CalgaryTiger
Senior Member
My assumption would be that they're going to clean it up. Which is no small undertaking. Granted the city cleaned up the land just north of here that I believe was an old landfill, so it can happen.
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Urban Development and Proposals Discussion
- Thread starter Surrealplaces
- Start date
I'm not sure how long a wait period there is before developing buildings on top of a landfill site can be done. I actually didn't think it could be done, and that basically development would have to be a park or something. Maybe a solar farm.
darwink
Senior Member
'taking it away' in some sort. A wild guess: metal recovery process followed by a waste to energy incinerator or bio digestor, which they feed by digging up the landfill, eventually remediating the land entirely hoping there isn't too much lead or mercury, or other long lived 'seeping' contaminants in there.
ahuch
Active Member
I just learned this from a brief google, but there are apparently 3 types of landfill classifications in Alberta.
This one is apparently a Class III (https://eccorecycling.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Ecco_AEP.pdf) so very limited decomposition.
Always_Biking
Senior Member
I don’t know how much trust I would put in developing residential of any kind of size over top of a landfill. From what I’ve seen in the past, usually it’s either a solar farm or a golf course. Sometimes landfills get developed into a strip, malls and stuff like that but nothing much height or weight.
As Darwink pointed out, the land can also be reclaimed, but I imagine that would be costly.
If the residential buildings are townhouses or four-story apartment buildings, maybe that will work.
As Darwink pointed out, the land can also be reclaimed, but I imagine that would be costly.
If the residential buildings are townhouses or four-story apartment buildings, maybe that will work.
DougB
Senior Member
That landfill only accepted construction materials, not much in the way of organics and no hazzardous materials:
That being said, I wouldn't think the ground would be solid enough to support buuildings. Maybe the TOD is the non-landfill portion of the site fronting the future Green Line.
darwink
Senior Member
If it is construction material, you'd have concrete, rebar, perhaps wood, plaster, roofing material, metal of various sorts (likely anything ferrous was collected at the time if not embedded in other materials). It might make sense to 'mine' this landfill.
Rollerstud98
Active Member
I know for sure the pool foundation was failing/failed. Pool has been empty for years already. But they spent millions of dollars in 2019/20 upgrading the electrical room in there just to rip the building down now.
DougB
Senior Member
I think much of that has already been recovered. The operation is called Ecco Recycling. For example, they chip up wooden pallets for use as landscaping mulch, and send the rebar from concrete to the Ezrav facility near Deerfoot and Glenmore. I lived in Douglasdale until 2001 and would take excess clay and soil from my yard there, as well as old fence boards. They would inspect all of it for contamination before accepting it.
artvandelay
Active Member
There are development setbacks from landfills and former landfills for sensitive uses like residential and food service. As you can see on this map, only a couple former landfill sites have been built upon.
Health concerns aside, there would be significant geotechnical challenges for any large scale construction on a landfill site.
MichaelS
Senior Member
I don't want to trigger a large group of users on this thread with a Richard White article.... but his latest had an interesting tidbit in it:
everydaytourist.ca
Calgary: Is Downtown West End the new East Village? — Every Day Tourist
A look at Calgary's Downtown West End neighbourhood as an urban village - cafes, restaurants, parks, recreation, culture, public art, festivals, housing etc.
everydaytourist.ca
CalgaryTiger
Senior Member
Huge! If true.I don't want to trigger a large group of users on this thread with a Richard White article.... but his latest had an interesting tidbit in it:
Calgary: Is Downtown West End the new East Village? — Every Day Tourist
A look at Calgary's Downtown West End neighbourhood as an urban village - cafes, restaurants, parks, recreation, culture, public art, festivals, housing etc.
View attachment 456553
Calgcouver
Active Member
Nexen Tower has some pretty big floor plates that are a weird shape, I think it would be very challenging residential conversion. Although it would be cool if it happened, just doesn't seem like an efficient floorplate for apartments.I don't want to trigger a large group of users on this thread with a Richard White article.... but his latest had an interesting tidbit in it:
Calgary: Is Downtown West End the new East Village? — Every Day Tourist
A look at Calgary's Downtown West End neighbourhood as an urban village - cafes, restaurants, parks, recreation, culture, public art, festivals, housing etc.
View attachment 456553
I have always thought a number of building around Nexen Tower seem like they could be suitable candidates for residential conversion: Century Park Place, 815 8th Ave SW, Taylor building (805 8th Ave SW), Petro Fina, Elveden Centre, Northland Building and Dominion Centre. Would be cool to get primarily residential buildings fronting or very near Century Gardens.
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darwink
Senior Member
The weird shape could be a benefit for it. 17,000 square feet. Steel structure concrete core. Inset balconies anyone? They have to do a lot of work anyways remediating.
ByeByeBaby
Active Member
Here's a typical floor plate for Nexen:
Look at all of that unusable space -- everything in grey!
The grid is a 5 foot grid. The two main chunks of floorspace in the upper left and lower right (reception and the facing offices) are 40 feet from the core to the windows; that's 10 to 15 feet more than is usable. The narrow parts on thé top and bottom are 25 feet, which is alright. The upper right corner where the lounge is, that could be a very cool two-bedroom. The lower left is just super awkward. You'd have to do inset balconies to make the bulk of the floorspace usable; that's the only way.
Unfortunately, inset balconies would rob the building of a lot of it's grace.
Look at all of that unusable space -- everything in grey!
The grid is a 5 foot grid. The two main chunks of floorspace in the upper left and lower right (reception and the facing offices) are 40 feet from the core to the windows; that's 10 to 15 feet more than is usable. The narrow parts on thé top and bottom are 25 feet, which is alright. The upper right corner where the lounge is, that could be a very cool two-bedroom. The lower left is just super awkward. You'd have to do inset balconies to make the bulk of the floorspace usable; that's the only way.
Unfortunately, inset balconies would rob the building of a lot of it's grace.