Stephen Avenue Walk: A Unique Sense Of Time & Place
Calgary’s Stephen Avenue Walk is perhaps one of the most unique streets in North America. It is not only a designated National Historic Site (30+ buildings from 1880 to 1930), but it is a pedestrian mall by day and a “woonerf” by night from October to April and pedestrian mall 24/7 from May to September.
FYI: A Woonerf-designed street creates no division between vehicles and people. Hence, it is referred to as a “shared space” that is open for cars but is also catered to giving citizens a pedestrian-friendly and welcoming environment as result of enhanced landscaping and design - abundant street furniture, gardens, plant boxes, patios, gathering places and trees.
It is also unique in that it links Calgary’s Downtown Arts District (Arts Commons and Glenbow Museum) with its Financial District and links downtown’s major public space (Olympic Plaza) with its major shopping centre (The Core).
As well, the 300 block of Stephen Avenue Walk is one of the most densely developed blocks in North America. Home to 200+ floors of office space, several major restaurants, an indoor one-hectare botanical garden with 500 trees, fishponds and children’s playground, as well as the entrance to The Core and Bankers Hall shopping centre and 10 ghost-like prehistoric or futuristic metal trees all jammed into one block.
FYI: It is only 4-blocks long.
One of the things that makes Stephen Avenue Walk (SAW) unique is the juxtaposition of the old and new architecture.
Background
Stephen Avenue is the original name given by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) in honour of CPR’s first president, Lord George Mount Stephen when CPR laid out the downtown streets in the early 1880s.
It subsequently became 8th Avenue SW, in 1904, when the City of Calgary converted from using street names to numbers. And then in 1970 it was converted into a pedestrian-only street so the City rebranded it as “Stephen Avenue Mall.”
Stephen Avenue in the 1980s when it was a pedestrian only street.
FYI: Over a 20-year period beginning in the 1960s and ending in the early 1980s, over 200 pedestrian malls were developed in cities as part of a city centre revival movement. By the mid-1990s approximately 30 remained of which Calgary's Downtown Mall, present day Stephen Avenue, is acknowledged to be one of the more successful examples. (Source: RM Graham, “Stephen Avenue Mall, 1956 to 2010” report commissioned by City of Calgary).
The branding to “Stephen Avenue Walk” by the Calgary Downtown Association happened when it took over the management of the summer street cleaning and programming in the mid ‘90s because tourists and new Calgarians not surprisingly thought “Stephen Avenue Mall” was an indoor shopping mall.
Currently there are ambitious plans to enhance the streetscape of 8th Avenue SW from Mcleod Trail to 11th Street SW i.e., from Municipal Building to Mewata Armoury to make it more pedestrian and programming friendly.
I thought it would be fun to create a photo essay from some of the 1,000s of photos I’ve taken over the past 25+ years of people and places along Stephen Avenue Walk.
SAW is a great place to stroll in the summer for all ages.
SAW has a vibrant patio scene from May to early October.
SAW by night.
SAW is home to “The Conversation” a much loved and very appropriate statue of two businessmen by William McElcheran
SAW is also home to “Famous Five” sculpture by Barbara Patterson. It celebrates the accomplishments of Emily Murphy, Henrietta Edwards, Irene Parlby, Louise McKinney, and Nellie McClung, collectively known as The Famous Five, in their extensive legal battle in the 1929 ‘Persons’ Case.’ The women depicted in the monument were represented at the ‘Pink Tea’ conversation at the home of Emily Murphy in 1925. To achieve victory in their campaign, the women launched an action challenging British Canadian law to include women as ‘persons’ under the context of the law. Victory in Edwards v. Canada, achieved on 18 October 1929, granted women the eligibility for Senate appointments.
In the summer Olympic Plaza becomes lush flower garden and is a great meeting place.
Skating at Olympic Plaza is popular in the winter.
Stephen Avenue is a great place for horsing around especially during Stampede.
One of Caglary’s unique traditions is to paint downtown windows at Stampede time with fun cartoon images.
No horsing around when these guys are flanuering The Walk.
Stephen Avenue is a poplar place for wedding pictures and anniversary celebrations.
It is also a fun place for stags and stagettes.
I love how people use these large concrete balls for photo shoots.
Or to just have some kid fun. I hope they are retained in the new design.
Be sure to look up and enjoy the architectural details of the heritage buildings.
Also be sure to look carefully at the facades of the buildings as there are several historic images.
SAW is also a popular place for special events from Grey Cup celebrations to winter festivals.
Stephen Avenue Walk hosts the Parade of Wonders (POW) Parade each year as part of the Calgary Expo’s cosplay festival.
SAW has a vibrant street vendor program at noon hour that gives it a festival atmosphere.
The removal of 10 small ornamental trees by these huge sculptures was very controversial. Like most public art, some love it and other hate it.
They definitely create a unique sense of place for the 300 block of SAW.
SAW is a popular place for a lunch time stroll for those working downtown.
There are several information panels along SAW that tell the history of the street and buildings.
SAW adds some lovely old world charm to Calgary’s downtown.
Last Word
Interested in learning more? Here is some further reading about Calgary’s unique Stephen Avenue, aka 8th Avenue aka Stephen Avenue Mall, aka Stephen Avenue Walk.
A virtual “Walk Down Stephen Avenue.”
Latest Plans for Stephen Avenue Redesign
Stephen Avenue Mall 1956 to 2010 by RM Graham