Albertasaurus said:
I'm not too concerned about the loss of a portion of Olympic Plaza, as it's not a very well designed space as others have mentioned. A lot will depend on how well designed the redo of the plaza is. Some of the space that is to be taken up by the new building is currently occupied by the Parks depot. The rest of that NW corner is basically a single pathway. They will, however, need to find a new place for the Famous 5 statues.

Having a new building fronting onto the plaza from the west is somewhat of a win, as "eyes on the street" ought to make it a more safe and vibrant space.
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Adding even more more dead institutional space to the perimeter of the plaza is not what I call adding vibrancy. 🤣
 
Don’t forget that the redo of this section of Stephen Ave is likely (hopefully) to tie far more seemlessly into the revitalized plaza than it currently is. So in a way we’ll be just trading underused space in the NW corner for the Stephen Ave section, if done properly.
 
Very exciting announcement. That being said, this hits one of my nerves about the way we approach naming things in Calgary. Our city has always done a very poor job at naming things in a way that will attract attention and draw the interest of tourists and other visitors. Studio Bell is meaningless to someone from outside Calgary and even most Calgarians probably couldn't tell you what is inside or why someone should go. Same with the Zoo renaming to the Wilder Institute. What the heck is that? The Core gives zero indication that it is downtown's major shopping destination. The Stampede's new SAM Centre is equally meaningless. And now we have both the Glenbow Museum and ArtsCommon renaming themselves after large donors. I have no issue about incorporating donor's names into the title but tell people through your name who you are, what you do and why they should come check it out. The Werklund Centre for the Arts makes much more sense to me. It is painfully obvious that many Calgarians never view our city through the eyes of a tourist despite Stampede and Banff being extremely large tourist draws.
 
Could not agree. I’ve thought that about individual projects but never connected the dots to see the pattern. Even Contemporary Calgary barely tells what it is.

Studio Bell - National Music Centre
Werklund Centre - Werklund Performing Arts Centre
J.R. Shaw Centre for Arts and Culture - Shaw Museum (possibly add “of Calgary”)
Contemporary Calgary - Calgary Contemporary Art Gallery
Wilder Institute - Wilder Zoo of Calgary (?or Alberta?)

Names don’t need to sound so basic-chic, I think that’s what they’re going for with all this shit. It just needs to say what it is, period.
 
outoftheice said:
Very exciting announcement. That being said, this hits one of my nerves about the way we approach naming things in Calgary. Our city has always done a very poor job at naming things in a way that will attract attention and draw the interest of tourists and other visitors. Studio Bell is meaningless to someone from outside Calgary and even most Calgarians probably couldn't tell you what is inside or why someone should go. Same with the Zoo renaming to the Wilder Institute. What the heck is that? The Core gives zero indication that it is downtown's major shopping destination. The Stampede's new SAM Centre is equally meaningless. And now we have both the Glenbow Museum and ArtsCommon renaming themselves after large donors. I have no issue about incorporating donor's names into the title but tell people through your name who you are, what you do and why they should come check it out. The Werklund Centre for the Arts makes much more sense to me. It is painfully obvious that many Calgarians never view our city through the eyes of a tourist despite Stampede and Banff being extremely large tourist draws.
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Werkland Centre for the Arts would align to the other Werkland location in the city - the Werkland School of Education.

I had no idea the zoo was called the Wilder Institute until reading this.

I think you're on to something about this bizarre naming convention where we don't ever want to reveal what a thing is:
  • The Genesis Centre - it's a rec centre with a library. Apparently "The" is in the official name.
  • Vivo for Healthier Generations - another rec centre. At least you know it's healthy.
  • Platform Calgary - a parking garage with corporate event spaces.
  • Max Bell Centre - hockey arenas, but like big ones with seats!
  • Peter Lougheed Centre - a hospital! I am surprised they weren't required to add "hospital" to the name given it's importance.
  • Even all the YMCAs rely on someone knowing what an YMCA is. Plus a random housing developer.
  • We literally try to never say the word "street" for some reason and always want to use a thesaurus - other cities make fun of all our "crescents", "mews", "lane", "drives"
  • Approximately 75% of communities are essentially randomly named. A few examples:
    • Pine Ridge: no ridges - literally one of the flattest communities in the city - few pines.
    • Mahogany: ?
    • Mackenzie Towne: not a "towne"
 
Another one sort of is Vecova. My wife moved my son's swimming lessons from the MNP Community & Sport Centre to Vecova. I've driven past that building on 32nd Ave thousands of times and I'd have never guessed there were pools in there.
 
haltcatchfire said:
Another one sort of is Vecova. My wife moved my son's swimming lessons from the MNP Community & Sport Centre to Vecova. I've driven past that building on 32nd Ave thousands of times and I'd have never guessed there were pools in there.
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Their new building will be called the Vecova Centre for All Abilities. While it's still not clearly indicative of a facility with a pool, it's at least somewhat more explanatory of the demographic the building will accomodate.
 
CBBarnett said:
Werkland Centre for the Arts would align to the other Werkland location in the city - the Werkland School of Education.
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Really don't understand why they dropped the "for the Arts", it seems so obvious. Especially since they have other philanthropic initiatives, the "Werklund Centre" could be associated as an extension of those other programs. Also not a fan of everything being a "Centre", why can't this be the Werklund Theatre for Performing Arts, especially since there is an JR Shaw Centre for Arts and Culture next door.
 
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