REBIRTH OF A COMMUNITY
Bridgeland/ Riverside
You gotta like it when a plan starts coming together — that is exactly what is happening in Bridgeland/Riverside. In 1999, Sturgess Architecture completed the Bridges master plan for the City of Calgary after the controversial implosion of the Calgary General Hospital on Oct. 4, 1998. Today, Bridgeland/Riverside is enjoying an amazing rebirth as a vibrant 21st century urban community.
THE BRIDGES PLAN
The Bridges is the land made available for development by the implosion. It included the fourhectare hospital site, as well as existing city-owned open space to allow for a more comprehensive 15-hectare ( just a little bigger than St. Patrick’s Island) redevelopment in the middle of the Bridgeland-Riverside com- munity. The ambitious plan was not only Calgary’s first TransitOriented Development (TOD) plan, but Calgary’s first attempt to transform an established early 20th century community into a contemporary 21st century urban village with a higher density and diversity of residential dwellings with ground-floor retail or townhomes. The plan consisted of three phases.
PHASE 1
This phase included eight parcels for condo development, as well as the new Murdoch Park and the General Avenue Plaza. Three of the four parcels along 1st Avenue N.E. are mixed use development with retail at street level and residential units on the upper levels. The fourth parcel, on 1st Avenue N.E. accommodates residential, live-work units and commercial uses.
The other four parcels are located on the north side of Centre Avenue N.E. between 7A Street N.E. and 9A Street N.E. They are mid-rise residential developments with building heights ranging from four to six storeys. The buildings emphasize a street orientation with townhouses at street level and apartments on the upper levels.
Phase 1 is now complete.
PHASE 2
This phase includes five sites located between McDougall Road N.E. and Memorial Drive. McPherson Place, by Bridges Attainable Housing Society and New Urban Development, is an affordable housing building facing Memorial Drive that is complete. Bridgeland Crossing I, by Apex Cityhomes and situated next to the bridge to the LRT station, and Bridgeland Crossing II, by GableCraft Homes and Apex Cityhomes, are mostly complete, with condos available in the second building. Steps Bridgeland, by Assured Developments Ltd. and Guistini Bridges Inc., is under construction. The City of Calgary owns Site 13, and it is currently undeveloped.
PHASE 3
This last phase includes three parcels of land situated east of 9th Street N.E. between Centre Avenue and McDougall Road. One parcel is now being developed by Bucci Developments for its Radius condo project, while the City of Calgary expects to release the remaining sites for sale later this year.
The Bridges Plan was approved after extensive community consultation and if memory serves me correctly, was enthusiastically endorsed by the community who could foresee the benefits not only of a new park, new community centre and new shopping, dining and professional service amenities, but of new residents who would hopefully revive the community.
BRIDGELAND TODAY
Fast-forward to 2017. The Bridges has indeed been the catalyst to transform Bridgeland/Riverside into one of Calgary’s most desirable communities. It was ranked No. 9 in Avenue Magazine’s 2016 Best Neighbourhoods.
As an avid Twitter reader, I am constantly impressed by what is happening in Bridgeland/Riverside. Bridgeland Betty is always tweeting out the fun things to do in her community, things like the Tool Lending Library, evening walks to learn about the community’s amazing array of churches and the Vegan/Gluten-Free Stampede Breakfast.
Today, Bridgeland/Riverside is home to some of Calgary’s coolest places — Cannibale with its barbershop in the front and cocktail lounge in the back, Bike and Brew where coffee and bike cultures meet and Luke’s Drug Mart that is a drugstore/post office/ grocery store/record store/general store/cafe.
Luke’s is one of three grocers in Bridgeland/Riverside, the others being Bridgeland Market and Blush Lane Organic Market, a sure sign hipsters and yuppies have invaded this once sleepy community.
The most interesting Bridgeland/Riverside project I learned about on Twitter recently was its 4th Avenue Flyover Project.The 4th Street Flyover plan now approved by the City of Calgary will see the development of a fun park (McDougall Road N.E. and Edmonton Trail) under the concrete flyover complete with a rain garden, public art, sidewalk patios and colourful painting of the concrete abutments. It will be a unique urban, all-ages playground developed as a result of an amazing collaboration between the community’s Grade 6 Langevin School students and landscape architect students at the University of Calgary.
SUCCESS OR FAILURE?
Greg Morrow, who held the Richard Parker Professorship Metropolitan Growth and Change position at the University of Calgary from 2015 to 2017 (and who now is the Fred Sands Professor of Real Estate and executive director of the Sands Institute at Pepperdine University in Los Angeles) when asked his assessment of Bridgeland/Riverside’s transformation said, “It’s still infilling, so it’s unfair to look at how it is today and judge it on how it will eventually perform. I think it will ultimately be a success, but I think there are also a few things the city could do to improve it.”
When probed further, he added, “First, it’s not a traditional Transit- Oriented Development (TOD). It’s a retrofit condition, so we shouldn’t judge it on whether it ticks off all the TOD boxes. First, no development is possible on the entire south half of the LRT station area (St. Patrick’s Island). And since there is a preexisting main street not far away, the area right around the station is not going to be ground-floor retail. And it suffers from the typical Calgary problem of having LRT stations in the middle of a major road, which is less than ideal for access/walkability. You lose a hundred metres just getting over the roadway.”
When asked how The Bridges can be improved he quickly remarks, “It was a big mistake not to rezone the north side of 1st Avenue. A one-sided main street is always a handicap. Moreover, the north side is the sunny side, which works best for outdoor patios. So, I suggest re-zoning the north side of 1st Avenue for mixed-use, mid-rise buildings, with appropriate lower heights at the rear of the buildings to transition to the single family housing to the north.”
Morrow also believes “the park is a good move, although it will take some time before it makes sense. Right now, you have a lot of vacant parcels so it makes the park space seem under-utilized and unnecessary. Just give it some time.”
LAST WORD
A check of the City of Calgary’s Community Profile demonstrates the community’s population is growing again, after years of decline and stagnation. It grew by eight per cent from 2012 to 2016, versus the City of Calgary’s 10 per cent increase.
It has become a very cool community for young families. In fact, seven per cent of Bridgeland/Riverside’s population is under four years of age, the same as the City of Calgary’s. However, only 6.5 per cent of Bridgeland/Riverside’s population is between ages 5 to 19, significantly lower than the 18 per cent city average.
It will be interesting to see if today’s young families remain in Bridgeland/Riverside and embrace the urban living lifestyle or do they migrate en masse to the outer suburbs for cheaper, bigger homes to raise their growing families as previous generations have done.