Forty years ago, Calgary was an up and coming city with a population just below 400,000. Fast forward to 2013 and Calgary’s population has more than tripled with 1,214,839 people calling the city home.
What is a 'Middle Ring Neighbourhood'?
This population explosion and outward growth has developed an area researchers call ‘Calgary’s Middle Ring Neighbourhoods’. Built between 1950 and 1970, middle ring neighbourhoods are characterized by a warped grid and crescents block pattern, with the central point being a school and recreation fields. Single-family homes such as bungalows and split-levels are dominant with some multi-family homes on the outskirts of the community.
But, these 80 communities between Calgary’s downtown and suburbs are all due for redevelopment that will increase their sustainability. At the University of Calgary’s Urban Lab, researchers have taken a hard look into how the city can better utilize this area to relieve some of the stress on our roads and increase density.
How redeveloping 1970s suburbs will increase sustainability
Using the middle ring communities of Huntington Hills, Dover, Acadia and Glamorgan in their case study, researchers at the U of C Urban Lab deciphered some of the reasons these neighbourhoods aren’t thriving as much as they could be, and worked out some solutions.
To read the complete article on the Avenue Magazine blog, click here.