Long ago, in an age before the ICE District, downtown Edmonton was very different than it is today. Parking lots roamed free, and condos were something that you'd find in other cities like Toronto and Vancouver. That was four years ago. Today, however, things have changed dramatically, and the downtown skyline is undergoing one of the most dramatic periods of redevelopment since the 1960s. The ICE District, the behemoth of development that has taken over a massive swath of the downtown core, has been at the heart of this urban transformation, and the progress made over the last few years has been startling to any who have witnessed it firsthand. 

Future site of the ICE District, NW view, image via EAC

Seen in the image above from October 2013, the NW view of the future site of the ICE District reveals a terrain all but lost from memory. The parking lot desert that once surrounded much of the downtown core has been replaced by a forest of highrise condo towers. Indeed, as seen in the image below from April 2017, there are now enough condos on the rise that one can just barely make out the new Rogers Place arena, and the futuristic 20,000-capacity stadium is lost in a stand of highrises. 

ICE District as it appears today, NW view, image via EAC

From left to right, the view today includes Stantec Tower, JW Marriott, and Edmonton Tower, with the recently opened Rogers Place just barely visible in the background. A dramatic transformation if ever there was one, the changes that have come to downtown Edmonton in the space of a few short years have been considerable. 

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