tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12648975528441008492024-03-13T05:57:40.639-06:00edmonton in three dimensionsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger129125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264897552844100849.post-64844133862931656092021-11-07T22:08:00.006-07:002021-11-07T22:23:59.481-07:00A 102 Avenue for People<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;">When the Valley Line begins operations, 102ave should remain closed to traffic from 99st to 103st.</span><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;">And this is why:</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CC8velr25cs/YYikMjsczwI/AAAAAAAAgRg/8HXXBoGCjo0EAy43kEOYR7F0j1fTm8ldgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1200/Library%2B3%2B100%2B100%2B250%2B400.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="901" data-original-width="1200" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CC8velr25cs/YYikMjsczwI/AAAAAAAAgRg/8HXXBoGCjo0EAy43kEOYR7F0j1fTm8ldgCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/Library%2B3%2B100%2B100%2B250%2B400.gif" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Why would we put cars here, when we don't need to?</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;">102ave will be a terrible road for cars. The city did a traffic study which predicted an *18 minute wait* to turn onto 102ave. </span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MnV6dxKv3ww/YYikr8PSZ3I/AAAAAAAAgRo/P7XazGu22-8Igjn7ykfC_VfYb6msE2plwCLcBGAsYHQ/s595/18%2Bminutes.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="394" data-original-width="595" height="265" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MnV6dxKv3ww/YYikr8PSZ3I/AAAAAAAAgRo/P7XazGu22-8Igjn7ykfC_VfYb6msE2plwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h265/18%2Bminutes.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Edmonton Journal: </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/now-the-details-heres-exactly-how-the-valley-line-lrt-could-impact-you">Now the details: Here's exactly how the Valley Line LRT could impact you</a>.</span></span></span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><i><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span> </span><span> </span></span></span></span></i></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;">If 102ave is opened to traffic it will be nothing but a long line of idling vehicles. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;">So why not make it for people?</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Do people actually want to be on 102ave?</span></div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-00p9izeVdrI/YYilNmT7diI/AAAAAAAAgR0/XqS5rNeFIXMBcgUvRVnz4FaqsCfJPpA8wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1020/edmonton-city-centre-mall-1-5574561-1630880877789.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="1020" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-00p9izeVdrI/YYilNmT7diI/AAAAAAAAgR0/XqS5rNeFIXMBcgUvRVnz4FaqsCfJPpA8wCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h225/edmonton-city-centre-mall-1-5574561-1630880877789.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-c499MMtkGU0/YYilMyjOouI/AAAAAAAAgRw/vcANacPih8kVv03SbdN8OO685kkN2Z9sACLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Edmonton_ManullifePlace400.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="342" data-original-width="400" height="343" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-c499MMtkGU0/YYilMyjOouI/AAAAAAAAgRw/vcANacPih8kVv03SbdN8OO685kkN2Z9sACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h343/Edmonton_ManullifePlace400.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Right now, 102ave definitely has a bit of a problem with monolithic malls from the 80s. </span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;">But City Centre Mall and Manulife Place have both announced redevelopment plans to open up their malls to the street, and to encourage walkability.</span></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a class="in-cell-link" href="https://renx.ca/30m-redevelopment-manulife-place-tower-edmonton/" target="_blank">https://renx.ca/30m-redevelopment-manulife-place-tower-edmonton/</a></span></span></span></li><li><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><a class="in-cell-link" href="https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/a-work-in-progress-city-centre-mall-to-undergo-redevelopment-project-1.5574557" target="_blank">https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/a-work-in-progress-city-centre-mall-to-undergo-redevelopment-project-1.5574557</a></span></span></li></ul></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The former BMO lot at 102ave and 101st is currently a hole, but one day it will become something new.</span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ag1eVpNsFlo/YYimJOOOY-I/AAAAAAAAgSA/vDhw-at8yF4beoEdGaITrM1mznx8j4xCgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1200/Pit%2B1%2B100%2B250%2B400.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="901" data-original-width="1200" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ag1eVpNsFlo/YYimJOOOY-I/AAAAAAAAgSA/vDhw-at8yF4beoEdGaITrM1mznx8j4xCgCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/Pit%2B1%2B100%2B250%2B400.gif" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Whatever that lot becomes, it won't need a single lane of idling traffic infront of it.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;">And honestly, the problem isn't just idling traffic:</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-q5VmG9Z7smw/YYim47YH4wI/AAAAAAAAgSQ/z6Neataki-oBvGgUBHQMVrfs4TkhWRl7wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1200/102%2BWest%2B100%2B100%2B250%2B400.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="901" data-original-width="1200" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-q5VmG9Z7smw/YYim47YH4wI/AAAAAAAAgSQ/z6Neataki-oBvGgUBHQMVrfs4TkhWRl7wCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/102%2BWest%2B100%2B100%2B250%2B400.gif" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;">If traffic is allowed onto 102ave, drivers will also park on the bikelane, shortcut on the bikelane, and block the sidewalk and bikelane at every intersection.</span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xXIegX0Bg8Q/YYimulO9c1I/AAAAAAAAgSM/9lSXVYJ1zlspnMvVORZpyXuLCzJoTeI9wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1200/Library%2B1%2B100%2B100%2B250%2B400.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="901" data-original-width="1200" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xXIegX0Bg8Q/YYimulO9c1I/AAAAAAAAgSM/9lSXVYJ1zlspnMvVORZpyXuLCzJoTeI9wCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/Library%2B1%2B100%2B100%2B250%2B400.gif" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;">"...oh, drivers won't break the rules. That won't happen."
Unfortunately the 102ave bike lane will absolutely, 100% become the "I'll just be parking here for a second" lane.</span></span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;">But it doesn't need to be that way.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;">If we were to make 102ave into a people place we could get a freebie-plaza at the north end of Rice Howard Way as part of the deal: </span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IRilSLyMh5A/YYinTcaRgWI/AAAAAAAAgSc/MPMoqbytB0I_kdielGovNecsD4d2MYVlACLcBGAsYHQ/s1199/RHW%2BSatellite.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="794" data-original-width="1199" height="265" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IRilSLyMh5A/YYinTcaRgWI/AAAAAAAAgSc/MPMoqbytB0I_kdielGovNecsD4d2MYVlACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h265/RHW%2BSatellite.jpg" width="400" /></a></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2Jy2xMCRyRU/YYincGm_2WI/AAAAAAAAgSg/hflrlgOIqekkFIfQpeyjYPU8xsAaPyJWQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/RHW%2BExample%2B2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1538" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2Jy2xMCRyRU/YYincGm_2WI/AAAAAAAAgSg/hflrlgOIqekkFIfQpeyjYPU8xsAaPyJWQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h300/RHW%2BExample%2B2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is 12,000sqft, which is enough space to store 6~8 cars, or enough space to do something new:</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ti1sCyUFITg/YYinwDzKlEI/AAAAAAAAgSs/PL5Mn2cHIu4Mo2zOzVL8VW6BQ1Ok_1tXgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1200/RHW%2BPlaza%2B100%2B250%2B400.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="901" data-original-width="1200" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ti1sCyUFITg/YYinwDzKlEI/AAAAAAAAgSs/PL5Mn2cHIu4Mo2zOzVL8VW6BQ1Ok_1tXgCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/RHW%2BPlaza%2B100%2B250%2B400.gif" width="640" /></a></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;">And a few blocks west at 102st another plaza would be possible by the YMCA and Manulife Place.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hnTV9OTyvqc/YYis7cDVmII/AAAAAAAAgS4/3lis2HuwQ98YYeD5T1WmcxOXJ67w5kBwQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1200/Second%2BCup%2B100%2B250%2B400.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="928" data-original-width="1200" height="494" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hnTV9OTyvqc/YYis7cDVmII/AAAAAAAAgS4/3lis2HuwQ98YYeD5T1WmcxOXJ67w5kBwQCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h494/Second%2BCup%2B100%2B250%2B400.gif" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The area from 102st to 103st is an interesting spot, because at this point it has been closed for years, but it will also be closed again once the construction of the West LRT begins:</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FWS1YSj70Jo/YYito6x-RaI/AAAAAAAAgTI/pomjMwnlKO8RY4zLcCOT9VGAb9B1WmNuACLcBGAsYHQ/s1200/103%2Bst%2B100%2B250%2B400.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="901" data-original-width="1200" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FWS1YSj70Jo/YYito6x-RaI/AAAAAAAAgTI/pomjMwnlKO8RY4zLcCOT9VGAb9B1WmNuACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/103%2Bst%2B100%2B250%2B400.gif" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;">There is no point in allowing traffic here again for a few months or a year, only to close it again for a second round of LRT construction. So instead, while we wait for the West LRT to begin this area could be used for programming and pilots, similar to the pop-up parks which were successful in 2021.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;">A decade ago someone </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;">made the decision that one lonely traffic lane absolutely had to remain on 102ave.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;">:</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BFuhtLi7mUg/YYiu_vxOS5I/AAAAAAAAgTQ/MVZpkQD8t2EJCBl-JT7ChpZnC6uTpQq-ACLcBGAsYHQ/s1680/Lonely%2BLane%2B-%2BOriginal.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="847" data-original-width="1680" height="201" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BFuhtLi7mUg/YYiu_vxOS5I/AAAAAAAAgTQ/MVZpkQD8t2EJCBl-JT7ChpZnC6uTpQq-ACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h201/Lonely%2BLane%2B-%2BOriginal.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QJ5EpJibVBQ/YYivDqhBKnI/AAAAAAAAgTU/azdSG4AHtN8-EQ5iLv2_nDnzNPam5DyDgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/Lonely%2BLane.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1538" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QJ5EpJibVBQ/YYivDqhBKnI/AAAAAAAAgTU/azdSG4AHtN8-EQ5iLv2_nDnzNPam5DyDgCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h300/Lonely%2BLane.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;">But at this point 102ave has been closed to traffic for years and years. If it never reopens, no one will miss it.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D5u_ZTwdwb8/YYitW5IUsOI/AAAAAAAAgTA/I6S12-7wPH0jBwKOqFHvY6v5u835aoF-wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1200/Toll%2B2%2B100%2B250%2B400.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="803" data-original-width="1200" height="428" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D5u_ZTwdwb8/YYitW5IUsOI/AAAAAAAAgTA/I6S12-7wPH0jBwKOqFHvY6v5u835aoF-wCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h428/Toll%2B2%2B100%2B250%2B400.gif" width="640" /></a></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are a million reasons to rethink 102ave: climate change, vision zero, collisions with people, collisions with trains, urban placemaking, downtown redevelopment, road maintenance...</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
A single lane of gridlocked traffic won't save downtown, but making downtown into a place for people might.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you would like to see the individual images which were used in this post they are <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/JMmySf7TFCRfKw549" target="_blank">accessible through google photos here</a>.</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264897552844100849.post-71830611653244048422017-06-26T18:54:00.000-06:002017-07-12T17:45:52.575-06:00Edmonton Bikegrid: Envision 109This is going to be a continuation of the series of posts looking at hypothetical, future expansions of Edmonton's new cycletrack network.<br />
<br />
So far we've looked at:<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://inthreedimensions.blogspot.ca/2017/06/edmonton-bikegrid-quickwins-100ave.html">Expanding the downtown grid west into Oliver on 100ave</a></li>
<li><a href="http://inthreedimensions.blogspot.ca/2017/06/edmonton-bikegrid-to-brewery-district.html">Continuing that through the Brewery District and into Westmount</a></li>
<li><a href="http://inthreedimensions.blogspot.ca/2017/06/edmonton-bikegrid-quick-wins-110st.html">Improving the existing 110st and 111st contra-flow lanes near the University</a></li>
<li><a href="http://inthreedimensions.blogspot.ca/2017/06/edmonton-bikegrid-imagining-uofa.html">Imagining a UofA Minimum Grid - Part 1</a></li>
<li><a href="http://inthreedimensions.blogspot.ca/2017/06/edmonton-bikegrid-imagining-uofa_26.html">Imagining a UofA Minimum Grid - Part 2</a></li>
</ul>
<div>
<br />
Here we're going to look at adding a cycletrack to 109st, on the southside of the river. This is near the University, and it could be considered part of the UofA grid, but the city has a separate project called <a href="https://www.edmonton.ca/projects_plans/design_studies/109-streetscape.aspx">Envision 109</a>, and so I'm going to break this out separately. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
According to the city, this is what Envision 109 is about:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Planning studies have been carried out to revitalize the corridor over the past decade. The 109 Street Corridor Area Redevelopment Plan, approved in 2013, suggested that a Comprehensive Streetscape Improvement Plan be developed to review the function of the corridor, to improve the pedestrian environment and to help revitalize the adjacent areas. Streetscape improvements will be built in stages as funding is available.</span></blockquote>
