CentreCity

Centre City Congress - Looking Back

The Centre City Congress is happening in a little less than a month now. If you didn't have a chance to take part in the sold out Congress last year, check out the photos below from the hugely successful event. It was a day filled with wonderful discussion, in a room full of people all dedicated to Thinking Big, Sharing Ideas, and Working Together.  

 

 

Here's a link to view some of the video archived from our Centre City Congress last year. 

And most importantly, here's a link to register for this year's upcoming event. Act soon to reserve your spot at the Centre City's big day of information exchange! 

 

Heritage Matters: A Talk About Cultural Influences in Calgary

Coming up this week is an opportunity to learn about and discuss five cultural groups in Calgary and the impact they have had on our heritage. It's a great chance to learn about the cultural influences in our city.  

The talk is called, "The Convergence of the World in the Last Frontier" and it's being presented by Matthew Siddons. He's a recent graduate of the University of Calgary's Urban Studies program. 

It's happening on Friday September 23rd between 5:30 - 7:00 p.m. on the main floor south (New and Notable area) at the Central Library. 

This lecture is in conjunction with the Calgary Heritage Authority and City of Calgary Land Use Planning and Policy. 

You are asked to register ahead of time as seats will be limited. You can do so by visiting www.calgarypubliclibrary.com or by calling (403) 260-2620

 

Two New Exhibitions to Check out @ Triangle Gallery

Lovers of thought-provoking architecture and design take note: there are two new exhibitions at the Triangle Gallery (opened on September 9th) in our Centre City that are calling to you to come check them out. 

The first is titled Building a History: Highlights of 20th Century Canadian Architecture. This is a great display of work from the collections of the Canadian Architectural Archives at the University of Calgary. This exhibit is held at the main gallery at Triangle. 

The second is titled, Constructions: Contemporary Norwegian Arts and Crafts and it will be held in the upper Gallery at Triangle. 

Both shows run through to October 12th, 2011 and the Triangle Gallery of Visual Arts is located at: 104, 800 Macleod Trail SE on the main floor of the Municipal Building. Usual operating hours are: Tuesday - Friday from 11 am - 5 pm and Saturday 12 - 4 pm and for more information you can call the gallery at (403) 262-1737. 

Centre City Congress - Speaker Announcements!

You love your city and your city adores you. It's time once again to explore and embrace all that we can do for each othe at this year's Centre City Congress. It's happening Tuesday October 18th at the BMO Centre, Calgary Stampede. The Congress is where we'll experience first-hand what's taking shape in the heart of our city. The Centre City Congress sold out last year and it most certainly proved to be a worthwhile and inspiring event - a chance for sharing ideas and looking ahead at what shape our Centre City is taking. 

This year's keynote speaker is Renée Daoust, principal of Daoust Lestage Inc. A renowned architect and designer, she is well regarded for her role as project and design architect for the Quartier International de Montréal and the CDP Capital Centre. It is this experience that has made her a hugely valuable thinker and with us, she'll be able to speak about her work and visioning for both the Quartier International de Montréal and Montreal's new theatre district - Le Quartier des spectacles. It's a great honour to have such a creative thinker and urbanist share her ideas with us. 

  Renée Daoust pictured above.

The program will also feature local speakers, including:

• Gerry Meek, CEO, Calgary Public Library, speaking about the new Central Library.
• George Brookman and Brian Felesky speaking about Transformation Calgary’s goal to build a better city, one penny at a time.
• Calgary Municipal Land Corporation's new CEO Michael Brown and Susan Veres, Vice-President of Marketing and Communications, will provide an update on the East Village development.
• The City of Calgary's Centre City Planning & Implementation Manager Sonny Tomic will share an update on completed and upcoming Centre City initiatives.
• Don Mulligan, Director of The City of Calgary’s Transportation Planning team, speaking on Calgary’s bicycle strategy and how The City is achieving the Municipal Development Plan’s transit ridership goals.

