AXES AND BOULEVARDS
Main axes into the City - the street that would be boulevarded ie. where traffic is separated in the middle by a boulevard for two one-way traffic.
These are important to European cities. The vehicular meets the urban, and pedestrian, mixed use, and green functional dividers are all features that are missing in Calgary. These axes in Europe provide organization, coordination and hierarchy into the heart of the City. They are full of life and bustles, enclaves and places for everything to happen from the personal to the formal. It is unfortunate that in Calgary they have been relegated to sterile vehicular tubes through the city with little to no urban appeal. This is most obvious on this section of Memorial Drive that sterilized the Briges for decades. While Memorial Drive was designed with care, foresight and as a promenade around the downtown, lined with residences along the Bow River and green pedestrian dykes, the 4th Avenue flyover is a futile attempt to make access into the downtown functional. This night scene makes an otherwise dreary example of insensitive modernity somewhat interesting.
Another important axis is McLeod Trail. It is in contrast quite successful as an "American graffiti" styled "Strip." Of course the other signifcant axis in and out of the downtown core is Elbow Drive along the Elbow River. Outside of these three axes, there are no other axes into Calgary. Considering the size of this City, the utter lack of this important urban design feature is responsible for a lot of the weakened images that make up the experience of place in Calgary. It seems an obsession with grids, suburbia and no U-turns, has removed a concentric focus of major axes and boulevard from our vernacular. As a result, this significantly undermines the quality of the urban experience in Calgary. A more unique feature of axes and boulevard is Calgary's Trails - Crowchild Trail, Blackfoot, Barlow, Deerfoot. The concept however has been allowed to vegetate from its historic roots and allowed to weaken from the unimaginative obsession to feel functional, vehicular and rational.
These are important to European cities. The vehicular meets the urban, and pedestrian, mixed use, and green functional dividers are all features that are missing in Calgary. These axes in Europe provide organization, coordination and hierarchy into the heart of the City. They are full of life and bustles, enclaves and places for everything to happen from the personal to the formal. It is unfortunate that in Calgary they have been relegated to sterile vehicular tubes through the city with little to no urban appeal. This is most obvious on this section of Memorial Drive that sterilized the Briges for decades. While Memorial Drive was designed with care, foresight and as a promenade around the downtown, lined with residences along the Bow River and green pedestrian dykes, the 4th Avenue flyover is a futile attempt to make access into the downtown functional. This night scene makes an otherwise dreary example of insensitive modernity somewhat interesting.Another important axis is McLeod Trail. It is in contrast quite successful as an "American graffiti" styled "Strip." Of course the other signifcant axis in and out of the downtown core is Elbow Drive along the Elbow River. Outside of these three axes, there are no other axes into Calgary. Considering the size of this City, the utter lack of this important urban design feature is responsible for a lot of the weakened images that make up the experience of place in Calgary. It seems an obsession with grids, suburbia and no U-turns, has removed a concentric focus of major axes and boulevard from our vernacular. As a result, this significantly undermines the quality of the urban experience in Calgary. A more unique feature of axes and boulevard is Calgary's Trails - Crowchild Trail, Blackfoot, Barlow, Deerfoot. The concept however has been allowed to vegetate from its historic roots and allowed to weaken from the unimaginative obsession to feel functional, vehicular and rational.
posted by Le Cid at 1:08 PM
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