Making
Connections:
Urban Strategies for Calgary’s
East Downtown
2004 Summer Internship Charrette Calgary, Alberta,
Canada
Landscape architecture students from across
North America convened at Landplan’s Calgary office in the beginning
of June 2004 to participate in an intensive 10-day charette sponsored
by Design Workshop and Landplan. As a kickoff of their 10-week summer
internship with these two firms, they were charged with investigating
potential design and planning solutions for an exciting project in downtown
Calgary. The charette’s theme – Making Connections: Urban
Strategies for the Future of Calgary’s East Downtown – focused
on an existing railyard site slated for redevelopment. Students worked
closely with Design Workshop and Landplan staff and the community to
develop an urban design plan that explored connections to adjoining
precincts in downtown Calgary.
Connecting
Calgary: Urban Strategies for East Downtown
Like many other North American cities, Calgary is facing a new dilemma. Although Calgary’s downtown has been the commercial and financial centre of the city throughout its short history, half a century of competition from shopping malls, business parks, plus the results of modernist ideas of city planning have eroded its physical fabric. Recently, new economic and political forces are reasserting the importance of the traditional downtown. Demographic shifts have created new populations that are increasingly seeking an urban lifestyle. Young professionals, child-less couples, empty-nesters, and older singles often prefer the dynamism of the city to the suburban alternative. The employees and firms at the center of the “creative economy” find the diversity of the city to be a valuable asset. And, new immigrant populations, with historic urban traditions, find opportunities for housing, community, and employment in the historic center. In short, a diverse, functioning urban core is seen as a key aspect of a healthy and progressive city.
Following
this trend, new redevelopment pressures and possibilities are emerging
in Calgary. But how can Calgary manage these new opportunities to benefit
all of its citizens? Typically, urban planning manages growth with a
conventional Master Plan, relying on land use zoning and quantitative
controls to ensure the completion of its vision. Unfortunately, the
results of this process are not encouraging. Throughout North America
many redevelopment projects have become disintegrated concentrations
and protected enclaves. Could it be that the practice of planning itself
is stifling the dynamism of the city?
However,
planning has an alternative tradition based on other methods. Cerda’s
Eixample in Barcelona, and the Manhattan Grid utilized space and infrastructure
to direct the growth of the city. Rather than prescribing land uses
and densities, the plans create a framework for urbanization by establishing
the size of the urban block and the disposition of key infrastructures
(roads, transit, open spaces). These methods control the physical growth
of the city by limiting the size of developments and maintaining connections
between districts, while allowing the programs that inhabit it to evolve
and change.
The focus of the Design Workshop Internship was to create a similar framework connecting East Downtown to its environmental, economic, and community assets. Diagramming and understanding connections and assets in each of these categories will create the framework.
Student
Interns
We received over 120 applications for the 2004 summer internship and
13 very talented students joined us for the summer.
Ben Pierce - Louisiana State University
Bryan Harding - Utah State University
Brian Cook - University of Colorado at Denver
Olivia Saw - Harvard GSD
Erin Clark - USC
Don Vehige - Berkeley
Eric Roverud - Univ. of Minnesota
Dipti Trivedi - Texas A&M
Jay Battelson - University of Colorado at Denver
Phyllis Boyd -UT- Austin
Kathleen Kambic - University of Virginia
Jeramy Beals - Arizona State University
Darlene Myrie - Cornell
Click here to view the details from the Summer Internship 2003 Charrette in Tempe, Arizona
Click here to view the details from the Summer Internship 2002 Charrette in Vail, Colorado