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General Construction Updates

haltcatchfire said:
Don’t care much about the plaza opening, there’s enough open space around there and soon to be a lot more but give me the north-south pedestrian route back already!
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Totally agree, I have no idea why they couldn't have opened that up this entire winter. They're even shovelling the snow on half it already.
 
Calgary Stampede shared this photo of the new SAM Centre on LinkedIn, sounds like it is supposed to be done in May.
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A look at Henry Block in Marda Loop before and after development, and a peek into their Elizabeth Square development down the street. They are currently painting a large mural on the South side of the new 4 story office / retail building.

Leonard Development Group is doing amazing stuff in Marda Loop.

 
DP was just submitted for "Brooklyn Block", a new residential midrise on the parking lot behind the Kahanoff Centre. I have never heard of this project before. 10 storeys, definitely not a looker and some questionable design choices. On the bright side, it will be hundreds of units replacing a parking lot.
 
Albertasaurus said:
DP was just submitted for "Brooklyn Block", a new residential midrise on the parking lot behind the Kahanoff Centre. I have never heard of this project before. 10 storeys, definitely not a looker and some questionable design choices. On the bright side, it will be hundreds of units replacing a parking lot.
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Nothing showing up on the Development map. I believe Ayshire is the developer.
 
Pleasantly surprised to see something proposed for 13th Ave and Centre Street. This is probably the single location in Calgary that most feels like an American inner-city. Every corner is an empty lot surrounded by fencing. Some of the fences even have barbed wire. It's an incredibly hostile, off-putting intersection.
 
shermanator said:
A look at Henry Block in Marda Loop before and after development, and a peek into their Elizabeth Square development down the street. They are currently painting a large mural on the South side of the new 4 story office / retail building.

Leonard Development Group is doing amazing stuff in Marda Loop.

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Shots of the partially completed mural, the patio space, and Elizabeth Square under development.

I really hope LDG has more in the pipeline (selfishly I hope it’s in Marda Loop) because they do really thoughtful work. Everything from scale, colour, materials, lighting, etc. seems well thought out.

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adamyyc said:
Shots of the partially completed mural, the patio space, and the Elizabeth Square under development.

I really hope LDG has more in the pipeline (selfishly I hope it’s in Marda Loop) because they do really thoughtful work. Everything from scale, materials, lighting, etc. seems well thought out.

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Such an awesome development of something so simple yet practically non-existing in new development - small format, pedestrian-centric retail.

I've said this before, but now that we have townhomes and incremental housing infill largely figured out, it's time to spend the same energy to figure out how to create thousands of these kinds of small-scale, local-focused retail and shopping places. Some of our inner city infill neighbourhoods are creeping up on the population density that actually can support these kinds of places.
 
This reminds me of the kind of development that made Toronto's Yorkville neighbourhood such an attractive place in the 1970s/80s. Small scale, mixed-use infills that take advantage of existing architecture rather than knocking it all down and starting from scratch. To some extent, Calgary's Kensington neighbourhood has some of this as well, but it's greatly hampered by the fact that 10 and 14 streets are such car sewers.
 
Silence&Motion said:
This reminds me of the kind of development that made Toronto's Yorkville neighbourhood such an attractive place in the 1970s/80s. Small scale, mixed-use infills that take advantage of existing architecture rather than knocking it all down and starting from scratch. To some extent, Calgary's Kensington neighbourhood has some of this as well, but it's greatly hampered by the fact that 10 and 14 streets are such car sewers.
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It's instructive that most of our best infill/incremental intensification did not happen right on main streets that maintain a dominate role for vehicle movements.

34th Ave in Marda Loop, 1st Avenue NE in Bridgeland, 1st Street SW, even mini-main streets like 19th Street NW all share the same features - relatively narrow and less connected than more major corridors nearby. They have traffic, but it's modest and limited to mostly local circulations rather than serving a declared commuter route - which almost all streets have been dedicated as such.

Essentially, we have slowly been proving that to create a economically productive, successful street that's attractive for human-scale development investment, the pre-requisite is that car mobility can't be the main priority.

The next step is to apply this learning to commuter streets, but have this win the argument over "business as usual" mobility/car sewer needs. Looking at you 17th Avenue SW.
 
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