Public Realm in Canadian Cities - Developments

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by Martin Mtl

Square Victoria hadn't look like the 1887 picture in decades. It even became a parking lot during the Drapeau era.
The work done ten years ago was a huge improvement, notably by adding fountains, trees and restoring the Art Nouveau parisian metro entrance.

I'll be honest, I had no clue what it looked like between 1950s-ish and 2003-04. Obviously what's there now is a huge improvement from a parking lot, but I much preferred the 1887 version.

[beatlesque]

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

I look at what Winnipeg got with The Forks area and what Regina has so far got out of it's railyard area directly south of the warehouse district and I weep.

My city needs to stop building suburbia in the core.

Yes it's terrible what so many so-called city planners and councils have allowed developers to do in so many cities across North America. Some of the things already shown in this thread are trying to counter some of that historical trend, it seems.

The Forks in WPG hasn't come about by chance - from reading a history of the area, there were visionaries going back to the early 70s, such as Val Werier, who understood the importance and potential of the site and worked to shape its future.

This whole area was literally the gateway to European settlement of Western Canada, similar to St. Louis in the U.S. in a lot of ways, and of course had a First Nations history going back thousands of years before that. All of this development has tried to take into account these historical facts - credit here to planners, architects, politicians and the public - while seeing the space as an evolving urban environment.

One of the things I forgot to mention located beside the museum is the skate/snowboard park - at least until recently Canada's biggest urban skatepark and bowl, which people like Tony Hawk have called one of the best on the continent.

Some people on the WPG board zealously deride a lot of this development. They call the CMHR a 'white elephant', 'Museum of Misery' (despite its 'Tower of Hope' and over 7,900 private donors, including the Chipman family which brought the Jets back - I wonder how many federal museums in Canada have that level of private donors - although I'm never sure if they advocate getting rid of all federal museums).

Anyway, I think if a lot of these people had been in charge, there wouldn't have been much at the Forks today except some old railyards and ugly buildings, but undoubtedly a lot of potholes would have been filled in a bunch of new suburbs. So to each their own.

Between the skate park and museum near the honorary Mahatma Gandhi Way is the sculpture of Gandhi donated by the Government of India, on the path to the beautiful Esplanade Riel pedestrian bridge, reconnecting a historical alignment to St.-Boniface (Broadway-Union Station-Provencher Blvd.) and as nice a pedestrian bridge as any in Paris.


www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/sites/images/gandhi1.jpg




http://ep1.pinkbike.org/p4pb2434837/p4pb2434837.jpg
http://www.bcrobyn.com/wp-content/up...sSkatePark.jpg

[beatlesque]

CMHR architecture noted in NY Times:

In Transit - A Guide to Intelligent Travel

In Winnipeg, a Museum Honoring Human Rights
By CHARU SURI JULY 7, 2014 4:32 PM



The Canadian Museum for Human Rights — billed as the first museum dedicated to raising awareness of national and international human rights issues — will open on Sept. 20 in Winnipeg….

http://intransit.blogs.nytimes.com/2...ype=blogs&_r=0

[beatlesque]

‘Parklet’ a new addition on Vancouver's urban landscape
Public space a new hangout place on The Drive
By Yvonne Zacharias, Vancouver Sun August 15, 2014



http://www.vancouversun.com/news/met...682/story.html

[beatlesque]

Streetscaping beside MTS Centre in Winnipeg - these things make a big difference in cities and should be done more across Canada. 🌿 👍

[Chadillaccc]

Originally Posted by beatlesque

‘Parklet’ a new addition on Vancouver's urban landscape
Public space a new hangout place on The Drive
By Yvonne Zacharias, Vancouver Sun August 15, 2014



http://www.vancouversun.com/news/met...682/story.html

That's cool! Reminds me a bit of a mini version of the deck park they are building on the block south of The Bow, next to the future Telus Sky.

I'll try to find some pics...

[kwoldtimer]

This little courtyard is being built as part of the nearly complete expansion of the Kitchener central library. The stone wall is the old prison yard and dates to the 1850s. I could totally see myself sitting here reading next summer.

[kwoldtimer]

I was struck by a comment in another thread today about a city being described as an "industrial shit-hole", as if that were a negative thing. Here in Kitchener, we take enourmous pride in our heritage as an industrial shit-hole!

[beatlesque]

[QUOTE=kwoldtimer]I was struck by a comment in another thread today about a city being described as an "industrial shit-hole", as if that were a negative thing. Here in Kitchener, we take enourmous pride in our heritage as an industrial shit-hole!

Imaginative 👍 … nice historical nod too. And that courtyard looks good.

Chadillac, for Calgary I couldn't find the deck park images you mentioned - was there in March/April, would be interesting to see.

Speaking of historical references, I noticed these cool interior-lit features all along a bridge in Winnipeg - my pictures.




And travel writers getting a close-up of polar bears at the zoo today - photos Jim Byers and Paul Fleming:

http://instagram.com/p/r2_8kPM1Ep/
https://twitter.com/lovethywalrus/st...27332784730112
http://instagram.com/p/r2-WbQM1CM/

[Chadillaccc]

Originally Posted by beatlesque

Chadillac, for Calgary I couldn't find the deck park images you mentioned - was there in March/April, would be interesting to see.

It's still UC, it is right in front of The Bow. The Herald did an article about it a few months back, including renders, but I can't seem to find them. I'll snap some pics once it opens in a month or two.

[beatlesque]

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

It's still UC, it is right in front of The Bow. The Herald did an article about it a few months back, including renders, but I can't seem to find them. I'll snap some pics once it opens in a month or two.

