East Village Rejuvenation Plan

[UofC.engineer]

Originally Posted by Spring2008

Education, residential mix eyed for Calgary’s Booth Centre in East Villlage
By Jeremy Nolais
Metro
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Metro/Helen Pike The Booth Centre, seen here, is owned by the Calgary Board of Education. Officials have given hints at a new use for the site, damaged in the 2013 flood.
Once a homeless shelter, a storied East Village centre could someday play host to the city’s first primary education, residential mixed-use site.

The Calgary Board of Education has convened talks with contractors and members of the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation, which is leading the village’s rejuvenation, about the site’s future.

It was originally suppose to house the adult-education Chinook Learning Services program, but damage sustained in the 2013 historic flood threw a wrench into those plans. The CBE now plans to move the Chinook Learning Services program in Tuxedo Park in with the rest of its adult-learning programs at the Viscount Bennett Centre.

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Frank Coppinger, the CBE’s superintendent for facilities and environmental services, shed a little light on future plans for Booth at a briefing late last month.

“Our hope is that there would be interest in the developer community to demolish that building, put in underground parking and a combination of an education facility and residential complex on top,” he said at the time.

From 1988 to 2011, the Salvation Army ran the Booth Centre as a homeless shelter with 200 spaces, but, at the time of its closing, it was less than a quarter full.The site was turned over to the CBE and approved for provincial funding to house Chinook Learning in mid-2012.

Neither Coppinger nor Susan Veres, vice-president of marketing and communications for CMLC, could name another site in the city that would be quite like the future Booth Centre.

Veres did say, “the mix of use for East Village is critical.”

“The entire master plan for the community imagines this community as having a range of uses . . . with more uses, come more users, the more people on the streets day and night and it really helps us to establish a healthy community.”
http://metronews.ca/news/calgary/1220873...-calgarys-booth-centre-in-east-villlage/

Great news, If a K-6 school was built in east village it could attract more families instead of becoming a Yuppieville.

[YYCguys]

Originally Posted by UofC.engineer

Great news, If a K-6 school was built in east village it could attract more families instead of becoming a Yuppieville.

I can't remember where, but I came across a mixed used project that included a public school and a residential tower (retail as well???) in an urban setting. Does anyone recall in which city this might be and what the project is called? I tried to find it on google and failed.

[Design-mind]

Originally Posted by YYCguys

I can't remember where, but I came across a mixed used project that included a public school and a residential tower (retail as well???) in an urban setting. Does anyone recall in which city this might be and what the project is called? I tried to find it on google and failed.

I also ran across this project. I don't recall the name of the project (street numbers I believe), but it is in NYC.

[The Fisher Account]

^^

8 Spruce St

[RyLucky]

Originally Posted by YYCguys

I can't remember where, but I came across a mixed used project that included a public school and a residential tower (retail as well???) in an urban setting. Does anyone recall in which city this might be and what the project is called? I tried to find it on google and failed.

In TO, there is a project near Yonge&Eglinton where a school sold part of its land to a developer:

[losername]

Originally Posted by Design-mind

I also ran across this project. I don't recall the name of the project (street numbers I believe), but it is in NYC.

There is another in NYC, North part of battery park city along the west side hwy.
Stuyvesant high school, might be a separate building, but i believe the residential buildings connect to the school.

[TallBob]

Love to see something like "8 Spruce" in Calgary's West side!

[YYCguys]

[QUOTE=The Fisher Account;6820106]^^

8 Spruce St

Bingo! Thanks! That was the one! I'd love to see something along that lines inner city, if there's the school population to support it!

[DizzyEdge]

Superman in the East Village

• Video Link

[Wooster]

Ha! that's great.

[Wooster]

A handy gif

[Spring2008]

St. Louis Hotel renos begin, Cecil may be next

VALERIE FORTNEY, CALGARY HERALD
More from Valerie Fortney, Calgary Herald
Published on: December 9, 2014Last Updated: December 9, 2014 10:25 PM MST

It is the most storied watering hole of 20th century Calgary, a place where politicians and oil executives mingled with regular working folk and people lined up on Fridays to hear a master orator stage imaginary horse races.

A decade after it closed its doors for good, the St. Louis Hotel will once again be up before city council, where the 2008 bylaw designating it as a municipal historical resource will be repealed.

There’s no need, though, for local history buffs to act as human shields to fight off a wrecking ball. The repeal slated for Dec. 15 will be a short-lived one, its historic designation to be lifted only temporarily in order to release the vacant land surrounding it.

“One of the things we’ve tried to do with the East Village is recognize its past whenever possible,” says Michael Brown, president and CEO of Calgary Municipal Land Corporation, the community’s master developer. “The St. Louis, the King Eddy, the Hillier Block — they’re all a significant part of its story.”

