ROOM WITH A VIEW:
Deck in Cochrane overlooks town and Bow valley
If there ever was a queen of parks for Calgary, Myrna Dube would be it. As CEO of the Parks Foundation Calgary, she has an office right in Haultain Park. When she works as a volunteer, it’s largely about parks — she’s an ambassador for Calgary Rotary Challenger Park — and her home is a stone’s throw from a park.
After 16 years working with the Calgary Airport Authority doing everything from managing the tourism displays on the baggage carousels to various land and business development initiatives, Dube felt it was time for a new challenge.
When she learned in late 2008 that Parks Foundation Calgary was looking for a CEO, she knew it was time to take on a challenge.
Having previously led the development of Challenger Park, which was on airport land, she had worked closely with the foundation to develop the site. The eight-hectare complex aims to make recreation accessible to everyone in the Calgary area, regardless of ability.
Landing the Parks Foundation job, Dube quickly set to work to develop a new signature park project.
With experience at building partnerships and fostering a shared vision, she championed the idea of the Calgary Greenway project, which had been floating around at the time.
It involved a proposed pathway wide enough for walkers and cyclists that would encircle Calgary, connecting most of the communities on the city’s edge. Along the way, the pathway would include numerous specialty parks and fitness stations.
Dube got the provincial government, the city and various developers all on board with her dream.
When it is completed by 2015/16, the Calgary Greenway will offer Calgarians a 138-kilometre outdoor health and fit- ness amenity — something not found in any other major urban centre in the world.
What down time Dube has is largely spent enjoying some time with husband Gabe, her five married children and their spouses, as well as 11 grandchildren, nine of whom are under eight years old.
“It’s my amazingly wonderful zoo,” she jokes.
Question: Describe your home.
Answer: It’s a 14-year-old walkout bungalow with cathedral ceilings and a very open plan. Beattie Homes used one of their standard plans, but incorporated the custom changes we requested, like more windows to capitalize on the spectacular view.
Everyone says we have the best view in the entire community of GlenEagles. We have a view that encompasses Calgary, the river valley, the golf course, the mountains and Cochrane. The house is perfect for us and we won’t ever move again.
Question: Which room in your home is your favourite? Why?
Answer: My favourite is the large extended deck that overlooks the Cochrane valley. At 500 feet above the Bow River and with a park next door, our private deck has a 200-degree view facing south and west, giving us a full view of the Rockies.
To the south are agricultural fields that change colour with the seasons and to the west far below is the town of Cochrane.
The town’s lights at night against the backdrop of the mountains and foothills are vistas that are Kodak moments almost on a daily basis. The sky goes from scary storm clouds and occasional lighting displays to the most beautiful sunsets that parallel those in Hawaii.
Question: Who designed the room?
Answer: We customized the deck when we built the house and since then, we have been do-it-yourself designers, experimenting with furniture, a firepit and flower pots. It is our outdoor family/dining room.
Question: What is your favourite aspect/part of the room?
Answer: In the centre of the deck seating area is a freestanding but very solid fire pit surrounded by river rocks. It weighs a ton and it was hard to get on the deck —so it’s not going anywhere soon —but we like how its wide border serves as a table for our young grandchildren. With little chairs around it, it makes a great place to have their supper.
Question: What activities do you do in this room?
Answer: It’s here around the fire pit that, on special occasions, we fire up the propane and have smores with our grandchildren; they love it. The deck is also a quiet and peaceful place where Gabe and I have dinner as many days as possible in the summer.
We also read, visit and relax here. I have a chaise lounge that, after the odd hectic day, is the most wonderful place to sit in the sun and relax; I am a sun person. It’s also where I spend hours gardening, designing, planting and caring for my own little pocket park. which consists of five huge flower pots.
Question: What is your favourite piece of furniture in this room?
Answer: The four large easy chairs, which match the four wicker chairs around our outdoor dining set, creating a cosy outdoor family room space.
We spent considerable funds on them, but it was so worth it to us because they are so comfortable and we use them all the time.
Question: What is your favourite piece of art in this room?
Answer: The flower pots are my work of art — a kaleidoscope of orange, white and deep purples created by blackeyed susans, pansies, petunias, lobelia, calabracia against the expansive blue sky.
This year, I bought larger annuals than usual. The centre of each pot featured a black-eyed susan vine that climbed four feet to the top of the glass railing that surrounds the deck.
Question: What were the challenges in designing the room?
Answer: Not doing anything to minimize the view.
Question: Is there anything you would change about the room if you could?
Answer: We’ll replace the all-weather decking next summer as it has a few worn spots.
Question: Do you think if it as exclusively your room, or one shared with others?
Answer: It’s definitely shared with others, except the chaise lounge on a sunny warm weather weekend afternoon.
When you have so many kids and grandkids — the girls all having a call on your closet, the boys all borrowing their dad’s ladder and tools and the grandchildren having a run on everything, —I need to have something.
So, on a sunny afternoon when we are out on the deck, they get off the chair the minute I appear. The chair is mine and they know it.
Question: What community is your house in? What do you like about the community? Have you seen your street and/or community change since you’ve moved there?
Answer: We love GlenEagles in Cochrane. We’ve lived here since June 1998. It has all the amenities of Calgary, but it is quiet and all services are within a five-minute drive. Since the highway was twinned in 2011, the commute into Calgary is hassle-free, except on the rare foggy day.
Although more lights have been added in the community of Riversong across the river since we moved here, they only add to the nighttime vista.
Question: What do you like most about Calgary?
Answer: We love Calgary; we always have. I think it is probably the best place to live in the world. I love the spirit of volunteerism; we see it every day at Parks Foundation Calgary.
The entrepreneurial attitude allows us to do things that other cities can’t, such as the Calgary Greenway.