Pointe on the Bow building stands tall to this day but Chateau Lacaille did not survive well over time. Our community's growth and building trends will shape this development's future appearance. Tell us your thoughts about Teck Place - is it done or still developing?
 
retony66 said:
The Pointe on the Bow building stands tall to this day but Chateau Lacaille did not survive well over time.
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Honestly it looked pretty bad from day 1. If they at least went all-in on the "chateau" look with nice materials/details, that would be one thing...but it's always looked like a cheap stretched version of a 90's McMansion.
 
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