Lets see what we can do about that.<br />
<br />
<i style="font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; font-weight: bold;">Warning: this is all complete make-believe, but it doesn't have to be.</i><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">109 Street & 87 Avenue</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-M4RgZA36Rp0/WU89feTsdfI/AAAAAAAAHr0/ui-eIVkx3kg3ZQM7qnFyrd7-fTZiWV9EACLcBGAs/s1600/109%2B87.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="626" data-original-width="1200" height="332" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-M4RgZA36Rp0/WU89feTsdfI/AAAAAAAAHr0/ui-eIVkx3kg3ZQM7qnFyrd7-fTZiWV9EACLcBGAs/s640/109%2B87.gif" width="640" /></a></div>
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The first thing to notice about 109st is that there is a northbound bus/tax/bike lane on the east side of the street. And in all of these images, I've replaced that with a 2-way cycletrack.<br />
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I don't think that cycletracks should be a zero-sum game, where people on bikes gain while people on transit lose. But in this <i>one</i> specific case I think there's a good case for it, because right now the buslane is only used by one major route - the #9.<br />
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I assume that before the South LRT was completed this buslane was much busier? But today this is a very quiet buslane compared to similar ones on Jasper (which are being removed) or 97st. I don't know how this will change with ETS' recently announced new strategy, and I also don't know if it will change after the Millwoods LRT is complete. But for right now, converting that underused buslane would be a quick-win.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">109 Street & 86 Avenue</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tCWXsZ1bfvY/WWa0jqeXDsI/AAAAAAAAH2c/rLZymIc8_Jwv_WQnQc9RMIqsdKn1Y3c7gCLcBGAs/s1600/109%2B86.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="626" data-original-width="1200" height="332" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tCWXsZ1bfvY/WWa0jqeXDsI/AAAAAAAAH2c/rLZymIc8_Jwv_WQnQc9RMIqsdKn1Y3c7gCLcBGAs/s640/109%2B86.gif" width="640" /></a></div>
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How. On. Earth. Is. This. An. Unmarked. Crosswalk?<br />
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This is an elementary school. This is a university area. This is a commercial mainstreet. The only reason that this intersection is built like this is to discourage people from legally crossing the street. It's time for Edmonton to grow up.<br />
<br />
Here again the buslane has been replaced with a 2-way cycletrack. A crosswalk has also been added, along with a curb-bulb in the westside parking lane to shorten crossing distances.<br />
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By the end of this summer every intersection on 109st from 82ave to 88ave will have a full set of traffic lights - <i>except for this one</i>. So it might actually be better to just skip the crosswalk, and to jump straight to traffic lights. Curb-bulbs in the westside parking lane should be installed all along 109st, though.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">109 Street & 83 Avenue Cycletrack</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wTtwBZQlrms/WU9CqdL1pMI/AAAAAAAAHsM/4bJDDDrvPDIZJaTOpZGNntTGScFKYiWkACLcBGAs/s1600/109%2B83.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="655" data-original-width="1200" height="348" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wTtwBZQlrms/WU9CqdL1pMI/AAAAAAAAHsM/4bJDDDrvPDIZJaTOpZGNntTGScFKYiWkACLcBGAs/s640/109%2B83.gif" width="640" /></a></div>
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This summer the city will be installing a cycletrack at 83ave. Here our imaginary 109st cycletrack is connecting to it.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">109 Street & Whyte Avenue</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7GShAft2Es8/WU9DAuC1fMI/AAAAAAAAHsQ/HyS9rEer5GQjMIdhlnHYNiGiUCh_ll3LQCLcBGAs/s1600/109%2B82.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="655" data-original-width="1200" height="348" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7GShAft2Es8/WU9DAuC1fMI/AAAAAAAAHsQ/HyS9rEer5GQjMIdhlnHYNiGiUCh_ll3LQCLcBGAs/s640/109%2B82.gif" width="640" /></a></div>
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At Whyte Ave we lose a rightturn lane. The traffic signals would need to be modified so that leftturning vehicles would not be turning across the cycletrack while people on bikes have a green light. That would mean the addition of a no-left-turn-on-double-red, but the city is <a href="https://www.edmonton.ca/transportation/traffic_safety/traffic-safety-engineering.aspx#accordion-2E463AA88AA2473184F7C1D1557154C2">moving towards those as part of Vision Zero</a> anyway. This would also increase safety for people walking across Whyte.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">109 Street & 76 Avenue Cycletracks</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SytlrKduK_M/WU9DIjK1whI/AAAAAAAAHsU/6kxFmUNW6RIoIHq_6ic430_TKtrGTgeKgCLcBGAs/s1600/109%2B76.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="626" data-original-width="1200" height="332" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SytlrKduK_M/WU9DIjK1whI/AAAAAAAAHsU/6kxFmUNW6RIoIHq_6ic430_TKtrGTgeKgCLcBGAs/s640/109%2B76.gif" width="640" /></a></div>
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At 76ave our imaginary 109st cycletrack would connect with the newly-improved cycletracks that are being installed here this year.<br />
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South of Whyte Ave 109st is really wide - alternating between 3-lanes of traffic each way, and 3-lanes of traffic each way <i>plus</i> a leftturn lane.<br />
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The city wants to make this area more inviting, and that's what we have here:<br />
<ul>
<li>one lane is converted to a 2-way cycletrack</li>
<li>one lane is removed, and the sidewalks are widened on both sides of the street</li>
<li>that leaves 2-lanes of traffic each way, and in some cases also a leftturn lane.</li>
</ul>
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This could continue all the way to about 62ave, where things get complicated. But with some creativity it might even be possible to take it further south.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">The Updated Map</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jqz85F8qSo4/WU9GyI7rvWI/AAAAAAAAHss/kCor3J-rizwI87P8oYObRR7L2I3YauPPwCLcBGAs/s1600/109.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="788" data-original-width="1085" height="464" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jqz85F8qSo4/WU9GyI7rvWI/AAAAAAAAHss/kCor3J-rizwI87P8oYObRR7L2I3YauPPwCLcBGAs/s640/109.gif" width="640" /></a></div>
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In this map the darker green lines show older, reasonably high-quality cycling infrastructure. The lighter green lines are what is being installed this year: the 83ave cycletrack, and the 76ave/106st improvements. The orange lines are some quick-wins that we looked at for 110st and 111st. The purple lines are a UofA minimum grid, which requires removing leftturn lanes from 87ave, 112st & 114st. And finally, the blue line is 109st.<br />
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Is this overkill for a "minimum" grid? Do we need high-quality, all-ages-and-abilities cycletracks on 106st, 109st and 114st? <span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>(would anyone ask that question about all of these roads that we've built?)</i></span><br />
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I think there's a good case to be made for a cycletrack on 109st:<br />
<ul>
<li>replacing the underused buslane makes it is a reasonably quick-win</li>
<li>it connects much further south than can easily be done on 110st, 111st or 112st</li>
<li>it aligns with the city's Envision 109 goals</li>
</ul>
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To end things off, here's one more look at the map. In this version the segments disappear one-by-one, to give a sense of what each piece adds to the overall network:</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264897552844100849.post-75786079773613682192017-06-26T06:42:00.003-06:002017-07-12T17:47:29.801-06:00Edmonton Bikegrid: Imagining a UofA Cycletrack Minimum Grid - Part 2This is Part 2 of a look at an imaginary bikegrid near the University of Alberta.<br />
<br />
In <a href="http://inthreedimensions.blogspot.ca/2017/06/edmonton-bikegrid-imagining-uofa.html">Part 1</a> we talked about improving the existing bikelanes on 116st, and providing a 2-way cycletrack on 87ave by removing the leftturn lanes.<br />
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Those additions bring us to here:<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MQ4OmKcK57A/WU8d-3NuucI/AAAAAAAAHqc/73-0od5Ph5g5hiP08PaNKhmDVQHN54-nACLcBGAs/s1600/116%2B%2526%2B87.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="788" data-original-width="1085" height="464" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MQ4OmKcK57A/WU8d-3NuucI/AAAAAAAAHqc/73-0od5Ph5g5hiP08PaNKhmDVQHN54-nACLcBGAs/s640/116%2B%2526%2B87.gif" width="640" /></a></div>
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In this map the darker green lines show older, reasonably high-quality cycling infrastructure. The lighter green lines show what is being installed this year: the 83ave cycletrack, and the 76ave/106st improvements. The orange lines show some quick-wins that we looked at for 110st and 111st. And the purple lines are what we looked at in Part 1: 116st and 87ave.<br />
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That's a good start, and it provides much more connectivity than what we have today, but why stop there?<br />
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<b style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><i>Warning: this is all complete make-believe, but it doesn't have to be.</i></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">114 Street and 87 Avenue</span></b><br />
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Last time we talked about finding space for a 2-way cycletrack on 87ave by removing the leftturn lane. Here we've done the same thing for 114st.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">114 Street around 84 Avenue</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uNo32jGOhOU/WU8f385-lTI/AAAAAAAAHqw/ROn2BwL9j1sDzTyoTs6q4K4czd4oJVVNQCLcBGAs/s1600/6%2B114%2BPedway%2B250.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="626" data-original-width="1200" height="332" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uNo32jGOhOU/WU8f385-lTI/AAAAAAAAHqw/ROn2BwL9j1sDzTyoTs6q4K4czd4oJVVNQCLcBGAs/s640/6%2B114%2BPedway%2B250.gif" width="640" /></a></div>
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Because of the LRT line on the westside of 114st, running the cycletrack on the westside is both good and bad. (more good than bad, though)<br />
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It's a bit bad, because it means that anyone biking to the University Hospital would need to cross 114st, and that's annoying.<br />
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It's really good though, because it means that there aren't many places where vehicles would ever turn across the cycletrack - 83ave is the only spot. Not having to worry about right or left turners is a huge benefit.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">114 Street & University Avenue</span></b><br />
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And here's where everyone will claim this is impossible.<br />
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When the South LRT was built a lovely multi-use trail was included just behind it, running from University Ave to Belgravia. There's one problem, though - you can't get to it. It's not that it's fenced off, but as someone walking you are not legally allowed to cross on the westside of 114st.<br />
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If you are walking to the 114st multi-use trail you are required to travel around 3 sides of this intersection in a large "U". And if you are on a bike the only connection is one-block detour down a sidestreet from 115st which then sneaks through the bowels of University's boiler plant. Maybe that expensive multi-use trail was only put there for show?<br />
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When the SLRT opened there was traffic chaos, which was caused in part by signalling issues at this intersection. But it's been almost a decade now, and the world hasn't ended. And does anyone remember what traffic was like on 114st before SLRT? It was the exact same thing, except that there were dozens more buses on the road.<br />
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So whether or not a cycletrack goes through here, it's long past time for the city to allow pedestrians to legally cross on the westside of the intersection. And if we're doing that anyway, then we might as well add a cycletrack to connect to the orphaned multi-use trail, and from there on to 76ave.<br />
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Right now this intersection is so wide that is has a median which takes up two entire lanes of traffic. By reducing that it would be possible to retain the right-turn lane - although right-turns would have to be coordinated with the green for the cycletrack.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">112 Street & 83 Avenue</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-A8j1yoDwkCM/WU8wKHQNnNI/AAAAAAAAHrY/BzZKRV71wAcEx4vwjMRvjyWlSozE4nBcgCLcBGAs/s1600/8%2B112%2B83.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="626" data-original-width="1200" height="332" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-A8j1yoDwkCM/WU8wKHQNnNI/AAAAAAAAHrY/BzZKRV71wAcEx4vwjMRvjyWlSozE4nBcgCLcBGAs/s640/8%2B112%2B83.gif" width="640" /></a></div>
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On the other side of the University Hospital is 112st.<br />
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It is two-lanes of traffic each way, with a leftturn lane that comes and goes. To install a cycletrack on 112st some spots would look like this - two lanes each way with a leftturn lane, changed to two lanes each way and a cycletrack. In other spots it would go from two lanes each way, to one lane each way, and a leftturn lane, and a cycletrack.<br />
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The benefit of adding a cycletrack to 112st is that it could connect to the new cycletrack that is being installed this year on 83ave. That connection isn't really possible from 114st, because the Hospital is in the way. (this would also require extending the 83ave cycletrack to 112st, when the current plan is to stop at 111st. But we're thinking big here.)<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">112 Street & Whyte/University Avenues</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cSzYp4c-gqs/WU8g1tx_GwI/AAAAAAAAHq8/L2lUbibBMQc26Os1l4uhX274nC_dMQGtgCLcBGAs/s1600/9%2B112%2BUni.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="664" data-original-width="1200" height="354" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cSzYp4c-gqs/WU8g1tx_GwI/AAAAAAAAHq8/L2lUbibBMQc26Os1l4uhX274nC_dMQGtgCLcBGAs/s640/9%2B112%2BUni.gif" width="640" /></a></div>
