I dunno about this one. It's a beautiful design of course and responding to the dated feel of Arts Commons, but I feel it falls in that old Calgary engineer-mindset trap; enough capital dollars can solve your problems. Money is critical - to be sure - but being strategic, sutainable and long-range is often overlooked. For $400 million - or half that for phase 1 - could we trigger the start of a true entertainment district, much like the Stephen Ave of old? It's lost on many the contradiction that while we get excited by shiny new plans, we also are also celebrating the tear down of the closed theatre in the Barron Building.
People get excited by new arts buildings, but don't seem to mind the small and mid-sized venues evaporating from the centre city over the past decades (not a uniquely Calgarian phenomenon, of course). How can we use this money to keep venues like the Palace operating and attract the development of more venues along the avenue to create a true district? Is one monolithic arts centre the way to go? Or is there ways using the same level of support we could create a stronger overall ecosystem of private/public arts and culture venues?
I am not saying this project won't be a good thing if it happens - I just see no evidence that other, perhaps more beneficial, approaches are receiving the same attention. Little effort is made (publicly at least) to save existing venue capacity or support it's organic expansion. Could we put that $200 million into a venue sustainment and expansion fund? Add a few theatres elsewhere and support the ones already open? Distribute the arts throughout the core, rather than concentrate?
What a beauty. I am not holding my breath - it is Macleod Trail afterall - but wowzer. A few dozen of those and MacLeod goes from last place to something interesting.
