21st Century (2000–present)

Calgary East Village Master Plan

2009 · Canada · North America – Canada · Post-industrial regeneration and waterfront urbanism · Planned by CMLC; Broadway Malyan

CMLC character-areas plan for Calgary’s Rivers District, the framework that carries forward the East Village Master Plan: warehouse district, neighbourhood centre, riverfront residential, culture/entertainment and events precincts on the Bow and Elbow rivers · © Calgary Municipal Land Corporation — used with credit · Calgary Municipal Land Corporation (CMLC), Rivers District Master Plan brochure

Core idea

Riverfront brownfield to mixed-use

Why it matters

Catalyst for downtown Calgary’s renewal

Description

The Calgary East Village Master Plan of 2009, prepared for the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation with Broadway Malyan, set out the regeneration of a derelict riverfront district immediately east of downtown Calgary. The plan established a fine-grained mixed-use framework on former industrial and skid-row land along the Bow River, anchored by a riverfront promenade and new cultural institutions, with land value uplift captured through a community revitalisation levy to fund infrastructure.

Significance

East Village is regarded as one of Canada's clearer demonstrations of publicly led brownfield regeneration, using an arm's-length development corporation and tax-increment-style financing rarely applied at this scale in the country. It catalysed the wider renewal of downtown Calgary's eastern flank and is cited in debates on culture-led regeneration and on how resource-economy cities diversify their urban cores.

What shaped it

Landscape urbanism (Waldheim) (1997-2006)
The compact city (1973-1990s)
Global financial crisis (2007–2009)
World becomes majority urban (2007)

Sources

Open it on the interactive timeline →

hub.toekom.st — History of Urbanism · an interactive timeline of 850 planned cities across 6,000 years.