[1875]

Its like the saddledome, you had to want the surrounding area not to develop for it to be so bad for this long. maybe its been the plan the whole time.

 

[Robo]

That part that bothers me most about Chinook is the space between the mall and the LRT. It should be the densest of all the area around Chinook, but it’s the least dense , being mostly surface parking. At some point I gotta believe that somebody is going to develop it. I just hope to see it in my lifetime.

 

[haltcatchfire]

Too bad Chinook wasn’t built on the east side of Macleod. It could have developed direct integration with the LRT. A large grocer on the mall property too and adjacent residential would have taken off a long time ago.

Until there is a grocer in that immediate area it’s going to be a hard sell. If you’re going to live on an ‘island’ you need all of your services. It’s just too car central and still not amenity complete.

Where do you even go for decent groceries from that area if you don’t own a vehicle?

 

[zagox]

Too bad Chinook wasn’t built on the east side of Macleod. It could have developed direct integration with the LRT. A large grocer on the mall property too and adjacent residential would have taken off a long time ago.

Until there is a grocer in that immediate area it’s going to be a hard sell. If you’re going to live on an ‘island’ you need all of your services. It’s just too car central and still not amenity complete.

Where do you even go for decent groceries from that area if you don’t own a vehicle?

I feel like I could lead a happy life just eating at the food court at Chinook, but I might need a cardiologist close by too if I pursued that plan for too long…

 

[UrbanWarrior]

Too bad Chinook wasn’t built on the east side of Macleod. It could have developed direct integration with the LRT. A large grocer on the mall property too and adjacent residential would have taken off a long time ago.

Until there is a grocer in that immediate area it’s going to be a hard sell. If you’re going to live on an ‘island’ you need all of your services. It’s just too car central and still not amenity complete.

Where do you even go for decent groceries from that area if you don’t own a vehicle?

Superstore at Southland Station or Superstore at City Hall Station.

 

[artvandelay]

Sounds like Chinook needs to bring back the Woodward's Food Floor!

 

[Surrealplaces]

It's such a weird area, particularly because it's not actually stagnant when you think about it. Sure, fancy Vancouver-style TOD projects haven't kicked off, nor has the LRT station seemed to play much of a role so far but the area is hardly quiet from a development standpoint. But the signs of demand and long-term, persistent growth pressures are everywhere.

First, it did better than most areas to concentrate that random suburban office market back in the 1980s. Even a handful of 5 - 10 storey buildings in quite bizarre compared to other suburban locations. Strange distribution and tragically uncoordinated public realm and sidewalks but materially more investment than most suburban areas.
View attachment 453343

Second, Chinook Centre is a beast. From 1953, 1995, 2006, 2021. 15 - 20 million visitors per year, over $1B in retail activity. A true anchor that continues to evolve and grow as the regional centre for Calgary. That's the fuel for much of the rest of the activity.

View attachment 453370View attachment 453369View attachment 453368View attachment 453366

Finally, the whole areas circled in green has been steadily intensifying incrementally, including the not-insignificant non-profit towers in Manchester and the low/mid height residential of Windsor Park and Kingsland.

View attachment 453371

Also check out this building just north of Chinook, packed full of all sorts of services, including many that would happily be on a walkable main street in any other neighbourhood of the city (or if one existed here). While the building has absolutely horrible urban design, this is hardly the look of an unproductive, run-down 1980s office/retail strip that isn't being used and about to be redeveloped. Business is booming and no competing, better quality development has emerged in the area to compete with such buildings.

View attachment 453372

To me I think it's a combo of economics and lack of imagination that's holding the area back - the demand is clearly there for more stuff and density. The garbage public realm and auto-dominance limits creative thinking, combined with relatively great sales in these old, ugly buildings means the case for change isn't readily there to most land owners.