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The other benefit of adding a cycletrack on 112st is that it would fix this intersection.<br />
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This is another spot that I rode through for a long time, before finally deciding that it was just too much of a risk and giving up. Riding southbound is fine, but riding northbound forces a lone cyclist to stare-down 2 lanes of left-turning traffic. It really is a nightmare, and I'm sure that it gave me nightmares on more the one occasion.<br />
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Personally, I don't believe that there is a worse spot anywhere on Edmonton's official bikemap (although I'm open to suggestions). Putting a 2-way cycletrack on the westside of the intersection would greatly simplify things, although now rightturns would have to be coordinated with the cycletrack. But from there people on bikes can connect to the relatively quiet streets of McKernan.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">The Updated Map</span></b><br />
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Here is what we get when we add 114st and 112st in purple.<br />
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The fixes and additions that we've looked at - to 110st, 111st, 112st, 114st, 116st, and 87ave - are a total of about 4.5km of new cycletrack. But because of all of the new connections that it provides - to Saskatchewan Drive, 76ave, 83ave, 106st - the overall southside network would be in excess of 15km.<br />
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From here there's room for even more improvement - University Ave from 112st to 114st, or 83ave from 112st to 114st, or further north on 110st or 112st, or further west on 87ave, or etc. But compared to what we have now, this would be a great start.<br />
<br />
To do this we'd need to remove some lanes, and that sounds scary. But it's important to remember how much the traffic in this area has changed recently. A decade ago 112st and 114st were <i>packed</i> with busses. It wasn't 2-lanes each way - it was 1-lane, and then a wall of ETS blue. Today those busses have mostly disappeared, and that space has been reclaimed by single-occupant vehicles. But it doesn't have to be that way.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264897552844100849.post-4785906221398354512017-06-25T14:21:00.003-06:002017-06-25T14:26:44.305-06:00Edmonton Bikegrid: Imagining a UofA Cycletrack Minimum Grid - Part 1This is going to be a continuation of the series of posts about purely hypothetical, future expansions of Edmonton's new cycletrack network.<br />
<br />
So far we've looked at:<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://inthreedimensions.blogspot.ca/2017/06/edmonton-bikegrid-quickwins-100ave.html">expanding the downtown grid west into Oliver on 100ave</a></li>
<li><a href="http://inthreedimensions.blogspot.ca/2017/06/edmonton-bikegrid-to-brewery-district.html">continuing that through the Brewery District and into Westmount</a></li>
<li><a href="http://inthreedimensions.blogspot.ca/2017/06/edmonton-bikegrid-quick-wins-110st.html">improving the existing 110st and 111st contra-flow lanes near the University</a></li>
</ul>
<br />
Next we will look at some options for providing a true, all-ages-and-abilities cycling grid near the University of Alberta.<br />
<br />
This is what is currently in place:<br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8Cbct0AZEIM/WU7pKd4wZHI/AAAAAAAAHpQ/DMQV_hnT4y451sEVvE4H3VNjffmd7rSZwCLcBGAs/s1600/110%2B%2526%2B111.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="788" data-original-width="1085" height="464" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8Cbct0AZEIM/WU7pKd4wZHI/AAAAAAAAHpQ/DMQV_hnT4y451sEVvE4H3VNjffmd7rSZwCLcBGAs/s640/110%2B%2526%2B111.gif" width="640" /></a></div>
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The darker green lines here show older, reasonably high-quality cycling infrastructure. The lighter green lines show what is being installed this year: the 83ave cycletrack, and the 76ave/106st improvements. And finally, the orange lines show the quick-wins that we looked at for 110st and 111st.<br />
<br />
<b style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><i>Warning: this is all complete make-believe, but it doesn't have to be.</i></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">116 Street</span></b><br />
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116st running along the westside of campus currently has painted bikelanes. The city's traffic counts show 8,500 cars per day, and to put that into some context, prior to the construction of the cycletrack network downtown 103st and 106st had 4,500 and 6,500 cars per day respectively. 116st is a farily narrow road though, and the bikelanes are narrow as well. A lot of the traffic on 116st is also short-cutting either to-or-from the river, and so caution is maybe not the highest priority.<br />
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With the painted bikelanes I wouldn't bike here unless I had to, and during the winter it wouldn't even occur to me to use this route. The image shows two possible improvements.<br />
<br />
The existing bikelanes could be protected by just adding posts. This isn't ideal though, because the bikelanes are quite narrow. Widening the bikelanes isn't really an option either though, because that would reduce the driving lanes to under 10' wide.<br />
<br />
An alternative might be to remove the bikelanes, and instead work with the University to widen the sidewalk into a full multi-use trail. That certainly wouldn't be as cheap as just adding posts, but it would probably be more comfortable, and more reliable during the winter (which is when a lot of the University schoolyear takes place).<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">87 Avenue</span></b><br />
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<br />
Here is where things get more ambitious.<br />
<br />
For all of the other cycletrack suggestions we've looked at I've tried to steal space from extra-wide lanes, or maybe by removing on-street parking. But when we get to the major roads around the University the only way to fit in a cycletrack is to remove either a driving lane or turning lane.<br />
<br />
What we can see in this image is that the left-turn lane has been removed from 87ave, and replaced with a 2-way cycletrack. And that cycletrack would connect to the 116st bikelanes or multi-use trail that we were just looking at.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">87 Avenue & 114 Street</span></b><br />
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<br />
Moving two blocks east to 114st, here the left-turn lane is removed again, and everything is shifted south (the left side in the image). The cycletrack is tucked-in between the plaza infront of the climbing-wall and the on-street parking. The north-south crosswalk here has also been updated to a shared-use crossing.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">87 Avenue at 113 Street</span></b><br />
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<br />
Continuing east along 87ave, there isn't much to see here, but doesn't this look better?<br />
<br />
Yes, this area is very busy. And yes, leftturn lanes are well-used for an hour each day. But the point of this exercise is to take something that seems impossible - like removing <i>any</i> lane around the university - and to see what it <i>could</i> look like.<br />
<br />
87ave is also the only contiguous, east-west route in this area - everything else is blocked either by campus, or by the hospital.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">87 Avenue & 110 Street</span></b><br />
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<br />
A bit further east 87ave reduces to one-lane each way with a turnlane. In this image that turnlane is removed, leaving one-lane each way, and the 2-way cycletrack.<br />
<br />
This cycletrack provides a connection to the contra-flow lanes on 110st and 111st that we looked at fixing last time.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">The Updated Map</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LZEEpduvS9k/WU7xqwh6rBI/AAAAAAAAHpw/GZuJB5-N3747M_aTVDJ1nFmwgCnyNkr9ACLcBGAs/s1600/116%2B%2526%2B87.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="788" data-original-width="1085" height="464" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LZEEpduvS9k/WU7xqwh6rBI/AAAAAAAAHpw/GZuJB5-N3747M_aTVDJ1nFmwgCnyNkr9ACLcBGAs/s640/116%2B%2526%2B87.gif" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
The purple lines on this map show where we've ended up:<br />
<ul>
<li>By adding separated cycling infrastructure to 116st and 87ave there is now a loop around the whole campus.</li>
<li>This provides connections to Saskatchewan Dr and to the 110st/111st contra-flow lanes</li>
<li>It would mean sacrificing something - either driving lanes or turnlanes on 87ave.</li>
</ul>
<br />
That's it for Part 1 of the look at an imaginary University of Alberta cycletrack network. In Part 2 we'll expand it even further, and suggest a few more impossible improvements.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264897552844100849.post-16899413464418000002017-06-25T09:24:00.000-06:002017-07-03T10:33:10.343-06:00Edmonton Bikegrid Quick-Wins: 110st & 111st Contra-flow LanesIn the last few posts we looked at an easy extension to the new downtown bikegrid <a href="http://inthreedimensions.blogspot.ca/2017/06/edmonton-bikegrid-quickwins-100ave.html">on 100ave and Victoria Promenade</a>, and a slightly-less-easy extension through <a href="http://inthreedimensions.blogspot.ca/2017/06/edmonton-bikegrid-to-brewery-district.html">the Brewery District and Westmount</a>.<br />
<br />
Now we're going to move to the other side of the river to look at a quick-win near the University of Alberta.<br />
<br />
<i style="font-weight: bold;">Warning: this is all complete make-believe, but it doesn't have to be.</i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">111 Street</span></b><br />
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ie4PQPGpbR4/WU3THsUysFI/AAAAAAAAHns/EhR936TC_0IjGho4wJKj28J2Sg3zlXW8gCLcBGAs/s1600/111%2B86.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="626" data-original-width="1200" height="332" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ie4PQPGpbR4/WU3THsUysFI/AAAAAAAAHns/EhR936TC_0IjGho4wJKj28J2Sg3zlXW8gCLcBGAs/s640/111%2B86.gif" width="640" /></a><br />
<br />
Right now near the University there are a pair of contra-flow lanes, with 111st northbound and 110st southbound. The thing is, they don't work very well:<br />
<ul>
<li>This route is popular with drivers who are shortcutting through Garneau, and safety is their last concern. I have seen every possible misbehaviour: stopsigns are purely optional; wrongway on the oneways; passing in the bikelanes; and I even had one stoned driver of a white minivan try to pass me on the sidewalk, narrowly missing trees and lampposts.</li>
<li>To cross Whyte ave and 87ave you have to climb onto the sidewalk to press a begbutton, which means crossing back-and-forth infront of oncoming traffic.</li>
<li>In winter these lanes essentially disappear.</li>
</ul>
<br />
I have a personal connection to these lanes, because I rode them daily for several years. I had so many close calls though, that eventually I gave up and I changed my route. My new route is longer, and it forces me to climb out of the rivervalley every morning, but it's worth it to avoid this existing "bike infrastructure".<br />
<br />
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oUU2NGCc04I/WU3aOvL2JiI/AAAAAAAAHoE/pD5jd-J9bfoCAf7GF1UBttvdH5HLxI2igCLcBGAs/s1600/1110%2B82%2B1way%2Bonly.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="626" data-original-width="1200" height="332" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oUU2NGCc04I/WU3aOvL2JiI/AAAAAAAAHoE/pD5jd-J9bfoCAf7GF1UBttvdH5HLxI2igCLcBGAs/s640/1110%2B82%2B1way%2Bonly.gif" width="640" /></a><br />
<br />
Luckily these streets are plenty-wide to add barriers to the existing contraflow lanes to protect cyclists.<br />
<br />
This would narrow the driving lanes to act as traffic calming, and would also prevent the "Yes I'm going the wrong way on a one-way, but it's only 1 block so it's okay" syndrome that is so common around the University Hospital.<br />
<br />
Adding begbuttons that can actually be reached from the cycletracks would also fix the unsafe crossovers that are required right now.<br />
<br />
<b style="font-size: x-large;">110 Street</b><br />
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<br />
Here we have 110st, which just needs barriers and a cycletrack begbutton at 87ave and Whyte.<br />
<br />
If we're dreaming big though, instead of the 2 contra-flow lanes on 110st and 111st, a better approach might actually be to convert 110st to a 2-way cycletrack. This would mean removing the on-street parking, but it would also provide a straight connection from Saskatchewan Drive south to Whyte Ave, and possibly beyond. We can see that better on the map:<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Updated Map</b></span><br />
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</div>
<br />
This map shows cycling infrastructure around the University. The darker green lines are older paths. The lighter green lines are new cycletracks that are being installed this year - the new cycletrack on 83ave, and the 76ave and 106st renewal. The orange lines show the quick-fixes on 110st and 111st.<br />
<br />
One problem with 111st is that it has to rejoin traffic north of 87ave, so it's really only the 4 blocks from Whtye to 88ave. That's better than nothing, but the nice thing about switching to a 2-way cycletrack on 110st is that it would provide a single connection from Saskatchewan Drive, to the new 83ave cycletrack, and to Whyte. And if we were willing to lose even more parking, it could continue south all the way to the new 76ave cycletrack. That's maybe a bit ambitious, though?<br />
<br />
In the short term, adding barriers and begbuttons to fix the 110st and 111st contra-flows would be a quick-win, and it would be a huge improvement over what is there today.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264897552844100849.post-59594000709210122122017-06-23T20:25:00.000-06:002017-06-24T20:10:38.166-06:00Edmonton Bikegrid: to the Brewery District & 124st<a href="http://inthreedimensions.blogspot.ca/2017/06/edmonton-bikegrid-quickwins-100ave.html">In the last post</a>, I talked about how easy it would be to expand Edmonton's fantastic new bikegrid west into Oliver along 100ave and Victoria Promenade.<br />
<br />
This map shows the new cycletrack network that will be installed this year in light green, and older, relatively high-quality bike infrastructure is in darker green. The orange line is the quick-win extension that we looked at last time.<br />
<br />
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<br />
Next we're going to continue north along 121st to connect to the Brewery district, the downtown grid on 105ave, the multi-use pathway on 121st, 124st, and the 127st cycletrack in Westmount. In this section things won't be quite as painless as they were last time.<br />
