Touch the Water Promenade / River Valley "Seawall"

[Gronk!]

Does anyone remember that fake beach that was proposed for Louise McKinney Park a few years ago? You know, the beach that wasn't touching the water at all?

 

[fungus_eater]

^Cool to see but none of those cities experience a harsh winter like us, which really shortens the usabilit of our river for a potential swimming facility. I wish we would've moved on that Hawrelak Park swimming beach project a few years back though.

Why can't we make it so that in the summer = "touch the water" and winter = ice skating

 

[archited]

Forget "touch the water"; Edmonton City Planning is entirely afraid to "touch the river".

 

[kcantor]

^^^
doesn’t that shorter usability make it more important, not less?

besides, the river doesn’t go away in the winter just because the water is frozen.

we already do things like golf courses and the outdoor markets and skating rinks that also aren’t year round or whose experience in different seasons is also simply different.

^^^^
pre expo 86 vancouver was looking at filling in falls creek because it was too polluted to use. like the thames, on some days you could actually light the surface on fire.

our limitations are lack of imagination, not lack of potential.

 

[Avenuer]

^^^
doesn’t that shorter usability make it more important, not less?

besides, the river doesn’t go away in the winter just because the water is frozen.

we already do things like golf courses and the outdoor markets and skating rinks that also aren’t year round or whose experience in different seasons is also simply different.

^^^^
pre expo 86 vancouver was looking at filling in falls creek because it was too polluted to use. like the thames, on some days you could actually light the surface on fire.

our limitations are lack of imagination, not lack of potential.

It would be great to use the river in the winter but it's ice surface isn't stable and consistent enough to use for skating, for instance, whereas other slower-flowing rivers like the Red in Winnipeg work well for that.

 

[kcantor]

It would be great to use the river in the winter but it's ice surface isn't stable and consistent enough to use for skating, for instance, whereas other slower-flowing rivers like the Red in Winnipeg work well for that.

and why exactly couldn’t you also use something like this for skating?https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/RF1...e/image/56035395/shutterstock_680234458.0.jpg

 

[TAS]

I really enjoy this guy's videos on urbanism focusing on Vancouver.

In this video he argues that Vancouver's vast seawall is boring (and lifeless in the evenings) and provides a lot of Canadian and world examples of better designed waterfront projects including Halifax.

I thought this was applicable to the opportunity Edmonton has around Rossdale and the Touch the Water project.

 

[BASE]

I really enjoy this guy's videos on urbanism focusing on Vancouver.

In this video he argues that Vancouver's vast seawall is boring (and lifeless in the evenings) and provides a lot of Canadian and world examples of better designed waterfront projects including Halifax.

I thought this was applicable to the opportunity Edmonton has around Rossdale and the Touch the Water project.

Makes some interesting points. Sounds like there are a lot of forces against development similar to what we see here, although in Vancouver it seems like more selective development.

Either way I would kill for our own version of the sea wall and have never noticed the lack of activation along the sea wall in Vancouver because even if the bars or restaurants aren’t spilling out onto the paths they aren’t terribly inconvenient to access nearby. Would be something more noticed by regular local users I would think.