Calgary faces the question of how to grow while ensuring its citizens have choices in housing styles and communities, housing remains affordable and commute times don't take on epic proportions. Greg Morrow, an assistant professor of urban design and planning at EVDS, is watching our growth with keen interest.
The Canadian arrived almost a year ago from his last stop — Los Angeles.
"It's interesting to come to Calgary from L.A. because there are a lot of similarities, at least to L.A.'s past from a planning point of view," Morrow says.
L.A. went through a great postwar growth, similar to what Calgary is currently experiencing. L.A. didn't curtail its growth on the periphery and today is a freeway-driven, suburban city where traffic congestion has grown to an absurd dimension, he says. Calgary, meanwhile, is just starting to feel the effects of longer commute times.
"But if you go back to circa 1970 in L.A., it wasn't that bad either. How far ahead are we planning for? Are we looking far enough ahead to anticipate the problems that might be associated with just accommodating all of our growth with suburban growth?" Morrow asks.
"That kind of conversation is what I see happening now in Calgary. It's a broad conversation and has become highly politicized between home builders and the administration and the mayor about whether we should be developing outward or growing inward. It's been framed as an either-or, but I think it's probably both," he says.
Renewed neighbourhoods may look more like one of Calgary's first communities, Bridgeland, where the former General Hospital site provided the space for an urban overhaul. The heart of the community — its main street — had been on a downward spiral once the hospital built a big parking lot backing onto it.
Renowned Calgary architects Jeremy Sturgess and Lesley Beale won the international competition in 1998 to redesign the 30-acre site. It included a revitalized main street on the north side of three terraces of condominium development, anchored by the CTrain station at the south end, all surrounding an eight-acre central park with a further couple of acres of green space throughout.
"The park is the living room of the community," says Beale.
The renewed space, which is still underway, sets a vibe for the community — a coffee shop culture, a hip restaurant scene. It also has schools, doctors, dentists, hairdressers and a summer farmers' market.
Nearby are the draws of the Calgary Zoo, Telus Spark and the river pathways. It's a short commute for work downtown — even within walking distance for many people. New communities are growing up now with these thoughts in mind.
Click here for the full article by Claire Young in the Calgary Herald.
Image courtesy Will Andruschak, Calgary Herald