Touch the Water Promenade / River Valley "Seawall"

[Edmcowboy11]

Rename the project, "Closer to the water"

 

[TAS]

Anyone that wants to express their opinion and ideas should attend one of the two meetings.

Touch the Water - Online Engagement #1
Jul 21, 2021 02:00 PM

Touch the Water - Online Engagement #2
Jul 22, 2021 06:30 PM

To register:

Touch the Water Promenade Project | City of Edmonton

The City is developing a new design for the central stretch of the river valley in 2 distinct project areas: Rossdale and the North Shore.

www.edmonton.ca

 

[JuliallThat]

The only part of the original concepts I was actually excited about was where they had the wide staircase thing that descended from the plaza near the power station directly to the rivers edge.
BUT NOPE. I'm super bummed with the end results here, very uninspiring.

 

[RH van der Rohe]

Find this very underwhelming as well. Why all the floating bridge detours? not sure who will use them and will take away the views from the main path. From what I've seen, small scaled lawns with seating around them are a huge draw for families as are art installations, I don't see any. I also don't see any Coffee shops, food kiosks or other small retail along the river, I think that is really missing, I know it is hard to drag my family for a long bike ride knowing there are no places to sit around, buy some treats and then carry on, in our river valley getting out to shops at the top of the river bank will most likely involve a big climb.

They can do so much better with the area around the powerplant, a deck of that size will just look barren and unwelcoming. I am not very motivated to participate in the public engagement sessions, the last one I participated (Ribbon of Green) was a good forum for people to participate but there has been no follow up, timeline, summary of the input, nothing. It felt like they paid consultants to hear the participants, not sure there was any listening.

 

[itom987]

Why have a walkway bridge in front of one of the pump houses? It looks terrible. The money saved can be used build steps going down into the river so people can actually touch the water. There should also be steps going down to the river where government hill is.

 

[kcantor]

This is the most passive scheme I have ever seen -- it almost puts me to sleep just looking at the renderings. A stroll park for octogenarians.

there’s not enough restrooms to make it a popular stroll park for octogenarians.

 

[thommyjo]

This feels like the bare minimum to catch up to every other city's waterfront paths. Like you all said, not inspiring or exciting. Much better than what we have. But much worse than what it could be. I'm sure there are financial restraints, I just want us to do it right the first time vs needing to redo and update in 10years.

 

[thommyjo]

I shared these before, but I will again. We need higher expectations.

I know our large banks, fast water, and ice add challenges many other waterfronts don't have...but still...let's get creative!

 

[buildings]

reiterating a lot of concerns already voiced; very milquetoast and uninspired. Misses the mark entirely.

 

[archited]

Drug dealers will be happy with this one... gives them lots of opportunities to transact in the shadows.

 

[EdmTrekker]

Touch the water for the able bodied only? This plan needs to be inclusive for those with any mobility or vision impairment. How can city planners be so insensitive?

 

[The_Cat]

I think I'd also add lights for night time navigation and security.

 

[Edmcowboy11]

I have a feeling this plan was very much influenced by advocates to keep the river valley as natural as possible. When looking at this design one could see that there was minimal emphasis on making something very attractive to bring more people to the valley. This is more about keeping costs lower and making the leave the river alone more prominent.

 

[archited]

You are right @Edmcowboy11, I smell Edmonton City Planning's guiding hand behind this joke of a solution. The next Joke in the pipeline will be solutions for the Warehouse District Park, I fear. They, collectively, are doing Edmonton no favors. They seem to live in the realm of manicured renderings and kitschy names like "Touch the Water" instead of real workable solutions. I have first-hand knowledge that they fence-in potential solutions with their inane approach to design solutions -- "don't try anything to adventurous or unproven"; "by 'green' we mean natural plant-life; the paths are only there so that you can enjoy the natural plant-life (and we do provide benches so that you can sit and ponder the beautiful views)"; "we don't want you to think that you live in a City"; "What! -- we gave you 3 variations of the same song to choose from -- don't you know how to dance to our tune (after all, you picked the preferred solution)". Effing idiots!!! (I wish I could tell you how I really felt). The three people who died in Kinistinaw Park are only the ominous precedent of what is to come if the City keeps churning out these benign planning solutions (under the guise of Edmonton's most notable architect and a landscape firm double-seated in Boston and L.A. -- that is their cover in this criminal procession!) -- let the blood be on their collective hands. Edmonton can do far better -- but first we need to get rid of the deadwood that is holding the City back. The Edmonton Journal should be on this like a weasle on a rat -- dig up the methodology here -- print the names of the bureaucratic "designers" behind the solution. You can start with who came up with the ridiculous "touch the water" meme.

 

[buildings]

the "affluents" living Rossdale and Cloverdale don't want anything that would disrupt their virtual monopoly on river valley living. It's time to retire the "save the river valley" rallying cry when it comes to the urban portion of the river.