<br />
<b><i>Warning: this is all complete make-believe, but it doesn't have to be.</i></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">121 Street North of 102 Avenue</span></b><br />
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<br />
Last time we looked at two options for 121st south of 102ave - either a 2-way protected cycletrack on the eastside of the street, or 1-way protected cycletracks on both sides.<br />
<br />
Things are more complicated further north, because the wide median with mature trees means that the road is much narrower. South of 102ave we can add protected cycletracks without losing any parking, but north of 102ave something has to be sacrificed.<br />
<br />
If the on-street parking is removed that would give us room for a 2-way cycletrack, and one driving lane.<br />
<br />
A 1-way cycletrack is narrower than a 2-way, but it isn't narrow enough to keep the on-street parking. So if we went with 1-way cycletracks on both sides of the street that would mean losing parking on both sides of the street.<br />
<br />
This area of Oliver isn't particularly dense - from 102ave to 103ave is just a small walkup and a few houses; and from 103ave to 104ave has houses on the westside, and on the eastside are some lowrises and the Lamplighter highrise.<br />
<br />
So it's pretty quiet as far as Oliver goes, but losing on-street parking on both sides probably isn't great. This isn't a quick-win, but of the two options replacing the on-street parking on the eastside of 121st with a 2-way cycletrack probably makes the most sense.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">The Brewery District</span></b><br />
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<br />
Whether walking or biking, the Brewery District is currently a wasteland.<br />
<br />
A decade ago the area was nothing but security gatehouses, loading docks and used car lots. Today it's trying to be a fancy, hip urban village, but the active transportation connections have not been updated at all: 0 new bikelanes, 0 new path connections, 0 new crosswalks or pedestrian crossings. To walk to the fancy new MEC and Starbucks there is an unmarked crosswalk across 5 lanes of traffic.<br />
<br />
Lets fix some of that:<br />
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<br />
Right now the roads around the Brewery District are massively overbuilt.<br />
<br />
On 121st we just saw that it makes the most sense to have a 2-way cycletrack on the eastside of the street. This image shows that, and for the sake of completion it also shows the option of 1-way cycletracks on bothsides.<br />
<br />
In either case, there's plenty of room. Extending the cycletrack network is a perfect occasion to narrow these huge roads, and to provide crosswalks and curb-bulbs to improve the walkability of the area as well.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">105 Avenue or 106 Avenue</span></b><br />
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<br />
To connect from 121st to 124st we could take either 105ave or 106ave. 105ave is probably better, but the images here will all show 106ave (it was easier to draw).<br />
<br />
Both 105ave and 106ave are huge, and have more than enough space to add a protected 2-way cycletrack, without losing any parking or travel lanes.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">124 Street</span></b><br />
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<br />
Continuing west on either 105ave or 106ave we reach 124st.<br />
<br />
There are traffic lights on 124st at both 105ave and 106ave, and so at either location a pushbutton would need to be installed for easy access from the cycletrack.<br />
<br />
And 106ave would require a little bit more work here than 105ave would, because it has a curb-bulb and some trees that would need to be removed.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Connection to 127 Street Cycletrack in Westmount</span></b><br />
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<br />
And finally, here we are continuing west through Westmount to the cycletrack at 127st. This section also isn't pain-free, because it would mean removing on-street parking for 3 blocks.<br />
<br />
Westmount is quiet enough that maybe a protected cycletrack isn't needed? But if the goal is a well-connected, all-ages-and-abilities network then this is an important link.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">The Updated Map</span></b><br />
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<br />
Last time we looked at extending the cycletrack network west down 100ave and Victoria Promenade, which really could be done with minimal effort.<br />
<br />
Here we've continued that extension through the Brewery District and into Westmount. This one isn't quite so easy, but it is important:<br />
<ul>
<li>add 1.4km of protected bikelanes to the network.</li>
<li>connect to 105ave cycletrack and the downtown grid</li>
<li>connect to 121st mult-use path and 127st cycletrack, providing access further north</li>
<li>connect to 124st</li>
<li>fix the Brewery District wasteland</li>
<li>lose on-street parking along 2 blocks of 121st</li>
<li>lose on-street parking along 3 block of 105ave or 106ave</li>
</ul>
<div>
With these additions we'd have a pretty nice grid in place for the 40,000+ people who live in the Downtown, Oliver, Queen Mary Park, and Westmount.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264897552844100849.post-68765061416617186452017-06-23T18:13:00.001-06:002017-06-24T20:10:23.947-06:00Edmonton Bikegrid Quick-Wins: 100ave & Victoria PromenadeLast week the city opened the first section of Edmonton's new downtown cycletrack network. The official webpage about the grid is <a href="https://www.edmonton.ca/projects_plans/downtown/bike-network.aspx">here</a>. It is designed for all-ages and abilities, and people riding their bikes are separated and protected from traffic. It is a huge step forward for active transportation in Edmonton.<br />
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By the end of this summer, the bike network in Downtown and Oliver will look something like this:<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cpEH-yJVU3w/WU2XMC8RlTI/AAAAAAAAHlQ/XIHW28w6KLYBdTKrhrbn5H3h1qhNSSDFACLcBGAs/s1600/1%2BBase%2BGrid.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="836" data-original-width="1215" height="440" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cpEH-yJVU3w/WU2XMC8RlTI/AAAAAAAAHlQ/XIHW28w6KLYBdTKrhrbn5H3h1qhNSSDFACLcBGAs/s640/1%2BBase%2BGrid.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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The darker green lines show older infrastructure, and the lighter green is what is being installed this year. The downtown portion of the grid has all been designed and installed in less than a year, which is amazing.<br />
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Now that we know what the city can<i style="font-weight: bold;"> </i>do, lets look at what they should think about doing next.<br />
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<b><i>Warning: this is all complete make-believe, but it doesn't have to be.</i></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">100 Avenue</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Opfl0aaVA4Q/WU2ZA0khF8I/AAAAAAAAHlg/tB__k74fwOAjEgpx8VreNHb3NnyRsvhTQCLcBGAs/s1600/Westminster.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="626" data-original-width="1200" height="332" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Opfl0aaVA4Q/WU2ZA0khF8I/AAAAAAAAHlg/tB__k74fwOAjEgpx8VreNHb3NnyRsvhTQCLcBGAs/s640/Westminster.gif" width="640" /></a></div>
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This image shows what 100ave could look like if the cycletrack network were extended west through Grandin.<br />
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Once upon a time 100ave had 3 lanes of traffic - 1 eastbound and 2 westbound. Then about 15 years ago the city removed a westbound lane, and converted the road to 2 gigantic lanes.<br />
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Right now this is a very unpleasant road to bike on. Drivers don't know if they should hug the middle line, or the curb, or just drive right down the middle. And if you're trying to find someone riding a bike on a sidewalk in Oliver, 100ave is the place to look, because only the bravest people will attempt riding on the road here.<br />
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At 16' wide these lanes are huge, and if they were reduced to a more reasonable 10' then a 2-way, protected cycletrack would fit just nicely.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">100 Avenue & 116 Street</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zSCGsEwO69c/WU2aytSTqZI/AAAAAAAAHls/YTEOod4IBLkPiHQ0Q1ohJE3TjKREbbaQgCLcBGAs/s1600/100%2B116.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="626" data-original-width="1200" height="332" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zSCGsEwO69c/WU2aytSTqZI/AAAAAAAAHls/YTEOod4IBLkPiHQ0Q1ohJE3TjKREbbaQgCLcBGAs/s640/100%2B116.gif" width="640" /></a></div>
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Heading further west we reach 100ave and 116st, which is a bad intersection if you are on a bike or on foot. When you are on a bike the right-of-ways are completely unclear, and when you are on foot you face a constant battle with drivers creeping into the crosswalks.<br />
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At this location the installation of a cycletrack would mean the loss of the short right-turn lane from 100ave northbound onto 116st, as well as roughly 4 on-street parking spots at Academy Place.<br />
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But providing a cycletrack would make this intersection navigable on a bike, which is currently impossible. It would also shorten the crossing distance for people walking, and no-right-turn-on-red would limit the crosswalk encroachment that is currently so common.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">100 Avenue & 117 Street</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UmGdWWP9U2g/WU2bggSMANI/AAAAAAAAHl0/3grgEThkZHwZ206hl3_d8uTnEtFTvBr1gCLcBGAs/s1600/100%2B117%2B250.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="625" data-original-width="1200" height="332" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UmGdWWP9U2g/WU2bggSMANI/AAAAAAAAHl0/3grgEThkZHwZ206hl3_d8uTnEtFTvBr1gCLcBGAs/s640/100%2B117%2B250.gif" width="640" /></a></div>
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If we move a bit further west to 117st we find another intersection that currently doesn't work very well on a bike.<br />
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Like 100ave, Victoria Promenade also used to have 2 lanes westbound. One was removed, and it was replaced with a contra-flow bikelane, as well as an extra-wide westbound lane with sharrows. This image shows some possible ways to handle a cycletrack in this location.<br />
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The most obvious fix would be to simply widen the existing bikelane into a 2-way cycletrack, and to add barriers. That would be easy, but it would still mean that people biking would need to cross infront of westbound traffic at 117st. If we went with that approach the crosswalk should be converted to a raised crosswalk, so that drivers have to slow down.<br />
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An alternate approach would be to shift the bikelane to the northside of the street (the left side of the image), so that people on bikes don't have to cross infront of traffic. That would mean moving the onstreet parking to the other side of the street, which is uncommon in Edmonton, but is not completely unheard of. There is on-street parking on the driver's side on 105st downtown, as well as on Calgary Trail near Whyte ave.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Victoria Promenade</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/--Lt5MB5AYXc/WU2bpDjs_uI/AAAAAAAAHl4/1CjmVgzOwXUQzlazFlxSmBZMhV51eJ22ACLcBGAs/s1600/Mayflower.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="626" data-original-width="1200" height="332" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/--Lt5MB5AYXc/WU2bpDjs_uI/AAAAAAAAHl4/1CjmVgzOwXUQzlazFlxSmBZMhV51eJ22ACLcBGAs/s640/Mayflower.gif" width="640" /></a></div>
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If the cycletrack were placed on the northside of Victoria Promenade it would simplify the major intersections at 117st and 121st. But it also introduces smaller potential conflict points at 118st, 119st, and at the driveways for 6 apartment buildings. This image shows the two options.<br />
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A cycletrack on the southside would certainly be simplest, but if it were on the northside the visibility would actually be pretty good.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">121 Street & Jasper</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oCsCh_BlJzk/WU6qV6ZPsnI/AAAAAAAAHo0/w8wuRjoXmFc1eXoQivtGNou5gC5_mDQ0QCLcBGAs/s1600/Jasper%2B121%2B-%2Bfixed.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="626" data-original-width="1200" height="332" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oCsCh_BlJzk/WU6qV6ZPsnI/AAAAAAAAHo0/w8wuRjoXmFc1eXoQivtGNou5gC5_mDQ0QCLcBGAs/s640/Jasper%2B121%2B-%2Bfixed.gif" width="640" /></a></div>
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The main draw of moving the cycletrack to the northside of Victoria Promenade is because of where 121st crosses Jasper ave.<br />
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A 2-way cycletrack on the southside of Victoria Promenade would end up on the westside of this intersection (the right side of the image), and that would not work because of the double leftturn lane.<br />
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But a 2-way cycletrack on the southside of Victoria Promenade would connect to the eastside of this intersection, and that could work as long as the traffic signals are set up properly. To find space for that the existing median would have to be demolished (although it's crumbling as we speak), and the lanes shifted over a few feet.<br />
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Alternatively, the 2-way cycletrack could split somewhere on Victoria Promenade, and then cross Jasper as separate, 1-way cycletracks.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Connection to 102 Avenue Cycletrack</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pFRLgucIdek/WU2b4RoNveI/AAAAAAAAHmA/7MVuEwxQ_e8X2FjGaaCtmn54fqDuvfH0ACLcBGAs/s1600/121%2B102%2BSouth.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="664" data-original-width="1200" height="354" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pFRLgucIdek/WU2b4RoNveI/AAAAAAAAHmA/7MVuEwxQ_e8X2FjGaaCtmn54fqDuvfH0ACLcBGAs/s640/121%2B102%2BSouth.gif" width="640" /></a></div>
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Finally that brings us to 102ave, which is having a cycletrack installed this year.<br />
