Broadway Malyan, with Roland Berger Strategy Consultants
Calgary Municipal Land Corporation (CMLC) was formed to regenerate this 50 hectare brownfield site located by the Bow River in Downtown Calgary. CMLC organised an international master planning competition, won by Broadway Malyan from the UK. Their vision of a place-oriented mixed use cultural quarter with contemporary European-style urban perimeter blocks featured terraced apartments, ground floor shops and legible links to riverside parks and spaces and the city centre. Refined in consultation with stakeholders, planning consent was granted 9-months after the competition. Despite the downturn, parcels sold to developers from Toronto and Vancouver, committed to the Vision for the riverside, while a new underpass to Stampede Showgrounds and a new National Music Centre will form a southern gateway welcoming visitors to East Village.
.
.
photo: Mark Shannon
.
photo: Mark Shannon
“This urban design plan is an exemplary model for other municipalities to follow as it contains much intelligence with respect to municipal finance, strategic planning and clear visioning for the future identity of this previously degraded Calgary community. The East Village had seen its presence in Calgary decline to a point where almost half of the district were homeless and living in shelters. The transformation of the East Village into a vibrant mixed-use community initially required the creation of a diverse advisory council to identify and number of issues that will see 11,000 new residents eventually move into the neighbourhood. The complex task of remediating industrial lands, building new infrastructure such as a storm water retention pond, performing streetscape enhancements and the raising of floodplain levels have the combined benefits of enabling private developers to feasibly develop new high-quality and well considered housing for the area. A new one-kilometre stretch of RiverWalk--which includes a promenade and cycling pathway along the Bow and Elbow Rivers--in addition to a new pedestrian underpass at 4th Street that reinforces the connection between East Village and Stampede Park is a notable award-winning urban design achievement in its own right. Combine this with a new bridge to St. Patrick’s Island and the East Village Plan has emerged as an extraordinary example of strategically implemented urban renewal.”