Many long-time Calgarians would agree. Even with boards currently covering the neo-classical style building’s doors and windows, the 100-year-old St. Louis is an eye-catching architectural remnant of a bygone era.


Take a walk through the years at the storied, and long-closed, St. Louis Hotel in Calgary's East Village as it moves towards a new, renovated future



It was developed by long-time city leader Col. James Walker, who in 1975 was named the City of Calgary’s “Citizen of the Century.”

Like its neighbour the King Edward Hotel, its position at Eighth Avenue and Fourth Street S.E., just two blocks east of the cira-1913 Grand Trunk Pacific Railway station, situated it nicely for decades of providing shelter for everyone from new arrivals to railway workers.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the Louis, as its loyal fans called it, became even more famous as the favoured hangout of then-mayor Ralph Klein. His large coterie of friends and acquaintances, which would come to include everyone from bankers, judges and oilmen to city employees and blue collar workers, made its downstairs bar one of the busiest, most happening places to be in the young city of then less than a half million souls.

In recent times, the building was a shadow of its former self, with both its interior and outside surroundings becoming a haven for prostitution and drugs. Now, with an architecture firm recently acquired to guide its revitalization, the hotel’s fans can look forward to a new era, with it nestled next door to a future condo tower and a stone’s throw from the future homes of the National Music Centre and the new Calgary public library.

Standing in front of the hotel on Tuesday morning, Cynthia Klaassen expresses her approval for the way the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation has woven buildings like the St. Louis into its master plan.

“This gives us a sense of place, of where we are and it helps to tell the story of Calgary,” says Klaassen, president of the Calgary Heritage Initiative Society. “Its location on a cul de sac will provide a pedestrian-friendly, human-scale entry to everything here.”

Klaassen says she is also impressed with what they’ve done with the 103-year-old Simmons building a few blocks away. “It’s going to be a great destination on the waterfront,” she says of the building that’s slated to open next summer, with such treasured local institutions as Sidewalk Citizen Bakery and Phil & Sebastian Coffee Roasters as tenants.

“I give them a B,” says Klaassen of the efforts being made to preserve the remaining historical structures in the East Village. “But if they could save the Cecil Hotel, then I’d bump that to an A.”

While he is not making any promises, Michael Brown says such a rebirth recently came one step closer to reality.

“We just purchased it from the city,” he says of the long-shuttered Cecil.

“We’ll be doing an assessment on it, to see if it can be restored — we will definitely see what we can do to make it a functional part of the community.”

As for the St. Louis, he is confident that it will be reborn in a manner consistent with its past glory.

“We have a pretty good idea it’ll be a mix of office and retail,” he says, “with a restaurant space on the main floor and a bar in the basement.”

No doubt, the late premier Ralph Klein, once king of the Louis, would approve.

http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/st-louis-hotel-renos-begin-cecil-may-be-next

[flipstah]

Sweet! Didn't know Superman III was filmed here.

[Trans Canada]

Originally Posted by DizzyEdge

Superman in the East Village (1983)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNOtt6Kzgn0

(Source above)

[bt04ku]

Please, PLEASE tell me that a 'Drunk Superman at the Bar' statue has been commissioned as part of the St. Louis Hotel renovation.


EDIT: To sell it to the anti-art crowd, have him sitting next to an 80s Ralph Klein statue.

[DizzyEdge]

Originally Posted by bt04ku

Please, PLEASE tell me that a 'Drunk Superman at the Bar' statue has been commissioned as part of the St. Louis Hotel renovation.


EDIT: To sell it to the anti-art crowd, have him sitting next to an 80s Ralph Klein statue.

Awesome idea

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by Spring2008

http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/st-louis-hotel-renos-begin-cecil-may-be-next

I heard Michael Brown on NewsTalk 770 this morning and it didn't really sound like they were planning on preserving the Cecil so much as keeping elements of it like the sign. In this case I'm actually not upset as the building itself is in bad shape and just generally still represents a blight in most people's minds. He also said it was damaged quite extensively in the flood. He made a point of saying it was not a historic resource.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by DizzyEdge

Awesome idea

I second that!

The other option would be to have a bronze hobo passed out on a bench.

[bt04ku]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

I heard Michael Brown on NewsTalk 770 this morning and it didn't really sound like they were planning on preserving the Cecil so much as keeping elements of it like the sign. In this case I'm actually not upset as the building itself is in bad shape and just generally still represents a blight in most people's minds. He also said it was damaged quite extensively in the flood. He made a point of saying it was not a historic resource.

While it would be nice symbolically to reclaim such a blight, at this point it would just be better to tear it down and rebuild it to the original look if they wanted to keep the illusion of history.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by bt04ku

While it would be nice symbolically to reclaim such a blight, at this point it would just be better to tear it down and rebuild it to the original look if they wanted to keep the illusion of history.

I say replace it with something more suiting as the gateway to DT and EV. Keep the neon sign though.