I think this will all change, slower than I would like given the land use and transportation policies in place (for example, it's wild that all this redevelopment pressure has occurred everywhere in the area, but the Meadowlark Park residential has remained unchanged in 50+ years from redevelopment). But the centrality of the area to the region and ever-increasing activity at the mall can't go unnoticed forever. Eventually towers will go up and (I hope) better pubic realm with it.

Yeah, I think the general area around Chinook is intensifying reasonably well, and over time it will continue to intensify. The one critical part of the Chinook area that would benefit most is the area between Chinook and the LRT, which is currently stuck in big box/parking lot purgatory. It would be nice to have dense development with proper pedestrian pathways between the mall and the station. You have the busiest mall in the city, and the busiest LRT station outside of the core, and it's surround by wasteland. This is the section that gives causes me the facepalms.

The area shown in red is roughly 225,000 sq.m and of that 225,000 sq.m only 40,000 sq.m is building, and the other 185,000 sq.m is surface parking. Of the area that is made up of buildings, only one build is more than one floor.

 

[whatchyyc]

Fellas, it's high time for an urban-format Home Depot... o7

 

[Alex_YYC]

I would be happy with urban format anything. An urban format Home Depot, with an urban format surperstore on top of it, and 3 high rise towers on top of that

 

[Surrealplaces]

I usually prefer low or mid-rise buildings over high-rise towers, but Chinook would be the perfect place for a cluster of tall suckers like these (Brentwood LRT Vancouver)

 

[Habanero]

It would be cool to have at least one high-rise cluster somewhere outside of the core.

 

[JesseLikesCities]

It would be cool to have at least one high-rise cluster somewhere outside of the core.

A dream of mine. Would love to see The Brentwood Commons go ahead and/or that node full of towers planned by Chinook.

 

[badc0ffee]

(for example, it's wild that all this redevelopment pressure has occurred everywhere in the area, but the Meadowlark Park residential has remained unchanged in 50+ years from redevelopment)

It's interesting seeing Windsor Park build everything from detached infills to rowhouses to low-rise apartments, while being sandwiched between Elboya and Meadowlark Park where no land sub-division is happening. In the case of Elboya it's because of a restrictive covenant that I believe covers everything west of Stanley Rd. I don't know for sure, but it is probably the case that Meadowlark Park has one as well.

Of course that doesn't explain why Meadowlark Park has retained nearly all of its original houses, while Elboya has replaced a ton of its bungalows with $2m+ houses that are under 15 years old.

Full disclosure, I actually really like these old leafy neighbourhoods between Macleod and the Elbow River, north of Heritage, and would be happy if redevelopment was contained to where it is now (basically Windsor Park and Kingsland). I realize that's not the best in terms of urban planning

 

[Surrealplaces]

It's interesting seeing Windsor Park build everything from detached infills to rowhouses to low-rise apartments, while being sandwiched between Elboya and Meadowlark Park where no land sub-division is happening. In the case of Elboya it's because of a restrictive covenant that I believe covers everything west of Stanley Rd. I don't know for sure, but it is probably the case that Meadowlark Park has one as well.

Of course that doesn't explain why Meadowlark Park has retained nearly all of its original houses, while Elboya has replaced a ton of its bungalows with $2m+ houses that are under 15 years old.

Full disclosure, I actually really like these old leafy neighbourhoods between Macleod and the Elbow River, north of Heritage, and would be happy if redevelopment was contained to where it is now (basically Windsor Park and Kingsland). I realize that's not the best in terms of urban planning

I forgot about Meadowlark Park. Being so close to the mall I'm amazed it hasn't seen some sort of re-zoning and development.

 

[MissingMiddle]

Full disclosure, I actually really like these old leafy neighbourhoods between Macleod and the Elbow River, north of Heritage... I realize that's not the best in terms of urban planning

Leafy areas of single family homes have just as much of a place in good urban planning as 30 story high-rises. It's the variety that matters.

Unfortunately in Calgary single family housing takes up more than 90% of dwelling units. If it was 50%, the city could easily be a third of the overall size and have a significantly more efficient transportation network.