The program will also include a local development forum featuring short-presentations from developers and architects about their upcoming Centre City projects.

To read more about our Centre City Congress 2011, click here. And register early to ensure your spot at this remarkable Calgary event. 

Artcity: If Those Statues Could Talk

It's as though local artist Suzen Green (who recently moved to Calgary from Montreal) knew ahead that the weather would take a quick dive into chillier temperatures this past week. Her yarn art installation piece for Artcity; cleverly knit hats and clothing for the Armengol Statues in our Centre City, have come at a great time for those long and lean bronze people standing out front of the Calgary Board of Education building in the cool fall weather. 

Of course Green's work, titled The Come From Away, isn't just meant to serve as shelter for the statues. It's also meant to enliven them; to add color and texture to our landscape, wit and whimsy - a kind of cultural warmth that public art can use from time to time. It's meant to be what you need it be. Use your imagination!  

Here are a few photos from the actual installation of her work. 

 

(All photos courtesy Suzen Green - via her own personal site, www.notalazysuzen.com)

You have until this Saturday, the 17th to check out Suzen Green's The Come From Away at 1st Street and 5 Avenue SE. Check back here and let us know what you think of the project. 

2nd Annual Heritage Weekend

A festival of all things heritage in Calgary is set for next weekend; let's get together for films, displays, engaging lectures and discussions with those in our city who are wildly passionate about the history of our home and culture.

It starts with an event Friday night (September 23rd, 2011) at the Central Library (616 MacLeod Trail SE) -  a new installment of "Heritage Matters" which is a lecture series we've featured here several times before on the Centre City Talk blog. This is an ongoing series which has been made possible thanks to a partnership with the Calgary Heritage Authority and the City of Calgary Land Use Planning and Policy. University of Calgary Urban Studies graduate, Matthew Siddons, will examine the contributions of a variety of cultural groups to Calgary's heritage. His talk is called, "The Convergence of the World in the Last Frontier."  

Then on Saturday the 24th, a panel discussion is set to investigate the challenges of archiving our past in this data-heavy social media world of ours. Representatives from Calgary Heritage Initiative, Calgary Stampede, Chinook Country Historical Society, Lougheed House, Heritage Roundtable, City of Calgary, Corporate Records, Archives and more will discuss how local organizations are engaging Calgarians in new ways when it comes to our heritage. You'll have a chance to ask your own questions or to add to the discussion afterward. 

And if you're interested in getting some tips on how to build that family tree of yours, there will also be a Family History Coaching program. Volunteers from the Alberta Family Histories Society will be on the 4th floor in the genealogy area at the Central library from 10-12 on Saturday to help answers some of your queries.

Finally, a celebration of renowned historian Hugh Dempsey is in store on Saturday at the Dutton Theatre. You're invited to stop by and share your best wishes with this wonderful author, advocate and mentor. If you'd like to take a look at his memoirs, "Always an Adventure: An Autobiography" beforehand, here's a link. 

 

 

(Historian and author Hugh Dempsey, photo by Grant Black, Calgary Herald)

You can register register online at http://calgarypubliclibrary.com/services/programs-events/register-for-programs or by calling 403-260-2620.

For more information about Heritage Weekend at the Calgary Public Library (Central location), check out their poster below: 

 

 

Urban Design Matters

 
Good urban design is a major contributor to the impressions that we are left with of cities.

Every two years, we recognize our city’s top urban design through the Mayor’s Urban Design Awards (MUDA). These awards celebrate the best of Calgary’s new urban design, landscape design and architecture, recognizing the contribution of all the consultants, developers, communities and owners who created them.

 
If you’ve travelled to other cities, you know that each leaves you with a different feeling about it. Some cities feel vibrant and alive – abuzz with lots of people, interesting places and unique characteristics. Other cities feel lifeless and dull – few people on the sidewalks and a lack of stand out features. You often know good urban design in cities when you see it and experience it.