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Right now the bikelanes on 121st are a narrow afterthought, and they are right in the door-zone of parked vehicles. 121st is really wide though - each direction has 32' of space to play with if we want to improve things.<br />
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As we saw with the last image, we could install a 2-way cycletrack, and to do that the median would need to be removed. Or the existing 1-way cycletracks could be improved by moving them against the curb, adding barriers, and then shifting the on-street parking to the outside.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">The Updated Map</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sZpZkQAjbZc/WU2cC600F8I/AAAAAAAAHmE/Sim23m69_DAREib5-iXjULEzjAN42w41wCLcBGAs/s1600/100%2Bave%2BQuick%2BWins.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="826" data-original-width="1200" height="440" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sZpZkQAjbZc/WU2cC600F8I/AAAAAAAAHmE/Sim23m69_DAREib5-iXjULEzjAN42w41wCLcBGAs/s640/100%2Bave%2BQuick%2BWins.gif" width="640" /></a></div>
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And here is where we end up, with the orange line showing this quick-win extension.<br />
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By installing a cycletrack on 100ave and Victoria Promenade we:<br />
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<ul>
<li>add 1.7km of protected bikelanes to the network.</li>
<li>add important connections at 110st, to the river at 116st, and to the 102ave cycletrack.</li>
<li>fix 3 intersections that are currently bad for biking.</li>
<li>provide access to the cycletrack network for Grandin and south Oliver.</li>
<li>provide traffic calming by narrowing the huge, existing lanes.</li>
<li>lose no lanes of traffic</li>
<li>lose less than 10 parking stalls at 116st and at the General Hospital at 111st.</li>
</ul>
This is all just doodling, but the measurements are pretty accurate, so it should all be possible.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264897552844100849.post-24536838095592303242017-06-18T09:39:00.000-06:002017-06-18T10:05:03.032-06:00...and we're back (albeit temporarily)I haven't used this blog in years and years, but I have a few things that I need to write up. This spot is as good as any, so in the next few days there will be some new posts about Edmonton's new bikegrid.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264897552844100849.post-2621413709170727792011-10-02T15:03:00.010-06:002011-10-15T11:15:51.818-06:00Caution!!! This is a Sign!!!The Parks Branch of the City of Edmonton is currently running a signage pilot program on a section of multi-use trail in the river valley. <br /><br />I think this is a great idea, because the trail system is not as user friendly as it could or should be. I have a typical cycling loop that is about 45km - all within the city and fairly central - and on that route I think I pass maybe 3 or 4 trail maps. For anyone who is not familiar with the river valley, the chance of them stumbling across informative signage is basically zero. So I'm glad that the city is working to improve this, and I hope that these new wayfinding tools might encourage a few tourists (or locals) to explore that trail system.<br /><br />Here is one of the new signs:<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/inthreedimensions/6196944652/" title="Original by inthreedimensions, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6154/6196944652_5508b3abf9.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Original"></a><br /><br />First, the bad:<br /><br />They're not well thought out.<br />They're not very helpful.<br />They're sort of ugly.<br /><br />The giant Caution at the top of the sign makes no sense. These are multi-use trails and not a freeway. You're not traveling at 80km/h, and you don't need to be warned that there's an intersection ahead because you can see it right in front of you. And anyway, the print on the sign is so small that in order to read it you have to be standing in the intersection, looking at a sign telling you that you're at an intersection. It's ridiculous.<br /><br />There is also a real risk with sticking Caution signs everywhere because it devalues locations where they might actually be important. If what they want is a yield sign for safety then they should put a yield sign - a Caution sign on a stick doesn't mean anything to anyone. Traveling through an area that has many of these signs it is natural to assume that they are just marking something like an underground utility, and that they are unimportant. Training trail-users to ignore Caution signs is the last thing that the Parks Branch should want.<br /><br />The signs are also lacking a key piece of information - distances. "The High Level Bridge is up ahead somewhere" is not helpful. What's even less helpful is that if you follow this sign the Groat Bridge (which isn't listed) is less that 1km away, but the High Level Bridge is another 2km beyond that. There is plenty of room to add distances, but it is also important that the information that is listed is consistent. All nearby river crossings should be identified because they are fairly rare, and because if you cross the river once then you need to make sure you can get back. Intersections, major parks and trailheads should be prioritized as well.<br /><br />Finally, the signs are unnecessarily ugly. I like to think that improved signage and wayfinding markers could help to make the river valley more friendly and welcoming, but unfortunately these signs just make it look like a crimescene. Information for trail-users should be a helpful resource and not something to be scared of.<br /><br />So that is what I don't like about the signs. What do I like?<br /><br />More signage is definitely needed on the multi-use trail system.<br />The city is going for a look that is consistent and visible and that says "This is important" rather than "This is a sign that is brown" like most of the existing signage. <br />The new signs appear inexpensive and should be mostly vandalism-proof, so they could be installed throughout the trail system at low cost.<br /><br />How would I improve them?<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/inthreedimensions/6196944852/" title="Better by inthreedimensions, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6162/6196944852_4098a95096.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Better"></a><br /><br />As far as I'm concerned, labeling these signs as Caution completely misses the point. What they are providing is Information, and that is how they should be identified. This is a really simple change, but I think it's a huge improvement. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/inthreedimensions/6204698365/" title="Better 2 by inthreedimensions, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6023/6204698365_77d6ae6b11.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Better 2"></a><br /><br />Taking things one step further, something like this contains the information that I would like to see. The text is still small enough that you need to stop to be able to read it, but it is basically an info booth - if you are lost then stopping isn't a problem. Ideally a small map of the nearby trails could also be added on the back (similar to what is done on some bus-stops), but I don't think that would fit on the signs the city has chosen. Even without that though, placing these wayfinding markers frequently and then installing eye-catching maps of the full trail system at every river crossing, major park and trailhead would make the parks system much more inviting.<br /><br />The city is looking for input on this pilot project at trails@edmonton.caUnknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264897552844100849.post-30476160144603729362011-09-08T22:33:00.009-06:002011-10-03T13:34:38.830-06:00The EPS Strikes AgainNot much to say of late, but the Edmonton Police Service has brought me out of semi-retirement. It's nearly fall and school is back in session, so that means it's time for their annual ineffectual anti-jaywalking crackdown and hullabaloo.<br /><br />Two years ago they conveniently misrepresented statistics to blame pedestrians for silly things like cars that backed over them; cars that left the road; and cars that ran stopsigns. Sadly the links to any related articles are long dead, but I saved a quote from the September 28, 2009 Edmonton Journal article <span style="font-style:italic;">Pedestrians at fault in 59 per cent of injury accidents: EPS</span><br /><br /><blockquote>41 per cent of drivers in injury accidents involving pedestrians were found to have failed to yield the right of way. That means in the other 59 per cent, the pedestrians were at fault...According to EPS statistics, 404 pedestrians were struck in the city in 2008. In 18 per cent of cases, pedestrians were crossing without right of way.</blockquote><br />59% of pedestrians were at fault, but only 18% were crossing without the right of way? How was that supposed to work? Only the EPS knew, but it sure made a great headline. It was a real shining moment for the EPS' basic numeracy and logic skills. (for the record 18% was the correct number)<br /><br />This year they're back with some graphic emotional blackmail:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.inews880.com/Channels/Reg/LocalNews/story.aspx?ID=1533637">From inews880</a><br /><br /><a href="http://s173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/?action=view&current=jaywalking.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/jaywalking.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a><br /><br /><blockquote>Acting Sergeant Jerrid Maze explains that decals depicting a jaywalker who had been hit are supposed to act as a warning. "It's supposed to look like a fourteen-to-fifteen-year-old girl," Maze explains. "She's dressed in blue jeans and a pink top, and she has a backpack on. It's supposed to look like she's been struck by a vehicle, so her eyes are closed and she'll be laying on the sidewalk."<br /></blockquote><br />These will be on sidewalks around the city for the next year, and the first location just happens to be at my long ago elementary school.<br /><br />So what do the latest statistics say?<br /><br /><a href="http://www.edmonton.ca/transportation/Annual_Collision_Report_2010.pdf">In Edmonton in 2010</a> pedestrians crossing without the right of way accounted for a whopping 14% of injuries or fatalities.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.transportation.alberta.ca/Content/docType47/Production/AR2010.pdf">In Alberta in 2010</a> only 31% of drivers in pedestrian collisions were driving properly.<br /><br />Those pesky pedestrians always being run over in marked crosswalks by law-breaking drivers. What's wrong with them? <br /><br />Thinking about it though, emotionally manipulative decals are a great idea. The EPS is just using them wrong. Looking at the numbers, this is the issue we should be addressing:<br /><br /><div class="quickr-photo"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/inthreedimensions/6128813989/" target="_blank"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6088/6128813989_be474fd3c2_o.jpg" alt="Jaywalk maim" /></a></div>(slogan borrowed from <a href="www.copenhagenize.com">copenhagenize.com</a><br /><br /><div class="quickr-photo"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/inthreedimensions/6129364142/" target="_blank"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6064/6129364142_c3fd697956_o.jpg" alt="Jaywalk fault" /></a></div><br /><br /><div class="quickr-photo"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/inthreedimensions/6128813935/" target="_blank"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6062/6128813935_cb1870da82_o.jpg" alt="Jaywalk brains" /></a></div><br /><br /><div class="quickr-photo"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/inthreedimensions/6129364076/" target="_blank"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6188/6129364076_b8d85e281b_o.jpg" alt="Jaywalk complicated" /></a></div><br /><br /><div class="quickr-photo"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/inthreedimensions/6128813811/" target="_blank"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6062/6128813811_a90a1cd90f_o.jpg" alt="Jaywalk txt" /></a></div><br /><br /><div class="quickr-photo"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/inthreedimensions/6129364048/" target="_blank"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6184/6129364048_52ae0d0cca_o.jpg" alt="Jaywalk toaster" /></a></div><br /><br />Photoshopping is fun, and anyone can play!<br /><div class="quickr-photo"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/inthreedimensions/6128814015/" target="_blank"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6087/6128814015_5a5bd5ce5b_o.jpg" alt="Jaywalk blank" /></a></div><br /><br />Updated to add: the EPS campaign got a mention on <a href="http://www.copenhagenize.com/2011/09/edmonton-ignores-bull.html">copenhagenize.com</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264897552844100849.post-865673492915357622010-02-20T22:01:00.010-07:002010-02-23T14:35:34.245-07:00The Art Gallery of Alberta<iframe src="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=2d9e91cd625f5b311936bd85d3f5e01d&etyp=sw&width=500&height=350" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" width="500" height="350"></iframe><br />I don’t really like the new art gallery.<span id="fullpost"><br /><br />I haven’t been inside it yet, and I do expect that the interior spaces will probably improve my opinion a bit. Based solely on the exterior though - having now had a few months to come to terms with it, and having recently spent a fair bit of time thinking about how it works in order to get the model right - I’m not really a fan.<br /><br />The new gallery is certainly a good thing for Edmonton. The design competition got people interested in architecture. The AGA now has better space and (a little) more room. And it is a building that people seem to like and find interesting (for now, anyway). So it is undeniably a positive for the city, but that doesn’t mean it is beyond criticism.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Paint it black</span><br /><br />My main concern with the building is the glazing. It has a grey reflective tint which I think was a huge mistake.<br /><br />This is what was shown in the early renderings:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20100219%20AGA%20Photos%20and%20Renderings/Stout1light.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20100219%20AGA%20Photos%20and%20Renderings/Stout1light.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />With some tweaking and artistic license this is closer to what we got:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20100219%20AGA%20Photos%20and%20Renderings/Stout1dark.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20100219%20AGA%20Photos%20and%20Renderings/Stout1dark.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />The main feature of the AGA is the Borealis sculpture. It twists through the building, and in the rendering its transitions from interior to exterior and back again are clearly visible. The Borealis can be perceived as a single element that weaves throughout the entire building and that binds it all together. Unfortunately the reality is that the windows are hard barriers, and the Borealis actually appears as a decapitated collection of confused and seemingly unrelated elements. Any connection between exterior and interior is lost.