Thanks!
Quote:
Originally Posted by ue
Oh my god, Edmonton finally got the flar treatment. It's too bad it looks like you visited the ave when it wasn't awfully busy. The neighbourhood can get pretty busy on weekends, and during the summer in general. What were your overall impressions of Edmonton? Did you visit anywhere else?
|
I posted another thread of the downtown area
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=204866
I have to be honest, Edmonton is not the most impressive city I've seen. I do think it has a lot going on under the surface, and it probably offers a pretty good quality of life for most residents on a day to day basis, but from an urbanist's perspective it's a bit lacking. I don't think you will be surprised by me saying that. It's really a victim of its time and place, being a newer city, it doesn't have the layers of urban fabric. It's also a city that reflects its citizens, I think, in that the majority there places more value on practicality than aesthetics or urban ideals. It's not unlike Hamilton in that way. People want to drive and have places to park and live in a detached home with a yard. They're not pretentious and don't want it to be like New York City.
The good: this neighbourhood, which is quite nice and similar to Westboro in Ottawa or Westdale in Hamilton. From the bit I saw, it looks like there are some nice leafy residential neighbourhoods. Huuuuuuuuge river valley and parkland running through the city. The LRT. Easy traffic: one red light all the way from the airport to downtown. Lots of modern and postmodern architecture. Great skyline views from across the river (unfortunately I didn't get any pictures due to a snowstorm).
The bad: The subway part of the LRT is like 200 feet underground (too many stairs). Car based city: wide roads, poor pedestrian experience, bus transit is poor. Too many of the older buildings downtown were underutilized and lost among the glass towers. Too many malls and big box stores (I didn't go to the West Edmonton Mall, but the downtown shopping experience is basically a mall with generic stores, no main commercial strip). Unfortunately they even allowed big box stores to be built downtown.
Linear Mode
