Over the past 20 years, Portland’s Pearl District has earned worldwide attention for its urban renaissance, while Calgary’s East Village has been attracting similar attention for the past 10 years. Visiting Portland recently, I was amazed by the many similarities between the two massive City Centre redevelopment projects and some shocking differences.

Calgary’s East Village has been transformed from a huge ugly surface parking lot into a quirky urban village over the past 10 years.

Portland’s Pearl District has been transformed from a rundown neighbourhood into one of the city’s most attractive City Centre communities as a result of small urban parks and various other public realm improvements.

History

Both neighbourhoods have histories as old rail yards surrounded by warehouse and light industrial buildings and working class homes. Both thrived until the 1950s when transportation of goods evolved from rail to roads to highways and air.

Of the two neighbourhoods, Pearl District was much more important as a transportation and shipping hub, as it was home to major passenger train center (Union Station was built in 1896) and an inland port for ocean liners.

By the 1960s, rail yards in both cities had closed and the neighbourhoods were in decline. It is estimated there were two to three thousand homeless living in the Pearl District in the ‘70s. East Village became home to numerous homeless shelters and addiction centres in the 20st century culminating in the building of North America’s largest homeless shelter – Calgary Drop-In Centre in the late ‘90s.

Link: History of Pearl District

Portland’s Pearl District is in the shadows of a huge network of elevated highways.

Calgary’s East Village residents also lives in the shadows of several elevated highway bridges over the Bow River.

Urban Renewal Plans

Urban renewal plans for Pearl District began in the early 1980s, but took until 1998 to finally adopt its “River District Urban Renewal Plan” that created a tax increment financing (TIF) to pay for much needed infrastructure improvements. Then in 2001, the City approved the “Pearl District Development Plan, A Future Vision for a Neighbourhood in Transition.”

In Calgary, while various plans were proposed for the redevelopment of East Village, it wasn’t until 2007 that the City approved the “Rivers District Community Revitalization Plan” (ironically almost the same name as Portland’s), which included a Community Revitalization Levy (modelled after the TIF program). Then two years later, the City of Calgary approved the East Village Master Plan.

However, while the two communities have been evolving almost in parallel for the past 50+ years there are some major differences.

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Arts vs Parking

In the 70s, the Pearl District’s warehouses and old industrial buildings not only became a haven for the homeless, but for artists too. In 1971, the Powell Bookstore opened and today, is one of the most famous and largest independent bookstores in the world, with an inventory of four million books in a 68,000 square foot building.

By 1986, there were sufficient artists’ studios and galleries to create a monthly “First Thursday” celebration of the arts that still thrives today. The Pacific Northwest College of Art (established in 1909), moved into the Pearl District in 1998, and in 2015 expanded into the historic 1909 Federal Building (old post office building). In 2006, renovations to First Regiment Armory Annex, built in 1891, created the Portland Centre Stage with two theaters attracting about 150,000 visitors per year.

Fun Fact: Pearl District has a long history of attracting artists to live, work and play there – K.D. Lang lived there at one time.

Backstory: Formerly known as the Northwest Industrial Triangle, the name “Pearl District” can be traced to gallery owner Thomas Augustine, who told a magazine writer in 1985, the neighbourhood's artists, toiling away in old, crusty buildings, were like pearls inside oysters.

In contrast, much of Calgary’s East Village was demolished in the ‘70s to create surface parking lots to handle the overflow parking demand from a booming downtown. This meant that when it came time for urban renewal, East Village not only needed to build new buildings, but also foster a new sense of community pride.

One of the strategies for creating community pride was fostering the arts - the restoration of the historic King Eddy Hotel (an iconic blues bar) as part of the new National Music Centre, the construction of new signature Central Library and a multi-million dollar public art program.

First Thursdays in Portland’s Pearl District is a popular month arts festival.

Gentrification vs Integration

While Portland does have several homeless shelters, there are hundreds maybe thousands living on the street in and around the Pearl District.

Today, Portland’s Pearl District is a mix of street retail, restaurants and fitness studios – all with residential and/or office spaces above – making it a magnet for empty nesters and young professionals. This has pushed the homeless eastward to the neighbouring Old Town and Chinatown neighbourhoods and westward to “camps” under the 405 elevated highway.

