BROUGHT TOGETHER BY DESIGN
Planners guided by ‘power of scenery’ in creating suburbs
Good community design creates good feelings. Period. And it’s those good feelings — the sense of connectedness, the camaraderie with neighbours, the embracing feelings of belonging, the sense of ownership and pride, the bubble of intangibles if you will, that ratchet up the must-live-here desires.
“All planners are reaching for this. It is what drives the urban designers — they’re after that feeling of community, those instances where you say, ‘this is a fantastic place to live,’ ” says Nancy Pollock-Ellwand, dean of the faculty of environmental design at the University of Calgary.
Certainly, esthetics are important — the beauty of the architecture, the materials, the park space, the flowers — but the little-known secret is that how people live and move through their environments is not indiscriminate; it’s created by design.
And barring a few hiccups, Calgary’s rich and multi-layered history is ripe with urban planning triumphs, triumphs that have the set the stage and the foundation for some stellar current day new community masterpieces.
At the turn of the 20th century, Calgary’s leaders had the vision to commission some of the greatest planning talent in the world to create what were at the time its suburbs (now these four communities are prime inner-city real estate) — Sunalta, Scarboro, Mount Royal and Bridgeland.
They brought in the New Yorkbased Olmsted design group, whose portfolio includes New York’s Central Park, Toronto’s Waterfront, Montreal’s Mount Royal and Victoria’s Uplands areas in addition to hundreds of other North American developments. Frederick Law Olmsted and his sons, Frederick Law Jr. and John Charles, revolutionized landscape design and urban planning (in fact Olmsted Sr. coined the phrase “landscape architect”) by reacting to the dark Victorian cities that were rife with contagion, disease and moral corruptness with the concept of the picturesque suburb — a respite, a reprieve from the horrors of the city.
“Olmsted believed in the power of scenery, and how the esthetic could inspire and refresh,” says Pollock-Ellwand, who is one of the world’s leading experts on Olmsted.
She notes that first and foremost his guiding inspiration was humanistic, to create connectedness and community through the public parks movement, the protection of nature and human benefit for the people, an antidote to the city.
“It was about sunlight, beauty and safe and secure enclaves,” says Pollock-Ellwand, noting that over the century, comparatively speaking, Olmsted communities have really held financial value, increasing exponentially over time.
But it’s about more than monetary value, as Scarboro resident Kate Morisset explains. Good design leads to a feeling of connectedness that expresses itself in strong social structures and connections.
“There are just so many touch points to this community: the yearly garden tour, the barbecue, the dinner club, the book clubs (there are seven), the community soccer. You feel like you are integrated in a way that is essential.”
“When we think about moving, we remind ourselves that we would be hard-pressed to replace this sense of community and you just can’t put a price on that.”
And it is exactly that kind of milieu that today’s developers are striving to emulate and with considerable success. Just take a look at Hopewell’s lake community of Mahogany — it recently garnered accolades as community of the year.
Or Qualico’s Redstone in Calgary’s northeast — the community is resplendent with thoughtful planning and architecture, innovative modalities that bring people out of their homes and into the community spaces to mingle and meet with one another. Here, homes with large verandas front onto park space and playgrounds, where residents can sit on a porch swing, sip on an ice-cold lemonade, leisurely read a book, chat with neighbours and watch their children play.
“It’s such a great community,” says Redstone resident and stayat-home mom Preet Gill, who chose Redstone for its strong sense of community and connection. She and her husband and two-year-old son moved into their new Trico home less than a month ago and are thrilled with the lifestyle. They purchased The Crawford, a twostorey design with a large front veranda that overlooks a park.
She says that life is glorious. “We have an amazing set up with the park in front of us. Everyone sits out and watches the kids. You never feel lonely.”
Creating that sense of connectedness was Qualico’s overarching goal.
“For us, it is really all about connecting people,” says Maribeth Janikowski, communications manager for Qualico Communities. “And the key concepts in creating a sense of community are the green spaces and interconnected gathering points.”
Redstone is peppered with an abundance of green space and parks — one park is even dedicated to sport and circuit training (all of the equipment is on-site in the park) and all spaces are connected by more than 3.5 kilometres of walking paths, encouraging residents to stroll and enjoy the neighbourhood and meet their neighbours.
“It is really great to see people out on their front steps, getting to know the people that they live next to,” says Janikowski.
It’s a theme that is driving Qualico’s soon to be released community of Harmony, in Springbank.
“It’s all about reconnecting — reconnecting with your family, reconnecting with life, with your neighbours. It’s about going back to the things that really mattered to you when you were growing up,” says Janikowski.
Located 20 minutes from downtown Calgary, Harmony will be a 708-hectare hamlet home to more than 10,000 people. The design extends concentrically from a central village and includes 3,500 home sites from estate design to multifamily. Amenities include a lake, beach clubhouse and wellness centre with a state-of-the-art fitness centre, along with hectares of protected environmental wetlands, meditation gardens and natural gathering spots.
“Harmony has really given us an opportunity to be creative and look at different concepts in urban planning, with the idea of connection fuelling the design,” says Janikowski.
Olmsted would be pleased.
We have an amazing set up with the park in front of us. Everyone sits out and watches the kids. You never feel lonely.