Dreamers look anew at Valley waterways
5 commentsSept. 7, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
"Early this year, a group of dreamers envisioned something radical for metro Phoenix:
They imagined that the Valley cities actually use their only real source of surface water, the Valley's canal system, as an architectural asset. Imagine that.
Well, they did. Imagine creating buildings and open space to attract throngs of people alongside the Valley's canals, that is. And with luck the result will provide the spark for the real-life development at some of the heretofore ignored urban corners where water flows.
The "Canalscape" competition has been sponsored by the American Institute of Architects, Phoenix Metro Chapter in conjunction with Arizona State University's Canalscape Symposium - the gathering in February of this year of architects, engineers, Salt River Project officials and students that analyzed the challenges of developing the canal regions and kicked off the competition.
About 70 professionals participated. They included architects, engineers, developers and, in some of the most serious development projects, experts in restaurant design. They produced 13 entries, three of which have been selected as most outstanding. On this page today, we present those winners along with five other entries that organizers felt were worthy of public recognition.
The winning entries will be presented to the public at a special, monthlong Canalscape Exhibition beginning Nov. 10 at the ASU Art Museum. The exhibit also will be included as part of the national Greenbuild International Conference and Expo, which will be held in November in Phoenix.
The brainchild of Nan Ellin, planning program director of ASU's School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, the Canalscape project has had a concrete goal: Spur interest in the development of canal banks. Or, more precisely, development of the private land immediately adjacent to the canals.
Some of the design projects envision using the canal water ambitiously - re-routing canal water so that it meanders through the development before being returned to its downstream journey. Others are more modest, seeking to incorporate shading and vegetation to encourage canal-bank use.
Metro Phoenix is an American rarity: an urban region that effectively turns its back to water. The Canalscape project seeks to turn all that around.
Imagine that."
Ok, why didn't developers in the valley do this a long time ago? Look at what Scottsdale has done to their "waterfront". This could spur much needed development along the canals and create more leisure and useful areas to be.
So here's another idea: Use the canals as a transportation route. The canals go right through the city in a way that freeways and rail do not go. At each development site, set up some sort of station/stop/port for this transportation. It obviously wouldn't be able to handle a high volume of people, but it could still service some sort of boat transportation system.
What do you think?
Here is the Canalscape site:
http://canalscape.asu.edu/