Cheers 🍺

[caltrane74]

New Public Plaza being built on the western edge of Nathan Phillips Square.

[Pinion]

My neighbourhood's about to build some promising stuff in a former WWII shipyard.

A large oceanfront ice rink and ferris wheel facing downtown Vancouver



Looking northeast



A new art gallery just to the west of all that



And a whole new neighbourhood with upgraded oceanfront even farther to the west. This is currently just an auto mall - terrible waste of prime land.



The area's already done a good job of attracting people on weekends despite being completely underbuilt at the moment. Here's my photo from back in June

Shipyards Night Market by chrisjohann, on Flickr

It was a ghost town when I moved to the area in 2005.

[Chadillaccc]

West Eau Claire Park


Central Phase


West Eau Claire Park 1 by Chadillaccc, on Flickr

West Eau Claire Park 1-2 by Chadillaccc, on Flickr

West Eau Claire Park 1-3 by Chadillaccc, on Flickr



West Phase


West Eau Claire Park 2 by Chadillaccc, on Flickr

West Eau Claire Park 2-2 by Chadillaccc, on Flickr

West Eau Claire Park 2-3 by Chadillaccc, on Flickr



East Phase


West Eau Claire Park 3 by Chadillaccc, on Flickr

West Eau Claire Park 3-2 by Chadillaccc, on Flickr

West Eau Claire Park 3-3 by Chadillaccc, on Flickr




the entire thing patched together...


West by Chadillaccc, on Flickr


Source: http://www.calgary.ca/PDA/pd/Documen...-house-two.pdf

[TorontoDrew]

West Eau Claire Park looks really promising Cadillaccc. It reminds me a lot of how they presented the Toronto waterfront and Portland renewal and redevelopment about 7 years ago now. I'm sure this will happen a lot faster for Calgary though because of it's scale and not being so dependent on finding and working with developers. 7 years later and while work is underway our eastern waterfront is still a huge mess and will probably still be one for the next 7-10 years if we're luck.

[Chadillaccc]

Yeah, that is the nice thing about this, only one residential project is proposed within its scope, and they already have like $30 million in sales. Other than that, there are no developers to be found, it's all a city project because it's already a public park, just a redevelopment.

The scale of this project is also muuuuch smaller than Waterfront Toronto/Portlands too. The length of it is only about 1.5 km, if that, and probably only 150 meters wide at most.


I just really love how this city manages our waterfront spaces, as Calgary has seemingly so little in the way of waterfront. However, the rivers are a huge part of local everyday life and activity. This park is going to be an incredible boost to that. I love the proposed half-kilometer boardwalk through the Eau Claire Lagoon, and the giant deck space at the "standing wave". The standing wave is where a lot of locals learn how to surf as seen here...


Surf by Chadillaccc, on Flickr



It's too bad that the Toronto project is taking so long, but it has made some pretty amazing progress with developments like Sugar Beach, the Wave Decks, and others. I have no doubt it will be amazing once completed in the 2020s. I also can't wait to see how the renaturalization of the Don River Delta turns out.

[logan5]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Nice one for Hammer. Reminds me of Square Victoria in Montreal before it was ruined in 2003-2004.

1887

http://retrofutur-montreal.blogspot....-victoria.html

2006


With history of the Square: http://montrealjemesouviens.blogspot...-victoria.html

If all those buildings were torn down, that is a monumental loss.

[Chadillaccc]

Three more major redevelopments of parks announced for the core area of Calgary. One in Kensington, one in the Beltline, and one in the downtown core.


Kensington - Bow to Bluffs Park is a very interesting concept as a multi-nodal linear park along the LRT tracks in Sunnyside, combining retail with nature, public plazas, public art, and the urbanity of the area. The total length is 1 kilometer.



Link to development PDF: http://bowtobluff.org/wp-content/upl...April-2012.pdf



Beltline - Thomson Park will see the redevelopment of the Beltline lawn bowling club on 16th Avenue in one of the city's most densely populated areas. Construction begins this summer.



Article: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgar...ment-1.2650895



Downtown - Century Gardens was originally developed in 1975 to celebrate Calgary’s Centennial, and the landscape is an abstraction of the nearby Rocky Mountains and Foothills. It's now fairly dilapidated and in need of some serious love.



Link to development PDF: http://www.calgary.ca/CSPS/Parks/Doc...ey-results.pdf





In all, the city has announced that it will perform major upgrades on a total of 19 parks over the next two years, with a total price tag of $75 million. It has already spent $135 million since 2008 on dozens of other parks, including the currently under construction St. Patrick's Island Park and the currently in-design-development West Eau Claire Park(previous post).

http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-...in-new-funding




Also, the city began construction on the First Street Underpass improvements today. It's the most heavily used underpass in the inner city, with 10 000 pedestrians using it every day. It may not seem like it to the outside observer, but this will be a huge improvement to the urbanity and livability of downtown Calgary.






http://calgary.ctvnews.ca/popular-un...lity-1.2203164

[begratto]

Originally Posted by logan5

If all those buildings were torn down, that is a monumental loss.

Actually, those pictures were taken from opposite ends of the Square. However, most of the buildings were indeed torn down, except for St.Patrick cathedral and the first two buildings to the right of the first picture, which are now part of the Centre de commerce mondial (World Trade Centre). A monumental loss, as you wrote.

[Chadillaccc]

The final design of Thomson Family Park (named as such thanks to the $2 million donation from the Thomson Family) in the Beltline...






http://www.calgary.ca/_layouts/cocis...edirect=1&sf=1