That's kind of where I am landing with this one too. It's clearly better, but doesn't quite pass the bar to be a really stand-out development. Of course, the real test is how the building will be used, particularly after the "new and shiny" effect wears off about 5 years after reopening...

This strikes me as yet another strange attention-gathering attempt with some press-release journalism. Nothing is new or more shovel-ready than 3 or 4 months ago when they published their last press release. What's always been weird is this family is just on their own proposing and coming up...

The real white whale out there would be to evolve 14th Street in to a true main street with retail on both sides of the road! As a single-loaded strip, it's hard for the retail to compete against the perception that the street is really just a commuter route. There's nothing really to slow down...

Whenever it eventually gets prioritized they should revisit where the station location at the functional study step. Shifting the 85th Station to actually 85th Street would be a big win, instead of where it is proposed so far tucked into the neighbourhood to the NW about 500m walking distance...

A leading pedestrian signal + this bump out would resolve a ton of issues with no change in car lanes. This one bump-out reduces the pedestrian crossing distance by 15 to 20% by just reclaiming a wild semi-truck supportive turn radii that isn't possible given the circulation pattern - it's this...

This. I think traffic volumes and congestion are the main problem with the attractiveness of the area is the traffic, but there's some challenging structural reasons for why traffic is such a problem here that are hard to change. In addition to the list above I added some opinions below for...

Currie is a weird one - something about the era of planning plus the timing and complexity of execution resulted in the interesting - but underwhelming - progress so far. The end vision is pretty interesting and could be quite good, just the execution and momentum dragged it's unclear to me that...

I have often seen chatter about 8 units mid-block, really be referring to a 4 unit townhome with 4 basement suites.I can think of a few of those, but most of those are relatively new so might not be on street view yet. Generally these buildings don't look any different from the street than a 4...

That's awesome. Acknowledging they are pretty small units, it's still a brand new unit, it's in a good location on reasonable transit, and with great cycling access - at that price is only about 30% of a full-time, minimum wage worker. That's a great outcome. Given the quality and execution...

So we get a sustainable levels of density, a brick facade, arches, and pedestrian-oriented retail all in an affordable housing project? Plus the whole thing went up lightning fast, it only starting excavation a year ago. What's every other development's excuse?

This block hasn't had a building on it since about 2000, it's been a parking lot ever since, and has been at least partially a parking lot since the 1970s according to old aerial pictures. Of the nearby upgrades, the DJD/Kanahoff expansion and upgrade was a mid-2010s vintage, with Hotel Arts...

the Banff Trail motel village triangle is another inner NW Calgary example on the list where design and planning has been largely forgotten - or at least misaligned - with the role the area plays in the region. The area's design is as if no one ever realized that demand would be permanently...

Well... the reacted a couple weeks ago by denying the funding request by Elections Alberta to actually run the referendums and recalls against their party. UCP MLAs slash Elections Alberta $13.5M request

Exactly - there are no "normal" weekends in a city of nearly 2 million where transit - although imperfect - probably gets 100K+ trips each Saturday or Sunday (although it would be awesome if Transit published more data to confirm that !). This isn't performative transit of the mid-sized American...

Great to see something move forward here, even if it's just a plain, forgettable, mixed use box. That ground floor height inconsistency will drive me nuts if they keep that in the final design. The site grade isn't remarkable at all, just figure it out so we can skip all these unnecessary ramps...