What do you think of this project?

  • I like it a lot

    Votes: 20 58.8%

  • I like it

    Votes: 12 35.3%

  • I neither like nor dislike it

    Votes: 2 5.9%

  • I dislike it

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • I dislike it a lot

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    34
mcr said:
Take the blocks surrounding 108st, from alley to 107 street, and create a lively district including activated alleyways like Strathcona Backstreet. Redevelop the Best Buy power center block with higher density mixed use too. Bing bang boom, mini fun district for the revelers of both Grant Mac & Norquest, with a few old building already there for characterView attachment 632087
Click to expand...
Yup. That and probably throw in a whole bunch of lifestyle/thrift/consignment stores in the area catered towards the 16-30 demographic, along with continued overabundance in restaurants and cafes. The fact that VLW is going to go through here makes it almost equivalent to Whyte Ave in terms of transit reliability/accessibility imo.

Somehow get City Centre Mall to attract retailers like H&M (in a dream world) and maybe Urban Outfitters since it's along the line, and have it be visible street level whenever they renovate it to have it be less of a bunker and we're cooking something here.

As much as we'd love to have a more lively corporate downtown, I don't think that's where most of the focus should be. I fully understand why, but there's an exponentially growing clientele base with MacEwan expanding like crazy along with NorQuest that we shouldn't ignore. They're not going to pay as much as corporate office workers but they're more visible.
 
mcr said:
Take the blocks surrounding 108st, from alley to 107 street, and create a lively district including activated alleyways like Strathcona Backstreet. Redevelop the Best Buy power center block with higher density mixed use too. Bing bang boom, mini fun district for the revelers of both Grant Mac & Norquest, with a few old building already there for characterView attachment 632087
Click to expand...

Good idea, although I would make sure the existing restaurants are left alone:
- Mikado
- Harvey's
- Canadian Brewhouse
- Denny's
- Parlour
- Naked Cafe
 
Gronk! said:
Good idea, although I would make sure the existing restaurants are left alone:
- Mikado
- Harvey's
- Canadian Brewhouse
- Denny's
- Parlour
- Naked Cafe
Click to expand...
Oh yes, especially ones like Parlour & Naked, but the Harveys, Dennys etc. should be part of re-developed buildings. They aren't conducive to the built-form you hope for in a vibrant area, they're suburban buildings. Keep them open while a new spot is built, then tear down the crappy old suburban buildings and get more life.
 
Kosy123 said:
Yup. That and probably throw in a whole bunch of lifestyle/thrift/consignment stores in the area catered towards the 16-30 demographic, along with continued overabundance in restaurants and cafes. The fact that VLW is going to go through here makes it almost equivalent to Whyte Ave in terms of transit reliability/accessibility imo.

Somehow get City Centre Mall to attract retailers like H&M (in a dream world) and maybe Urban Outfitters since it's along the line, and have it be visible street level whenever they renovate it to have it be less of a bunker and we're cooking something here.

As much as we'd love to have a more lively corporate downtown, I don't think that's where most of the focus should be. I fully understand why, but there's an exponentially growing clientele base with MacEwan expanding like crazy along with NorQuest that we shouldn't ignore. They're not going to pay as much as corporate office workers but they're more visible.
Click to expand...
Good points. Financial districts in many other cities are also usually not the most lively, especially in the evenings and weekends.

However, the nearby MacEwan and NorQuest areas could be more so. It could also be a good area for various smaller independent retail businesses targeted towards students similar to Whyte Ave.
 
David A said:
Good points. Financial districts in many other cities are also usually not the most lively, especially in the evenings and weekends.

However, the nearby MacEwan and NorQuest areas could be more so. It could also be a good area for various smaller independent retail businesses targeted towards students similar to Whyte Ave.
Click to expand...
Exactly, it's where we can harness that potential energy and take advantage of it. I'm not expecting that Rice Howard Way suddenly becomes a hotbed for university students, but downtown Edmonton's corporate weakness means that this might be a good medium term solution, especially like you said, financial districts aren't lively in evenings and weekends. This? Probably would be more lively, has transit access and would make this area more of a destination in off-peak hours.
 
Renderings on site. IMG_3258.jpegIMG_3260.jpegIMG_3261.jpegIMG_3262.jpeg
 
I think that there is a kind of friendly race in the works between MacU and NorQ in terms of campus build-out that may even bring UofA into the friendly fray. This is promising to be the main engine for the restructuring of downtown Edmonton into a friendly people-place with ICE and Qualico helping the transmogrification.
 
At one time the U of A seemed more enthusiastic about Enterprise Square downtown, but for the last few years it has seemed to be a fairly dead space and I feel they have retreated to the south side.

However, there is still great potential there, which I hope someone at the U of A will again realize.
 
David A said:
At one time the U of A seemed more enthusiastic about Enterprise Square downtown, but for the last few years it has seemed to be a fairly dead space and I feel they have retreated to the south side.

However, there is still great potential there, which I hope someone at the U of A will again realize.
Click to expand...

Well, speaking of downtown school of business buildings, I'd heard that the U offered Enterprise Square to the Alberta School of Bus. but they turned it down. It's too bad, it would be the perfect use for that building and would add to the liveliness of the area, but it seems they want their own brand-new building.

Here's an idea—a tower downtown housing a new U of A school of architecture as well as the AB School of Bus. and residences or hotel on the upper floors.
 
Perhaps administratively it would be easier if they got rid of all their other locations, but the U of A is larger than MacEwan and their main campus space is already more constrained/limited for expansion.
 
David A said:
At one time the U of A seemed more enthusiastic about Enterprise Square downtown, but for the last few years it has seemed to be a fairly dead space and I feel they have retreated to the south side.

However, there is still great potential there, which I hope someone at the U of A will again realize.
Click to expand...
That really isn't true. U of A announced some time ago that they've moved most of their administrative staff to Enterprise Square, over 500 people, to free up room at North Campus for classrooms. You might not see as many students at Enterprise Square but there's a whole lot more staff there 4 days of the week.


Further expansion of U of A will happen at South Campus.
 
^the entire existing main campus can easily fit into one half of the south campus (farm) lands with room to spare. There's space to expand for decades, if not a century.
 
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