<br /><br />This lack of connection also has a dramatic effect on the way that the building relates to its surrounding. This is the gallery’s restaurant during weekend brunch:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20100219%20AGA%20Photos%20and%20Renderings/AGARestaurant.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20100219%20AGA%20Photos%20and%20Renderings/AGARestaurant.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />This is a lifeless building. City Hall across the street uses transparency to great effect, but here the glazing is dead and inert. The building is already very, very grey and the windows should add lightness to it, but instead they only make it worse.<br /><br />This is exaggerated by the way that the building fills its small site. The old gallery had a sizeable front plaza, but that is now gone with the expansion pushing right up against the property line. This was probably for the best since it increases the gallery's prominence from Churchill Square, but it means that there is no longer any transition space. The entrance is a labyrinth of practical ramps and railings, and there is no space left to just breath. You are either inside or you are outside; separated by the cold, dark glass.<br /><br />During the design competition there was praise over the fact that Stout Architects recognized Edmonton as a winter city, and provided a snowy rendering to match. In recognizing us as a winter city though, they appear to have failed to realize that we are equally not a winter city. The gallery will undeniably look its best when it is lit up during the darkest depths of winter. At the height of summer, though – when Churchill Square is filled with crowds and the sun is shining late into the evening – it will be an inanimate grey lump squatting on the corner.<br /><br />The unfortunate tint does serve a purpose - it is presumably there to reduce the cooling load on all the east, south and west facing glazing. That is an admirable enough goal, except that this is a building that is wrapped in a giant metal bow. Taken in that light any arguments of prudence ring a bit hollow. The tint significantly weakens the overall design, and it destroys the building’s interaction with its surroundings. It was not worth it.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Getting it (w)right</span><br /><br />The debate over elaborate galleries that overshadow their collections has been around since at least Wright's Guggenheim, and likely for much longer than that. The millennial fad of starchitecture has taken that a step further, and now the world is dotted with galleries and museums that are as much sculpture as they are structure. <br /><br />At first glance the AGA seems to be yet another example of this, but there is one important difference. Rather than being a sculptural building, the AGA is much more of a building and a sculpture. Generally with Gehry, Calatrava, Libeskind, Hadid and the others the line between building and sculpture is difficult to determine - just where does the space end and the flourish begin? With the AGA that point is easy to identify:<br /><br />Building + Sculpture<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/inthreedimensions/4369149379/" title="AGA 3.0 by inthreedimensions, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4034/4369149379_1f04e9c6a2.jpg" width="400" /></a><br /><br />Building<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/inthreedimensions/4369149339/" title="AGA 3.1 by inthreedimensions, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2765/4369149339_49fd77fe5d.jpg" width="400" /></a><br /><br />This brings up an idea - view a gallery exterior as a blank wall that is simply another display space for art. Build a structure that is functional enough, and then install a large-scale sculpture on, in, or through it. Then every decade or two commission a new work, and move the old one to a nearby park. It could keep a building fresh in the mind of a fickle public, while also strengthening a city's public art program (although the logistics of it would certainly be a nightmare).<br /><br />Depending on your perspective that could sound like either an excellent idea, or a terrible one. The AGA is already a fair distance down that road, though. It is a building that effectively has a large sculpture as part of its permanent collection, but it has also been designed specifically for that sculpture. What I have to wonder is if the Art Gallery of Alberta were to commission a great sculpture for their collection, would Randall Stout be the artist that they would choose?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">This item has been discontinued by the manufacturer</span><br /><br />Treating a building as structure + art leads to some interesting questions. Here is an earlier rendering of the gallery from the design competition:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20100219%20AGA%20Photos%20and%20Renderings/AGAConcept-1.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20100219%20AGA%20Photos%20and%20Renderings/AGAConcept-1.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />If I had to quickly describe the AGA I would mention the zinc, the cantilever, and the swoopy bits. I think that those three elements are the key to its aesthetic; the swoopy bits being the most dominant and defining part of the "look" of the building. From concept to reality then, all three of those elements are still in place. It also seems that the bulk of the square footage - the back section, the restaurant and the cantilever - remains basically unchanged. The swoopy bits however, and the whole front section around them, are completely different. They have the same basic style, and if they were actually sculptures they would clearly be part of the same series, but they are also distinct works that look quite different from one another.<br /><br />If a building is structure + art, and if you swap out the art with a different piece, do you still have the same building? Is one Stout sculpture just as good as the next? Did they just run out of the first one, or did it get used somewhere else? What if you really liked the curved knife-edge that was over the restaurant in the early design, or the way that the ribbon was kinked at the rear? Is art really fungible?<br /><br />I'm not saying that buildings can't change from concept to construction. If a design from one of the other architects had been selected it would certainly have seen some evolution. In a combination of structure + art though, what drives a wholesale change in the art? The Borealis sculpture does have a bit of a functional role, as it supports a fourth floor meeting room and wraps around the main stairs. Was it impossible for the original sculpture to meet those constraints? The changes from concept to reality may demonstrate how flexible the overall design is, but they also reveal how arbitrary it is.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Form follows whim</span><br /><br />It irks the modernist in me that a building's appearance can change so significantly without a corresponding change in program or function. It probably irks the classicist in me too, since it's not like the ancient Greeks just threw things together either. If you are feeling charitable though, you could argue that by distilling today's trends down to structure + art the AGA is simply being honest. <br /><br />We are in a time when clients clearly expect grand, sculptural gestures. Rather than using showy contortionism to twist a building into a pretzel, why not just build a grand sculpture? Prior to the rise of modernism architecture and sculptural embellishment did go hand-in-hand, so it's possible that this is just a return to an older tradition? I don't happen to view the building that way, but you could if you wanted to. I tend to see it more as a cynical attempt to give people what they want; I will accept that the truth is likely somewhere in between.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">What's new is old</span><br /><br />When the winning design for the AGA was announced back in 2005 it felt old. Gehry's Guggenheim and Concert Hall are two of the most photographed and filmed buildings in the world, and wouldn't it have been for the best to just shy away from anything superficially Gehryesque? How could anything measure up, let alone actually feel new or exciting?<br /><br />In the intervening years I've softened a bit on this. The building is still desperately trendy, and it is still a decade too late. It is also a building though, and what is one decade in the life of a building? In a few years no one will remember whether it was built in 2000 or in 2010. It will be clearly recognizable as one of those galleries and museums that everyone was building at the dawn of the shiny new millennium, and whether it was a leader or a follower will fade.<br /><br />It certainly won't put Edmonton on the map though, since mid-sized cities around the world have all tried to capture some of that old Bilbao magic with similar projects. And as Edmonton's great leap forward it is unfortunate that we had to clutch so tightly to the coattails of others. It is the only building of its kind for nearly a thousand kilometers though, and even in our electronic world that still has importance.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Grist for the mill</span><br /><br />What is one decade in the life of a building? In Edmonton a lifespan can be troublingly brief - the old art gallery was a few years shy of forty when it was torn down.<br /><br /><iframe src="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=ec92b08de0a74270dda11d89a4766788&etyp=sw&width=400&height=300" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" width="400" height="300"></iframe><br /><br />Some people loved the old gallery and others hated it. It certainly wasn't exciting or cuddly, and this city has no shortage of other brutalist concrete, so a general disregard and apathy are not surprising. For my part I liked it, but I didn't love it. I really liked the second floor space, but disliked the first. As with anything it had the good and the bad.<br /><br />Of the four proposals for the new gallery two of them (and possibly a third - it's hard to remember) worked to incorporate the old gallery. The winning design didn't. It is certainly true that a large section of the original building still remains at the rear, but rather than being preserved or highlighted it has been rendered unrecognizable. It was simply consumed as a raw material and nothing more. <br /><br />There were other options available, but this is the one we chose. Sadly, that is typical of Edmonton. History is an embarrassment that should be wall-papered over. If we could just start from the beginning again, this time we could make everything perfect. We've been trying that for at least fifty years now, and I don't think it's worked yet.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">All the angles</span><br /><br />With all of that - the lifelessness, the intellectual three card monte, the calculated fadishness, and the casual dismissal of the past - if I actually liked the new building none of it would really matter. Unfortunately though, I just don't find it appealing. In particular, the defining view from Churchill Square does nothing for me:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20100219%20AGA%20Photos%20and%20Renderings/AGAChurchill.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20100219%20AGA%20Photos%20and%20Renderings/AGAChurchill.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />It looks like someone killed a transformer - there's a leg, and the head, and some fingers, and an ear. I don't understand the flat surface at the end of the cantilevered section, which is governed by a sense of aesthetics and proportion that is completely alien to me. I can only assume that is where banners will eventually be displayed to promote the exhibitions? For now though, that comically oversized balcony is more funhouse than expressionist.<br /><br />I do like the North elevation. It is brutal to the point of giving the old gallery a run for its money, but I think it works surprisingly well:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/inthreedimensions/4363967833/" title="AGA 2.4 by inthreedimensions, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4059/4363967833_cb36234c26.jpg" width="400" /></a><br /><br />And while working on the model I discovered that the South elevation has some charms of its own:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/inthreedimensions/4370556920/" title="AGA 3.3 by inthreedimensions, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2692/4370556920_4cdfefc2db.jpg" width="400" /></a><br /><br />I think this angle pulls off lyrical chaos much better than the typical view from the square. Unfortunately though, the only way to see the gallery from this angle is from the inside of Chancery Hall across the street. The view that most people will see from streetlevel is rather less impressive:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20100219%20AGA%20Photos%20and%20Renderings/AGASouth.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20100219%20AGA%20Photos%20and%20Renderings/AGASouth.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />I have also realized that I've been a bit unfair in my judgement of the galley. Seeing the rendering of the early concept has forced me to admit that I really do prefer what we got to what was originally proposed. And as the gallery took shape I was definitely prejudiced; transferring my initial dislike for the concept onto the new building. I obviously still don't think it's great, but it is definitely better. And hopefully the interior will wow me a bit once I've visited.<br /><br />The glazing really is unforgivable, though. One day it will need to be replaced, and we will thankfully have a chance to fix it. Unfortunately though, when that day arrives people just like me will be defending the black glass as an integral part of the design.