News   Apr 03, 2020
 4.6K     1 
News   Apr 02, 2020
 6.5K     3 
News   Apr 02, 2020
 3.7K     0 

General Construction Updates

I don't think Airdrie is set up in a way where it could become more urban. They do have a little downtown mainstreet area that could potentially be developed into something more urban. The rest of the city is kind of segregated into small suburban clusters. I don't know the history of Brampton or Mississauga, but I would imagine they are much older than Airdrie.
 
Airdrie's downtown is the shitty mall and like a block and a half of businesses. There isn't even enough of a street grid for it to transform into an actual downtown.
 
Looks like RNDSQR acquired this vacant site in Inglewood!
1544823633897.png

https://www.google.com/maps/place/1...2577ebfdbfbd8!8m2!3d51.0415665!4d-114.0347832


Also, in addition to recently acquiring the Atco site and a couple others, AIMCo purchased this site (1316 11th Avenue S.W.) from Qualex. Great to see AIMCo being so bullish here, but I hope Qualex will remain active in the Beltline.
 

Attachments

  • 1544823545552.png
    1544823545552.png
    1.1 MB · Views: 223
Last edited:
I would like to see a theatre complex (with some added retail) in along 10th ave by the CP tracks in one of those empty lots. A +15 connection from the CBD side and an nice inviting street entrance on the 10th ave side.
GREAT idea. Hard to believe that thirty(ish) years ago there were so many more options in the Core to catch a movie. Esso Plaza, The Grand, The Palace, The Towne and The Uptown, Bankers Hall, Palliser etc. That's quite a list. Thanks to everyone above who reminded me of a few of these I had forgotten.

I agree a 10th ave location would be ideal. And a +15 connection is obviously a much needed literal bridge between the Core and the Beltline. Some good things are already happening along 10th (finally) and it becomes less dreary each year. I hearby nominate Surrealplaces to make this happen as soon as possible.
 
I'm really liking the Black and White project. I would change the actual section of the black and white store to keep the same style as it does now, rather than covered in artificial stone. Aside from that, the massing and retail layout is good.
 
Not sure what the point of keeping the original store is if they are just going to incorporate it into the new building and not retain any of the design. Looks like a good project otherwise.
 
I guess this is more for the urban development thread but I don't know how to link it :) The Airdrie project has gotten me thinking:

I wonder if Airdrie will ever get into the "urban" game - e.g. sidewalks or buildings that could be considered pedestrian-oriented. Of course it's growth model and ethos has only been one of hyper-sprawl and complete automotive dominance, without the benefit of a traditional main street of a historic town (having a population of only 1,000 in the 1970s will do that to your urban form). This is seemingly a flaw in most of our true suburban cities - too small before the rise of automotive sprawl to have much of a local character or history with enough weight to balance the tens of thousands of car-oriented tract sprawl migrants to come from 1970s - present. That "small town feel" used to mean something entirely different before these communities evolved to be little more than bedroom communities for a booming Calgary.

Calgary's internal suburbs have begun evolving due to financial cost of services and competition pressures. Transit, amenities and mixed housing typologies are becoming universal as well as the density to make them at least *a bit* more fiscally sustainable. They are marketing themselves as more "urban" as the definition of what a suburb means is shifting. West District, Westman Village and the future Blue Line communities in the NE like Redstone and Skyview, are example of this new pseudo-urban approach of the burbs as the days of purely SFH tracts is fading. Perhaps not fast or complete enough for some, but the signs or change are all present with real examples already in the ground.

My TL/DR: Airdrie and other communities show no signs of transitioning from more than a purely auto-oriented burb... yet. Laval near Montreal, the GTA's burbs of Vaughn, Brampton and Mississauga were once much the same. All have turned the corner - to varying degrees - as congestion mounts and a 6,000 population became 60,000 then 600,000. Will we see Airdrie et al. evolve the same one day?

I wouldn't *completely* blame Airdrie's lack of a cohesive center on its size. Okotoks wasn't any bigger (maybe even smaller) but they retained their tiny historic main street and residential street and just expanded it as time went on. Airdrie on the other hand seems to have sent a few of their historic mainstreet buildings to Heritage Park, possibly lost a whole block to the 1970s or 80s courthouse, and demolished the rest, and then built a mall.

Here's an interesting graphic I made long ago, there was a decent main street on.... 'main street', as well as 1st Ave just to the east and west of where it intersects with Main.

airdrie-all-three.jpg


A photo of their main street when they had under 200 people! (from http://www.prairie-towns.com/airdrie-images.html)

airdrie-2.jpg



And the same street 60 years later in the mid 1970s (also from http://www.prairie-towns.com/airdrie-images.html)

airdrie-10.jpg


Unfortunately all were torn down, even in the past 10 years 2 of perhaps only 8 significant historic homes were torn down.

Airdrie did have a plan to 'fix' downtown, but it's now 10 years old and I'm not sure if it's even been acted upon.

https://www.airdrie.ca/getDocument.cfm?ID=217
 
Bank of Nova Scotia in that last picture was rebuilt and was the downtown branch location for a long time. The 2 buildings to the right(south) are still up right now. Can’t remember if it was still that same building but the building south of the quanset with the coke sign burned down at some point in the last 15 years. Dr Edwards(Airdrie first dr) first house was torn down in 2011 but it was not worth saving. I was on the crew that tore it down, the house had been abused and was not worth fixing up anymore. Other than that house there have not been any historically significant houses torn down. The Old Hotel was pretty run down and unfortunately lost to become an empty lot.

Airdrie council presented something called The Square several years ago but there was extreme pushback from the citizens due to price and lack of transparency.

Even in that picture though the buildings do not compare to other towns around the area.

The house I have tagged is from 1901, oldest house I can find in town here. The one we tore down was I believe 1906, with Dr Edwards next house built in 1909 right across Centre Ave.

A9CBF8F3-E82D-4CF9-8122-227769F2C860.png
 

Back
Top