SLC has gold-medal amenities
Fellow Olympic host’s architecture inspires, but Calgary’s public spaces hard to match
As Winter Olympic host cities, Calgary (1988) and Salt Lake City (2002) share much in common.
Both cities are young — Calgary’s median age is 36, while Salt Lake City’s (SLC) is 30 — both have a population base of just over one million people, both are gateways to mountain recreational playgrounds and have signature international festivals (Stampede vs. Sundance Film Festival). At the same time, the DNA of each city is very different.
Calgary is defined by its corporate oil and gas headquarters culture, while SLC is defined by its Mormon culture.
For a long time, I have been intrigued by the idea of how the two cities would fare in a competition of urban living amenities. Who would claim the gold medal for the best public space, shopping, attractions, urban villages, transit, public art, etc.? This spring, on our 8,907-kilometre road trip, we stayed in SLC for six days to check it out. Salt Lake City’s Gold Medals: While SLC’s Salt Palace convention centre opened back in 1996, it still looks very contemporary with its extensive use of glass and steel. It features a dramatic entrance with 110-foot transparent beacon towers. Inside, the uplifting drama continues with bright and airy public areas with a lofty ceiling that features specially designed trusses by renowned roller-coaster designer Kent Seko.
Nobody would call Calgary’s Telus Convention Centre a palace. And with only one-third of the exhibition and meeting space of SLC’s Salt Palace, and architecture that is less than inspiring, Calgary is the loser here.
SLC’s Central Library, designed by Canadian architect Moshe Safdie, opened in 2003 at a cost of $84 million ($127 million in 2014 dollars). It is a five-storey triangular building with a sweeping signature curved wall that shares much in common with Vancouver’s Centre Library, also designed by Safdie. Its rooftop garden offers great views of the city and the mountains. The library, along with its neighbour the Leonardo Museum (the old library building has been converted into a fun and funky hands-on science discovery centre) has become a meeting place for people of all ages and backgrounds. It will be interesting to see if Calgary’s new Central Library can be as successful in capturing both the public and the design community’s attention. With a budget of $245 million, I sure hope so. Who knows what will happen with our old library — perhaps an Energy Museum?
A gold medal has to be awarded to SLC for its Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, part of the 1979 Bicentennial Art Complex. Admission is free with a suggested donation of $5, making it very accessible. Though not a large gallery, the exhibitions we saw were imaginative and engaging. It also doesn’t have a long history (established in 1931); it wasn’t until 1979 that it moved to its current downtown location from the Art Barn near the University of Utah. During the same period, Calgary has struggled to find a home for a contemporary art gallery. Let’s hope that Contemporary Calgary will be successful in its vision of converting the old Science Centre into a vibrant civic art gallery.
SLC also takes the gold medal for the Temple Square campus, headquarters for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints. The multi-block campus is home to not only the Temple, but to the original church, an office headquarters, the Tabernacle — housing an 11,623-pipe organ and home of the famous Tabernacle Choir — and the historic Lion and Beehive house.
Just north of the Square is their library, the magnificent LDS Conference Centre with its 21,200 seats and the Family History Museum, the largest genealogical library in the world. The campus is a sea of peace, inspiration, beauty and tranquillity in the middle of the city, a rarity in this day and age.
The closest thing Calgary has to match Temple Square is Stampede Park, our city’s homage to our culture of ranching and agriculture. The BMO Roundup Centre, Saddledome (SLC has a downtown arena on par with Saddle- dome), Grandstand, Agrium Western Event Centre and Corral are no match for the architecture and atmosphere of Temple Square. This might change, however, when the Stampede completes its expansion and enhancement plans. Calgary’s Gold Medals: Calgary wins the gold for public spaces. SLC has nothing to match our amazing collection of parks, plazas and promenades — Olympic Plaza, Devonian Gardens, Stephen Avenue Walk, Prince’s Island, Riley Park, Fort Calgary Park, Central Memorial Park, East Village RiverWalk, Shaw Millennium Skate Park and Bow River pathway.
And when it comes to urban villages, SLC has nothing to match the urban vitality of Calgary’s Beltline, Bridgeland, Kensington, Inglewood, Mission and 17th Avenue with their contiguous mix of shops, cafes, restaurants and music venues.
Calgary also wins gold for its Central Business District that combines not only its 35 million square feet of office space (with another five million under construction), but also how its offices, hotel, retail, cultural and historic districts are linked both at street level and with the world’s most extensive elevated walkway, the +15.
Calgary claims gold for its plethora of new condos and new infill single family and duplex homes near its downtown. While SLC has some new condo and infill housing development, it is nowhere near the scale of what is happening in Calgary’s inner-city communities. The more I visit cities like Portland, Denver and Salt Lake, the better appreciation I have for the incredible inner city revitalization happening in Calgary. Dead Heats: When it comes to indoor shopping centres, SLC’s City Creek (yes, it does have a creek running through it, and even a retractable roof) and Calgary’s Core are on par with each other, with its massive three-block skylight and Devonian Gardens. The same could be said for the LRT systems. Although Calgary’s system carries a lot more passengers, SLC has a bigger and better free fare zone (buses are also free in their downtown).
The two cities are also tied when it comes to their respective downtown arena, performing arts centres, ballet and theatre groups. Like Calgary, SLC also has both a zoo and a heritage park located just a few kilometres from the downtown. Post Mortem: For those snowbirds who drive south to Phoenix and Palm Springs to escape our winter, it would be well worth your time to plan a few days to explore SLC. We highly recommend the free personal tour of Temple Square campus conducted by young missionaries. We got a wonderful insight into the Latter-Day Saints’ culture with no pressure to discuss our religious beliefs.
The LDS Church earns more than $7 billion a year in tithing and other dona- tions. In 1996, Time magazine estimated the church’s assets exceeded $70 billion (banks, radio stations, Utah’s largest newspaper, farmland, and Brigham Young University). In fact, the LDS church built and owns the $2-billion City Creek Center shopping mall in SLC, along with many of the office towers across from Temple Square. The LDS church is a unique corporation that creates a unique sense of place in downtown SLC, as do the oil and gas industry towers of Calgary.
Finally, it is interesting to note there are more suits and ties in SLC than in YYC.