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264897552844100849.post-35735302868283362812010-01-07T20:53:00.007-07:002011-01-04T20:26:50.619-07:00Ukrainian Cultural Heritage VillageIt took forever - just over 6 months from my trip to collect the <a href="http://inthreedimensions.blogspot.com/2001/01/20090703-ukrainian-cultural-heritage.html">photos</a> to uploading the final model - but it's finally complete. And it turned out pretty well:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/inthreedimensions/4255914786/" title="UCHV 2 by inthreedimensions, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4015/4255914786_ac649f4c63_b.jpg" width="550"/></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/inthreedimensions/4255914448/" title="UCHV 1 by inthreedimensions, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2738/4255914448_4c8d346c53_b.jpg" width="550"/></a><br /><br />A total of <a href="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/cldetails?mid=4439590c54e82dd01936bd85d3f5e01d">22 models</a>, with lots of neat stuff including a few churches:<br /><iframe src='http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=a7a79a7a6e9d6cb1936bd85d3f5e01d&etyp=sw&width=400&height=300' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' width='400' height='300'></iframe><br /><iframe src='http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=96d47d6ff8d69afb1936bd85d3f5e01d&etyp=sw&width=400&height=300' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' width='400' height='300'></iframe><br /><iframe src='http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=728aa9742027709e1936bd85d3f5e01d&etyp=sw&width=400&height=300' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' width='400' height='300'></iframe><br /><br />A wide variety of houses:<br /><iframe src='http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=af995146f56916ee1936bd85d3f5e01d&etyp=sw&width=400&height=300' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' width='400' height='300'></iframe><br /><iframe src='http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=eb57a3340cba26cc1936bd85d3f5e01d&etyp=sw&width=400&height=300' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' width='400' height='300'></iframe><br /><br />And my first (and likely last) grain elevator:<br /><iframe src='http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=5b9586306a4d205c1936bd85d3f5e01d&etyp=sw&width=400&height=300' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' width='400' height='300'></iframe><br /><br /><br /><script src="http://www.gmodules.com/ig/ifr?url=http://code.google.com/apis/kml/embed/embedkmlgadget.xml&up_kml_url=https%3A%2F%2Fsites.google.com%2Fsite%2Fedmontoninthreedimensions%2Fkmz%2FUkrainianCulturalHeritageVillage.kmz%3Fattredirects%3D0%26d%3D1&up_view_mode=earth&up_earth_2d_fallback=0&up_earth_fly_from_space=0&up_earth_show_nav_controls=1&up_earth_show_buildings=1&up_earth_show_terrain=1&up_earth_show_roads=1&up_earth_show_borders=1&up_earth_sphere=earth&up_maps_zoom_out=0&up_maps_default_type=map&synd=open&w=550&h=500&title=Ukrainian+Cultural+Heritage+Village&border=%23ffffff%7C3px%2C1px+solid+%23999999&output=js"></script>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264897552844100849.post-28577191888614625402009-10-02T23:55:00.007-06:002009-10-03T08:34:07.586-06:002009.10.02 - Pecha Kucha Night 5 - edmonton in three dimensionsThe second in what may have to become an annual tradition for me, here are the slides for the eponymous PKN5 presentation <span style="font-style:italic;">edmonton in three dimensions</span><br /><br />Generic introduction. Did you notice the <a href="http://inthreedimensions.blogspot.com/2009/05/edmonton-queen-riverboat.html">riverboat</a>?<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20091002%20PKN5/CWN_001.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 550px;" src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20091002%20PKN5/CWN_001.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span id="fullpost"><br /><br /><br />More generic introduction. Did you notice the pedway?<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20091002%20PKN5/CWN_002.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 550px;" src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20091002%20PKN5/CWN_002.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />A little under 3 years. A little over 200 models. (to be fair, many of those contain multiple buildings, so the building count is somewhat higher)<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20091002%20PKN5/CWN_003.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 550px;" src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20091002%20PKN5/CWN_003.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />Modeling How-To<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20091002%20PKN5/CWN_004.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 550px;" src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20091002%20PKN5/CWN_004.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />Gathering Images<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20091002%20PKN5/CWN_005.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 550px;" src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20091002%20PKN5/CWN_005.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />Plan<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20091002%20PKN5/CWN_006.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 550px;" src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20091002%20PKN5/CWN_006.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />Massing<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20091002%20PKN5/CWN_007.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 550px;" src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20091002%20PKN5/CWN_007.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />Creating Textures<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20091002%20PKN5/CWN_008.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 550px;" src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20091002%20PKN5/CWN_008.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />Applying Textures<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20091002%20PKN5/CWN_009.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 550px;" src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20091002%20PKN5/CWN_009.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />Adding Friends<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20091002%20PKN5/CWN_010.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 550px;" src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20091002%20PKN5/CWN_010.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />New York as done by Google. Very cool...but where's the love? (this was a mystery slide that didn't show up in my presentation)<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20091002%20PKN5/CWN_011.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 550px;" src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20091002%20PKN5/CWN_011.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />The <a href="http://inthreedimensions.blogspot.com/2009/04/high-level-bridge.html">High Level Bridge</a> - even with the fancy semi-auto generated cities, for signature stuff you still need to go the manual route.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20091002%20PKN5/CWN_012.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 550px;" src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20091002%20PKN5/CWN_012.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />More signature stuff. <a href="http://inthreedimensions.blogspot.com/2009/04/westmount-junior-high-school.html">Westmount Junior High</a> is what got me into the PKN5 theme of "Old School." Also the Fed, Leg, <a href="http://inthreedimensions.blogspot.com/2009/04/bowker-building.html">Bowker</a> and <a href="http://inthreedimensions.blogspot.com/2009/04/prince-of-wales-armouries.html">Prince of Wales Armouries</a>.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20091002%20PKN5/CWN_013.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 550px;" src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20091002%20PKN5/CWN_013.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />More signature stuff. <a href="http://inthreedimensions.blogspot.com/2009/04/peter-hemingway-fitness-and-leisure.html">Peter Hemingway Aquatic Centre</a>, City Hall, <a href="http://inthreedimensions.blogspot.com/2009/04/telus-world-of-science-edmonton.html">TWOS</a>, MacEwan and <a href="http://inthreedimensions.blogspot.com/2009/07/commonwealth-stadium.html">Commonwealth</a>. Two of my other Modern models worth checking out are the <a href="http://inthreedimensions.blogspot.com/2009/04/baker-clinic.html">Baker Clinic</a> and <a href="http://inthreedimensions.blogspot.com/2009/04/queen-elizabeth-ii-planetarium.html">QEII Planeterium</a> - both are in pretty bad shape in the real world, but are made pretty again through sketchup.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20091002%20PKN5/CWN_014.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 550px;" src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20091002%20PKN5/CWN_014.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />The model of the downtown is basically done, which means anyone can use it to visualize things like the currently under construction EPCOR tower.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20091002%20PKN5/CWN_015.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 550px;" src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20091002%20PKN5/CWN_015.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />Gone but not forgotten: 1957 City Hall, Edmonton Art Gallery, <a href="http://inthreedimensions.blogspot.com/2009/05/library-1923-1968.html">1923 Library</a>, <a href="http://inthreedimensions.blogspot.com/2009/04/court-house-1912-1972.html">1912 Court House</a>, the <a href="http://inthreedimensions.blogspot.com/2009/04/arlington-1909-2008.html">Arlington</a> and Central Pentecostal Tabernacle. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20091002%20PKN5/CWN_016.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 550px;" src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20091002%20PKN5/CWN_016.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />Revisionist History - the <a href="http://inthreedimensions.blogspot.com/2009/05/tegler-building-1911-1982.html">Tegler Building</a> at modern day 101st and 102ave. Anyone can play.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20091002%20PKN5/CWN_017.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 550px;" src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20091002%20PKN5/CWN_017.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />The Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village - using Google Earth as a clickable guide to a multi-building site.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20091002%20PKN5/CWN_018.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 550px;" src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20091002%20PKN5/CWN_018.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />Paris (by Kévin GIRARD), New York (by Kévin GIRARD), and Dubai (by carlitos) come to Edmonton.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20091002%20PKN5/CWN_019.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 550px;" src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20091002%20PKN5/CWN_019.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />Lots done. Lots left to do.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20091002%20PKN5/CWN_020.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 550px;" src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20091002%20PKN5/CWN_020.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />Slides from my PKN2 <span style="font-style:italic;">Reclaiming Deadmonton</span> presentation are <a href="http://inthreedimensions.blogspot.com/2008/09/reclaiming-deadmonton-pecha-kucha.html">here</a>.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264897552844100849.post-6216997521306645122009-07-02T22:29:00.008-06:002010-03-21T15:32:53.527-06:002009.07.02 Eighteen Bridge Tour<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20090702%2018%20Bridges/SSL29371640x480.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 550px;" src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20090702%2018%20Bridges/SSL29371640x480.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://inthreedimensions.blogspot.com/2001/01/20090702-eighteen-bridge-tour-photos.html">continued...</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264897552844100849.post-9570249490601719962009-07-01T10:30:00.002-06:002009-07-02T08:55:20.730-06:00Commonwealth Stadium<iframe src='http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=77e3c41e9cc067881936bd85d3f5e01d&etyp=sw&width=400&height=300' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' width='400' height='300'></iframe><br /><a href="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=77e3c41e9cc067881936bd85d3f5e01d">Model and Building information</a><br /><br />Commonwealth Stadium is an interesting one. Built at the tail-end of the brutalist era, it is all raw-concrete, form-following-function perfection:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/Commonwealth/IMGP1470.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/Commonwealth/IMGP1470.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />Because of that perfection though, anything outwardly recognizable as human has been suppressed. From the outside it could be the fossilized remains of some prehistoric creature, an elaborate burial monument, or just a giant abstraction. The key point is that it is colossal, because like an Airport or a Refinery people aren't the driving factor here. Commonwealth is built on the scale of firstdowns, and is designed for the swarm or throng. The individual is secondary and there is no pretense to the contrary.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/Commonwealth/IMGP1473.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/Commonwealth/IMGP1473.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />Entrances obviously serve a basic functional role, but beyond that they have always had an important symbolic value. An entrance is the threshold between interior and exterior or between us and them, and is generally celebrated or embellished with visual cues. At Commonwealth the entrances are hidden behind the same cladding that is used throughout, vanishing into a seemingly unbroken shell, and distinguishable only because of typography. Even when you identify which wall sections are the entrances, there is nothing to say that these are necessarily for people. Their generic nature could just as easily be intended for cattle or vehicles. <br /><br />A wall along the north is the only detail to reveal that Commonwealth does exist in a world of people. It is recognizable as human-scale by virtue of being just tall enough to keep people out. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/Commonwealth/IMGP1454.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/Commonwealth/IMGP1454.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />When Commonwealth was built in the late 1970's the year 2001 was still the distant future, and like a lot of brutalism I think that it was built for that future. <br /><br />When 2001 actually arrived though, it wasn't interested in being the future anymore. Commonwealth grew wings, and for the first time it had recognizable doors and even windows. It had a new facade built around familiar distances like 50', stucco textured to appeal to a vague memory of brick and masonry, and comfy earthtones drawn on with a thick marker. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/Commonwealth/IMGP1471.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/Commonwealth/IMGP1471.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />This is powercentre architecture. The repeated sculptural elements in particular - with their easy hints of an oil derrick, the Grey Cup, and Olympic flame, and maybe the chalice of mythology - are the decoration of suburban parking lots. They are symbolism reduced to a game of pictionary.