Quarry Park: Transforming A Gravel Pit Into A Unique Calgary Community
Back in the late ‘80s Lafarge operated a huge gravel pit along the Bow River, sandwiched between the communities of Riverbend and Douglas Glen, that was nearing the end of its life cycle. Realizing the immense potential of the site and its location, Randy Remington, President of Remington Development, had a vision of converting the site into a unique walkable community with an upscale office park, shopping centre, and mix of housing types (low rise multi-family, townhomes, and single-family), integrated with parks, pathways, and recreation centre. The vision allowed for the site to evolve over time into a transit-oriented community when the southeast LRT line would be built decades later.
In 2005, Remington purchased 314-acres, developed the master plan, got approval in 2006 (yes approve took just nine months) and began transforming the gravel pit into a “live, work, play” community.
Almost 20 years later, the Remington team’s vision is still being executed as they continue to adapt to the ever-changing housing, office and retail markets in Calgary and the variations in construction costs, financing and City planning policy.
Full Disclosure: I was a member of the Calgary Planning Commission when Quarry Park was approved and also was the Manager of Riddell Kurczaba Architects’ 3D Animation studio who did all of Quarry Parks’ 3D renderings, as well as designed many of the office buildings in the Park.
The Challenges
The first challenge was to drain about 1 billion litres of water from the site and to find enough dirt to fill in the enormous hole which required about 3 million cubic metres of clean fill to re-grade the land. As luck would have it, Calgary was booming with construction so there was lots of fill to be had - the Bow Tower in downtown with its mega 1,400 stall underground parkade, Glenmore/Elbow interchange and West LRT.
Flood protection was another concern. The site was raised above the designated flood level, and Remington’s consulting engineers studied, and applied flood prevention principals developed in the Netherlands (where much of the country is below sea level) to the design of the community. This included building berms 1 metre above the 100-year flood level, a stormwater lift station to discharge rainwater into the Bow River and overland drainage canals. As a result, Quarry Park didn’t flood in 2013.
The next challenge was to determine the best way to phase the project. It was determined the economy was right to build the office park first and JACOBS Engineering was secured as the anchor tenant.
In 2012, Imperial Oil decided to move out of their downtown office tower to a custom-built 20-acre Quarry Park campus consisting of six low-rise buildings (totalling 850,000 sf, about the size of one of Bankers Hall tower), rather than one tall office building. A 750-foot corridor known as the pipeline links the buildings.
Today Quarry Park has over 1.7 million square feet of occupied office space and 5,000+ workers. When completed, it will have 4 million square feet of office space, accommodating about 10,000 workers.
Aerial view of Quarry Park - office park and Co-op town centre in the middle - surrounded by housing. them. (photo credit: Peak Aerials)
Urban Living Amenities
In 2008, Calgary Co-op agreed to be the anchor for the Quarry Park shopping centre. Today The Market at Quarry Park, includes a Co-op grocery, pharmacy, and liquor store, as well as restaurants, cafes, health and professional services to meet the everyday needs of residents and workers.
The Remington YMCA opened in 2016, with a pool, gym, fitness centre, running/walking track, and public library. The Quarry Park Child Development Centre operated by the YMCA is Canada’s largest privately funded childcare facility with a capacity for 350 children.
Quarry Park is home to Cardel Homes’ head office which includes the Cardel Theatre, a 150-seat fully equipped arts venue for film screenings, live theatre, dance performances and meeting space.
Residents also enjoy 90-acres of green spaces and parks as well as a 50-acre nature reserve along the Bow River, all connected by 10-kms of paved pathways that allow for direct access to the City’s pathway system.
Quarry Park is currently accessible by several transit routes, including two Bus Rapid Transit lines. The Quarry Park LRT Station, part of the southeast section of the planned Green Line LRT, will be located on 24th Street, within easy walking distance from anywhere in the community.
Adad Hannah’s artwork titled “The Fold” welcomes visitors to the Remington Quarry Park recreation centre and library. It is an interactive piece that invites people to interact with it. Children could easily play “peek-a-boo” with all of the openings, as well there are places to sit.
Imperial Oil’s head office building.
The plaza at Imperial Oil’s office building.
Transit map for Quarry Park with the “M” indicating the Green Line LRT station.
Housing
The first homes in Quarry Park (a mix of single family and townhomes), offered in 2010 by Cardel and Birchwood Properties sold out quickly. Today, Quarry Park is home to approximately 2,000 residents, of which around 25% live in single family homes, 25% in town homes and 50% in low rise multi-family buildings.
The residential architectural guidelines for Quarry Park include French Country and European Manor, with façade materials limited to stucco, stone (including manufactured stone), brick and stone tile. When completed, Quarry Park will have a residential population of about 5,000.
Quarry Park has a variety of housing options, with the majority of the homes being multi-family and row housing.
Green Community
Since its inception, Quarry Park has been environmentally friendly. Fill from the silt ponds was dried and re-used, demolished asphalt, concrete and aggregate from roads, parking lots and buildings was crushed and re-used in new construction projects significantly reducing the extraction of native gravel resources.
Quarry Park employs an innovative process for stormwater management. Overland drainage canals are used in place of pipes and surface storm water is naturally filtered through a linear pond and creek system before flowing back to the Bow River. This allows for clean water to be returned to the river and creates a very attractive water amenity.
Remington’s head office, Quarry Park West, was Alberta’s first privately developed suburban office project to achieve LEED Gold Certification. Since 2014, all commercial Quarry Park projects have achieved a minimum of LEED Silver Certification.
Quarry Park boast modern infrastructure that integrates sustainable water management with public uses like this canal/walkway.
Last Word
After 15 years, the office campus of Quarry Park is 65% complete and the residential section 40%, demonstrating just how visionary and patient developers must be when it comes to creating new communities. Back in 2005, who could have predicted the changes to Calgary and the world economically, socially, and politically since then?
New community development isn’t as easy as some people may think. But that hasn’t deterred Remington Development, who have acquired the land located opposite of Quarry Park on the west side of the Bow River, for Quarry Landing.
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