“Urban design is the art of making places that are attractive, memorable and functional for the people that use them,” says David Down, The City of Calgary's coordinator of Urban Design & Heritage in Land Use Planning & Policy. “Sometimes this involves one particular building or space, but ideally, it is an area or district that has buildings and spaces that work together to make it safe, distinctive and functional. Good urban design creates distinctive and cherished places.”

We have many fantastic examples of good urban design in our Centre City. Some MUDA past winners include the Grand Theatre Rejuvenation, Banker’s Court and Eau Claire Plaza Redevelopment.

This year’s deadline for submissions is Thursday, September 15. There is still time to submit your projects. Details on categories and eligibility are available at calgary.ca/muda.

And next time you’re out for a stroll in the Centre City, see if you can find some of the special places in our city and tell us about them here – they don’t happen by accident, they’re the result of well planned, good urban design.

 

Take a (photo)Walk!

Calgary's Chinatown is home to buildings steeped in stories and wisdom, walls rich with colour and meeting spaces that offer some of the liveliest and most picturesque backdrops one could ever hope to find in our Centre City. Many of us drive or ride through Chinatown and notice these spots - but we need to stop and savour all the area has to offer. Now's your chance, thanks to an upcoming Worldwide Photowalk event set to be hosted in Chinatown.

Angela MacIsaac has offered to put together this photowalk as a way of taking part in the wildly popular annual event. A seasoned host, she's already lead plenty of Calgary-based photo walks (through the Twitter hashtag #yycphotowalk) over the past few years. Worldwide Photowalk is going into its fourth year and last year there were some 33 thousand participants from all over the globe. There are 50 spots available for specific local photowalk events and MacIsaac says her group is filling up quickly.

So if you are interested in taking part in this fun, social photo meet-up event then click here to read more. It's happening on the weekend of October 1st and 2nd 2011 and everyone will meet up at Sien Lok Park. After the event you can post some of your photos to the worldwide photowalk Flickr site and there you'll also be able to take a look at some of the shots that were taken in other parts  of this photogenic world of ours.

If you'd like to check out some of the pictures from last year's Worldwide Photowalk, click here.

To read more about the worldwide photowalk annual event click here. And remember, register soon before all those spots are taken.

 (photo by "Larry He's So Fine")

 

National Music Centre Being Honoured

We love a great story that involves something happening in our Centre City.

This one's about the much-anticipated National Music Centre in the East Village. We have just learned that the NMC has been named as the beneficiary of RBC's Canada Walk of Fame Inductee Charity Ball for this year. It means the National Music Centre will be recognized at this huge event for its significant cultural role - it's a place that's set to unite Canadians, their heritage and culture through music. 

(Artist's rendering of the NMC - for more images, click here to get to the NMC website)

To read more about the Ball, which is happening October 1st in Toronto, click here. To learn more about the National Music Centre click here.

Open House Invitation for the Beltline Clustering Policy

(photo of 17th ave. SW at dusk by acrofish) 

The City of Calgary is hosting an important open house tomorrow afternoon and evening - it's a chance for you to have your say and get involved in a potential planning policy change regarding bars (not including nightclubs) and licensed restaurants for the 17 Avenue SW (between 14 St SW and Macleod Tr SE) and 1 Street SW (between 17 and 10 Avenues SW) areas.  

The proposed change to the Beltline Area Redevelopment Plan could be an important issue for those living or working in, and visiting the Centre City but also to business owners. The suggested amendment to the Plan would be to include both bars and licensed restaurants under the direction (in section 4.3.4b) limiting future development of these types to 50% of any given block on 17 Ave SW and 1 St SW. To read the full formal wording change proposal, click here. 

The open house is happening tomorrow, September 7th (Wednesday) between 4:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. at the Memorial Park Library (Meeting Room #2) at 1221 - 2nd Street SW and it's open to the public.