Paula Simons: Urban balcony vs slim tower: Edmonton needs a vision for its view

[Daveography]

The little triangle of land wedged between Jasper Avenue and 101st Avenue on 96th Street is one of downtown’s ugliest eyesores.

The .2-hectare parcel is home to two boarded-up little buildings, one pink, one blue, surrounded by a fraying chain-link fence. The garbage-strewn land, halfway between the Shaw Conference Centre and the majestic St. Barbara’s Russian Orthodox Cathedral, is a bleak pocket of urban blight.

It also commands one of the most spectacular views of the North Saskatchewan River valley, a panoramic vista that includes Louise McKinney Park, the Muttart Conservatory, and everything in between and beyond.

The city has been negotiating for years to buy the parcel as part of The Quarters redevelopment. The plan was to turn the site into an “urban balcony.” It sounds like someplace a hipster Juliet might await her hip-hop Romeo. But the city’s plan is to create a public green space and lookout point, and to ensure that the view belongs to everyone.

Full Story (Edmonton Journal)

 

[Daveography]

David Staples: Top of Edmonton's river valley needs more room with a view
Has Edmonton failed the Todd test?

The formative vision for development atop Edmonton’s river valley was set out by Montreal landscape architect Frederick Todd (1876-1948). Todd recommended top of the valley and ravines be kept as public spaces, with a continuous boulevard running along the top of the bank.

“No one thing is more important for large cities or cities assured of a great future than that they shall secure open spaces for future generations,” Todd wrote in 1907.

“Few cities have such splendid opportunities for magnificent scenic drives as Edmonton and it will always be a matter of regret to future generations that land for a boulevard along the entire river embankment was not secured until it was too late to make it continuous.”

By 1915, both the city and provincial governments adopted Todd’s vision as policy. After sticking with the plan for decades, we screwed up royally before the turn of century, allowing all kinds of private development along the valley top which often undermined or blocked public views and access.

Full Story (Edmonton Journal)

 

[Daveography]

Alldritt proposed condo-hotel park plan convinces council to delay expropriation

Just as city councillors were about to discuss an expropriation of a parcel of land at the eastern end of Jasper ave, a halt was brought to the proceedings because of a pending project. The land is a triangle shaped look out over the river valley at Jasper, 96 street and 101 ave.

The city wants it to be a park, overlooking the river valley, and the foot of the Quarters development just north of there. Aldritt Land Corp wants it for a tower. Yet lawyer Sol Rollingher told reporters his clients are working on the project that would both be tower and park.

“This encompasses a park in a much more elaborate park. It’s like a ‘High Line’ park, what you’d find in lower Manhattan.”

“This way everybody gets what they want.”

Full Story (iNews880)