Calgary: “The Little Frontier City in the Canadian Foothills”
Almost every day for the past four months, I have visited a different city or two – virtually, that is. Be it via educational programs like (Waterfront Cities or Life-Size Cities) or re-reading iconic urbanism books like Jane Jacobs “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” and “Vital Little Plans,” or “City: Rediscovering the Centre” by William H Whyte. And every day, I try to figure out how we can make Calgary a better city for people of all ages and backgrounds.
What I have come to appreciate is every city is in a unique situation, so it is really hard to apply what one city is doing to another city’s situation. So much for the “best practices” research which many cities do when trying to create new parks, public spaces, recreation centres, bike paths, arenas etc.!
I have learned that every city is struggling with infrastructure, social and racial problems – and each must solve them in their own way.
My conclusion: “City politicians, planners and urban developers everywhere need to be more inward looking than outward dreaming.”
In this photograph you can see the redevelopment of East Village with its new residential towers, new Central Library, National Music Centre and Platform Parkade/Tech Hub. In the upper left is Calgary’s downtown with The Bow, TELUS Sky and Calgary Towers, and with the Bow River and Prince’s Island upper right. You can also see the Canadian Pacific Railway’s main line that run through Calgary’s City Centre.
Mini-Manhattan
Calgary is unique in its huge concentration of downtown office buildings - it’s like a mini-Manhattan. The health of our downtown impacts everything from taxes to roads and transit…to even arts and culture. Calgary is also very much a corporate city. It dominates the city’s collective mindset - for better and/or worse. Calgary thinks “big buildings” with “function” almost always trumping “form.” And when it doesn’t, there is an uproar – Peace Bridge and Giant Blue Ring being two examples.
Calgary’s downtown core’s density is similar to Manhattan.
We are still also a pioneer-minded city. Our late 19th and early 20th century pioneers were very pragmatic. We don’t have a culture of extravagance that you see in older cities that were built by kings, emperors and/or religious leaders who held absolute power. Even today many of the outlandish, over-the-top buildings are in cities (Dubai, Shanghai, Beijing,) that are not democracies and/or have a history of extravagant buildings. Calgary simply does not have a culture of building great/extravagant buildings, although that is changing much to the chagrin of some.
We forget that in many ways Calgary is still “a frontier city in the Canadian foothills.” We are not the international economic powerhouse some seem to think we are.
Teenage City
Calgary is a teenage city. If one assumes a decade equates to one year in terms of city building, Calgary is only about 15 years old. Like a teenager, we dream of being great. We compare ourselves with cities that are much older and larger than we are and aspire to be like them and/or liked by them.
Calgary’s new Central Library designed by Norway’s Snohetta and Calgary’s DIALOG architects.
Like teenagers, we want to impress our friends with designer buildings and structures – Peace Bridge, Bow Tower, Central Library and TELUS Sky designed by international “superstar” architects. We are always looking outward, craving validation from others that we are doing the right things.
While the majority of Calgarians love living in our serene suburbs, a few locals and outsiders criticize their lack of density and diversity as well as their being car centric and bland.
What they are missing is the fact that Calgary is unique in that its City Centre, established communities and new suburbs are all attractive places to live, each offering subtly different lifestyles to appeal to different Calgarians. While some think that all suburban communities are the same, they are not; each offers something different in terms of access to work, schools, recreational facilities, parks, mountains, transit, roads, pathways etc. In many cases living in the suburbs means living closer to work – only 20% of Calgarians work downtown.
And while some criticize Calgary’s urban sprawl, in reality Calgary is one of the most contiguous cities in North America with few and relatively small edge cities and towns.
This NASA view of Calgary at night illustrates how Calgary’s growth is contiguous. The black areas are parks, rivers and Glenmore Reservoir. The large dark area in the upper right is the airport and undeveloped land on the northeastern edge of the city. You can see Chestermere just right of the city and Cochrane in the upper left.
Downtown Calgary vs Downtown Vancouver
And for those who think our downtown is dying, recent Stats Canada population growth numbers show that from 2016 to 2021, Calgary’s downtown population grew by 8,100 people (just shy of Vancouver’s 8,416) - impressive, given everyone thinks Vancouver is the mecca of urban living. And, in Calgary this period saw a huge decline in the number of people working downtown.
Every time I visit another city (in person or virtually), I am reminded of how impressive Calgary’s urban living options are - from lake communities to high-rise living in Eau Claire, East Village and the Beltline; to infill townhouses in Garrison Woods, Mount Pleasant and Killarney; to mid-rise living in Marda Loop, Kensington Village and Bridgeland; to master planned communities like Bridges, Currie, East Village, Livingston, Quarry Park, SETON, West District, Westman Village and University District. Calgary has also upped its game with numerous affordable housing projects. HomeSpace alone manages 740 homes in over 30 properties around the city, with another 1,000 expected to be added over the next 3 years.
There has been significant Transit Oriented Development next to the Bridgeland Riverside LRT Station over the past 10 years.
Quarry Park is just one example of a Calgary developer creating mixed-use communities in new and established suburbs. (photo credit: Peak Aerials)
Over the past 50+ years, the University of Calgary had evolved to become one of Canada’s leading universities. In the foreground is the Olympic Oval, the fastest speed skating ice in the world (Peak Aerials)
Calgary is home to several master planned lake communities, especially in the southeast. (Peak Aerials)
Caglary has evolved and continues to grow as a major Inland Port. Calgary is a major distribution hub in Western Canada for corporations like Amazon, Costco, Home Depot, Lowe’s, Walmart, Canadian Tire and Mark’s. (Peak Aerials)
Housing in Calgary is still very affordable, compared to other major cities in Canada and across North America.
Last Word
Let’s stop listening to the urban critics and doomsayers and start celebrating the fact Calgary continues to experience healthy growth across the city. Calgary is evolving as one would expect for a city its age, and size. It is gradually increasing the diversity of housing options in older communities and increasing the density of its new suburbs, while enhancing its roads, transit, cycling, parks, public spaces, recreational and cultural facilities.
Good urban development is all about continuous improvement. In my opinion, Calgary is continuing to improve as a place to live, work and play. And despite what some might say, Calgary’s downtown core and City Centre is an attractive place to work, live and play.
Yes, our “little frontier city in the foothills” isn’t perfect, but no city is.