As some of you know, I've been travelling a bit the past few months, and I decided to share some random pics of things I saw in these cities, specifically in a urban design sense.
Pedestrian mall in Denver, closed to traffic except for single lanes each way dedicated to these free electric buses.
Since traffic is only one lane, the centre two lanes have been reclaimed for pedestrians in various ways as illustrated here.
Here we have Larimer square, a single block of turn of the century storefronts, but it's been 'branded' in such a way that it's a district of sorts.
This is the kind of thing that could be applied to smaller clusters of historic structures in Calgary. (11th street?)
Another view of Larimer Square from the opposite direction. Larimer square is featured on the tourist maps of Denver as well.
What the Lougheed house might have looked like if our sandstone was of the red variety.
Love the idea of loft living in a historic warehouse, but the lack of balconies holding you back? One developer found a way to solve that problem with this metal balcony structure.
Parkades don't have to be eyesores.
First we have a crowd sitting around the bay in Victoria, awaiting a concert to be perfomed on a barge. Yet another reason why Calgary should carve out a bay, but I digress, that's for another time.
Oversized corner bulbs for a variety of uses, mostly traffic calming and cafe seating.
A 'short street' in your typical grid street pattern converted to a mini pedestrial mall, complete with street vendors, patio seating from adjacent establishments, etc.
These two photos attempt to show a development, where someone has taken a block of turn of the century homes, one very fancy, the rest less so, and behind them built a hotel, then painted said hotel and all the houses white, with the houses being ice cream store, restaurants and other amenities type structures for the hotel behind.
Here's a link:
Wish you could hide those unsitely rail yards or other industrial but there's only a thin strip of land between said eyesore and the road? Never fear, apartment buildings can be thinner than you think.
Another 'short street' pedestrian mall, this time in a more residential sense.
A couple of facades ready to be built behind.
A Carnegie library in the midst of troubled East Hastings, perhaps one day E. Hastings can be rejuvenated to the degree of Stephen Avenue, it's certainly got the architecture.
Speaking of incorporating heritage into new developments.. can you spot the heritage building? (don't worry, the rest of the site was a parking lot.. ok wait, worry, who knows what used to be where the parking lot is)
An interesting idea to 'pretty up' a typically blank side wall of turn of the century commercial, turn it into a modern '2nd facade' of the building.
Well that's all for now.