It is very sad, as the streets have literally become permanent campgrounds for the homeless. The streets around Union Square and the LRT Station on the eastern edge of the Pearl District are some of the most sketchy places I have experienced anywhere.

Conversely, East Village’s master plan integrated the Calgary Drop-In Center, Salvation Army’s Centre of Hope homeless shelters and Trinity Place Foundation of Alberta’s three affordable housing for seniors buildings. Homeless and low income residents live next to the new young professionals, empty nesters and even some families (the new children’s playground is very busy).

Very few individuals have been displaced by the new developments.

Calgary’s Drop-In Centre is one of the largest homeless shelters in North America. It is one of two shelters in East Village as well as three affordable housing towers for seniors.

Parks & Pathways

Both Cities’ master plans identified quality public spaces as the catalyst for urban renewal. Pearl District has three new small urban parks called “park blocks” - Jamieson Square, Tanner Springs Park and The Fields Park – each comprising an entire square block. In addition, there are six contiguous “park blocks” which together create a linear park called “North Park Blocks” that is home to several events including the renowned Art in the Pearl Fine Arts + Craft Festival. The numerous mid-block, park-like laneways between residential buildings also create attractive pedestrian short-cuts.

In comparison, East Villages has two huge parks - Fort Calgary Park and St. Patrick’s Island Park – both on the periphery of the neighbourhood and shared with the city at large. In addition, East Village has three small urban gathering places – Fifth Street Square, Central Square and Simmons Building plaza.

While Pearl District residents have access to the Willamette River, it is not as pedestrian-friendly as East Village’s RiverWalk along the Bow River as you have to cross a major road and railway tracks. Nor are its bridges as pedestrian friendly.

It isn’t until you walk past Portland’s Steel Bridge and out of the Pearl District into Old Town that the river promenade become more park-like.

Contrastingly, East Village residents have multiple inviting accessibility points to their RiverWalk, which connects seamlessly to Calgary’s extensive Bow River pathway from Harvie Passage to Edworthy Park (10km).

Portland’s River Walk is beautiful in the spring with the cherry blossoms.

Calgary’s East Village RiverWalk is part of a 1,000+ km pathway network that includes the 10+ km Bow River multi-user pathway that includes 10+ parks.

Jamison Square Park is one of several urban parks in the Pearl District.

Calgary’s St. Patrick’s Park includes several different elements including this pebble beach.

Mid-rise vs High-rise Residential

Pearl District’s mostly mid-rise residential buildings (under 12 storeys) with retail, restaurants, and recreational along most of the streets creates a pedestrian-friendly experience. The tallest building - Cosmopolitan on the Park at 28-storeys - is situated at the northern edge of the neighbourhood. The architecture is a pleasant mix of facades from brick to glass with many older buildings integrated into the streetscape. In some places, it looks very much like Richards Street in Vancouver’s Yaletown with its elevated sidewalks - leftover from the warehouse loading docks days. Much of the residential development is “transit oriented” as two street car routes pass through the Pearl District linking it to other City Center neighbourhoods and their LRT system.

In contrast, East Village is more of a high-rise residential development, the majority of its residential buildings are over 20 storeys - dwarfing pedestrians. One of East Villages innovative residential developments is the N3 condos, one of the first 21st century North American residential developments with no parking. And while there are some shops along the street, the major shopping is more suburban-like in a large indoor shopping centre anchored by one 80,000 square foot grocery store, rather than several smaller urban grocers.

East Village is a hybrid between an urban and suburban development, some have even called is a vertical suburb.

Pearl District Residential Slideshow

Big Changes

Since the approval of East Village’s Master Plan in 2007, significant development has taken place: (source CMLC website)

$396M infrastructure investment via Community Revitalization Levy (including RiverWalk, St. Patrick’s Island redevelopment, 4th St SE Underpass, community garden and other public spaces)
$3 billion in private investment
1,463 new condos in 7 buildings
36 new retailers (includes 80,000 sf Real Canadian Superstore)
Award Winning Central Library ($220M)
National Music Centre ($160M)
Two new Hotels
Restoration of 3 historic buildings