<br /><br />If Commonwealth was too austere and distant, then this swings too far the other way as a pantomime of what a building <span style="font-style:italic;">should</span> look like. Where Commonwealth implies permanence this screams disposable, and where Commonwealth made a statement this isn't even trying.<br /><br />As for the model, Commonwealth Stadium and Rexall Place are a bit of a matched pair, and there are two Rexall Place models (<a href="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=8c815858a47be4345059c5bb6fa47462&prevstart=0">here</a> and <a href="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=c69ff42f936eda68c37544baf5685388&prevstart=0">here</a>) that other people did back in 2007. I guess that NHL arenas are more interesting than CFL ones? I'm not in the area very often, so it took me quite a while to get around to making Commonwealth.<br /><br />If you look at the satellite photos of the stadium you'll see that there's a severe foreshortening happening, with one side looking much deeper than the other. That made the model a bit tricky, because I don't know which side was actually correct. Because of that many of the dimensions - particularly of the curves in the corners - are a bit made up.<br /><br />There is also a gym that is located on the south side of the stadium which isn't included in the model. When I was taking photos the entire southern section of the site was being excavated for the construction of a new <a href="http://www.edmonton.ca/attractions_recreation/sport_recreation/north-central-community-recreation-centre.aspx">Recreation Centre</a>. Rather than model the gym now, I decided to wait until the rec centre is complete.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264897552844100849.post-26430558190621202902009-06-22T09:46:00.006-06:002009-06-22T11:00:37.870-06:00Saskatchewan Drive<iframe src='http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=dc3439bdb40c41611936bd85d3f5e01d&etyp=sw&width=400&height=300' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' width='400' height='300'></iframe><br /><a href="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=dc3439bdb40c41611936bd85d3f5e01d">The Manhattan and Strathcona House</a><br /><br /><iframe src='http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=801dac79443216731936bd85d3f5e01d&etyp=sw&width=400&height=300' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' width='400' height='300'></iframe><br /><a href="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=801dac79443216731936bd85d3f5e01d">Capital View Tower and Riverwind</a><br /><br /><iframe src='http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=3f72f205d4f3e6231936bd85d3f5e01d&etyp=sw&width=400&height=300' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' width='400' height='300'></iframe><br /><a href="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=3f72f205d4f3e6231936bd85d3f5e01d">Waterford House, Tower on the Hill and Lord Strathcona Manor</a><br /><br /><iframe src='http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=f294dedcab6631941936bd85d3f5e01d&etyp=sw&width=400&height=300' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' width='400' height='300'></iframe><br /><a href="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=f294dedcab6631941936bd85d3f5e01d">Kennedy Towers, Cranleigh Towers, and the Water's Edge</a><br /><br /><iframe src='http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=6aeddcd2334662581936bd85d3f5e01d&etyp=sw&width=400&height=300' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' width='400' height='300'></iframe><br /><a href="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=6aeddcd2334662581936bd85d3f5e01d">Parkside Towers and One River Park</a><br /><br /><iframe src='http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=ebd206d2a0d305f81936bd85d3f5e01d&etyp=sw&width=400&height=300' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' width='400' height='300'></iframe><br /><a href="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=ebd206d2a0d305f81936bd85d3f5e01d">9929 Saskatchewan Drive and Riverview Manor</a><br /><br />My first models on the south side of the river, and from west-to-east this mostly completes the skyline along Saskatchewan Drive.<br /><br />There are a couple of really nice building along here - notably One River Park and Riverwind. There is also the funky modernism of Kennedy Towers and Capital View Tower, and the cold precision of the Water's Edge. <br /><br />Too many of these buildings - notably One River Park and Riverwind - make the mistake of thinking that people only want views of the river and that everything else secondary. This is a problem throughout Edmonton resulting in many forgotten north walls, although in the case of Saskatchewan drive it is the south wall that is ignored. <br /><br />A rail right-of-way runs behind several of these buildings and beyond that is heritage neighbourhood, so while there is no such thing as a guaranteed view the one south from these towers is pretty close. I haven't spent much time on low-low floors, but from 6 or 8 storeys up almost any view will look good, and at 10 or 20 storeys the view out to the distant Alberta horizon can be spectacular. Maybe one day Edmonton will figure that out, but after more than 50 years of high-rise construction it hasn't happened yet.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264897552844100849.post-87396237326954525962009-06-22T09:44:00.001-06:002009-06-22T09:45:44.567-06:00The Uptown and Grosvenor House<iframe src='http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=e7bfd925bc1166da1936bd85d3f5e01d&etyp=sw&width=400&height=300' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' width='400' height='300'></iframe><br /><a href="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=e7bfd925bc1166da1936bd85d3f5e01d">Model and Building information</a><br /><br />These could have been bundled in with one of my previous posts of apartment buildings, but I thought the deserved their own post.<br /><br />The Uptown is - as of this moment - the newest completed condo in central Edmonton. Edmonton didn't see all that much high-rise construction in the recent worldwide real estate boom, but the Uptown is definitely one of the better ones. It's not as flashy as what you would find in other cities, but I think that is partly a reasonable approach given our climate, and partly due to the limitations of what a "high-rise" can be because of the airport. <br /><br />Grosvenor House is just a supercool artifact from the 1970's. It is located just off the river valley, but if it was half a block south and rotated 90 degrees it would be <span style="font-style:italic;">the</span> building in Edmonton. It's still a great building, although the model doesn't convey that at all, unfortunately:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/Junk%20or%20Jewel/SSL24463800x600.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/Junk%20or%20Jewel/SSL24463800x600.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264897552844100849.post-15757024979573221202009-06-17T08:43:00.007-06:002009-06-17T09:52:35.087-06:00Idiots<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/IMGP08561280x768.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/IMGP08561280x768.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />The blue truck knocked over a mailbox and then wedged itself onto a telephone post. The driver and passengers tried to unwedge it, but when that failed they hopped into another truck and took off. All of this with the truck's horn stuck blaring from the collision.<br /><br />My girlfriend called it in to 911 (I was asleep for most of the exciting stuff), and a little while later we got a call from the police saying that they had suspects in custody. Hooray.<br /><br />This marks the third time that I've seen an idiot v. inanimate object collision at this corner. Here's a grainier one from last year:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/SSL25323800x600.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/SSL25323800x600.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />The placement of the lampposts, telephone posts and trees along there must be magic. They are what the idiots always hit, and in this case that's definitely good news for Floc and Pedalhead.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264897552844100849.post-29101195287713559882009-06-14T22:17:00.011-06:002009-06-17T19:25:17.594-06:0021.5 more Apartments, and 0.5 Offices<iframe src='http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=a4d9bacb4fe9f58d1936bd85d3f5e01d&etyp=sw&width=400&height=300' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' width='400' height='300'></iframe><br /><a href="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=a4d9bacb4fe9f58d1936bd85d3f5e01d">The Elmhurst and Riverview Towers</a><br /><br /><iframe src='http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=588d715cde5d14021936bd85d3f5e01d&etyp=sw&width=400&height=300' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' width='400' height='300'></iframe><br /><a href="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=588d715cde5d14021936bd85d3f5e01d">The Mayflower and Park Place</a><br /><br /><iframe src='http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=1d5fbb6cf6c37c6a1936bd85d3f5e01d&etyp=sw&width=400&height=300' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' width='400' height='300'></iframe><br /><a href="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=1d5fbb6cf6c37c6a1936bd85d3f5e01d">Illuminada I & II</a><br /><br /><iframe src='http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=d6bccb16b69a42ae1936bd85d3f5e01d&etyp=sw&width=400&height=300' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' width='400' height='300'></iframe><br /><a href="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=d6bccb16b69a42ae1936bd85d3f5e01d">The Wimbledon, B&H Tower and Shaughnessy House</a><br /><br /><iframe src='http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=b75e908082a094471936bd85d3f5e01d&etyp=sw&width=400&height=300' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' width='400' height='300'></iframe><br /><a href="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=b75e908082a094471936bd85d3f5e01d">Hudson House, The Hargate and Prominence Place</a><br /><br /><iframe src='http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=da8e769ce928075f1936bd85d3f5e01d&etyp=sw&width=400&height=300' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' width='400' height='300'></iframe><br /><a href="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=da8e769ce928075f1936bd85d3f5e01d">Hyde Park, The Berkeley and The Albany</a><br /><br /><iframe src='http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=c907c2e8104e92681936bd85d3f5e01d&etyp=sw&width=400&height=300' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' width='400' height='300'></iframe><br /><a href="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=c907c2e8104e92681936bd85d3f5e01d">Centurion Towers and Oak Tower</a><br /><br /><iframe src='http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=60976bac88f01dba1936bd85d3f5e01d&etyp=sw&width=400&height=300' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' width='400' height='300'></iframe><br /><a href="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=60976bac88f01dba1936bd85d3f5e01d">Oliver Place, Oakwood Towers and the Mountbatten</a><br /><br /><iframe src='http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=fa3e266214dab3641936bd85d3f5e01d&etyp=sw&width=400&height=300' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' width='400' height='300'></iframe><br /><a href="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=fa3e266214dab3641936bd85d3f5e01d">Park Plaza, Oxbridge Place & The Carlton</a><br /><br />In this batch of models the 0.5 of an office and an apartment is Park Plaza, which has 6 floors of residential above 10 floors of office. As far as I know, it is the only building of that type in Edmonton. (It also shouldn't be confused with Park Square, Park Place, Park Tower, Parkside Tower, or Central Park).<br /><br />Also in this group is the Wimbledon, which I would have to say is by far the most phallic building in Edmonton especially when viewed from Jasper Avenue. Something like that doesn't just happen by accident, does it?<br /><br />Beyond that, these models are mostly interesting because they largely "complete" the skyline of Oliver. There are still a few office buildings to do around 112 Street, and a few more apartments that I just happened to miss when I was taking photos, but this is basically it.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20090611%20GE/OliverNW1024x768.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w69/newfangled2001/20090611%20GE/OliverNW1024x768.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264897552844100849.post-29339919063327813782009-06-09T09:30:00.003-06:002009-06-17T19:18:13.002-06:00Gibson Block<iframe src='http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=9458cc1f55ee9f63eb2fffd10ffe5571&etyp=sw&width=400&height=300' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' width='400' height='300'></iframe><br /><a href="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=9458cc1f55ee9f63eb2fffd10ffe5571">Model and Building information</a><br /><br />Edmonton's own flat iron building, complete with a painted sign that's almost enough to get me drinking Pepsi:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_eUvUtir5je4/SfzLeOtHfbI/AAAAAAAAA3w/EN0GhF74C9g/SSL24817.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_eUvUtir5je4/SfzLeOtHfbI/AAAAAAAAA3w/EN0GhF74C9g/SSL24817.JPG" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />The model itself is just okay. I've mentioned patchwork buildings before, and this one has some of that with the entrance and the north side just not quite working out.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264897552844100849.post-59060831556172365882009-06-05T15:29:00.001-06:002009-06-17T19:34:25.863-06:0030 Apartments and 1 OfficeI don't particularly like modeling apartment buildings, but occasionally I'm hit with a need for completeness. This set has a few buildings in the McKay Avenue area, along with a lot in southeast Oliver and Grandin. Previously I hadn't done anything in that area, but this should fill it in nicely.<br /><br /><iframe src='http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=bb8dc9a0ef17cc111936bd85d3f5e01d&etyp=sw&width=400&height=300' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' width='400' height='300'></iframe><br /><a href="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=bb8dc9a0ef17cc111936bd85d3f5e01d">Hillside Estates North & South, Dunedin House and McDougall Place</a><br /><br /><iframe src='http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=85715dcc1334682d1936bd85d3f5e01d&etyp=sw&width=400&height=300' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' width='400' height='300'></iframe><br /><a href="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=85715dcc1334682d1936bd85d3f5e01d">Grandin Green and the David Thompson</a><br /><br /><iframe src='http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=adcea054687b522c1936bd85d3f5e01d&etyp=sw&width=400&height=300' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' width='400' height='300'></iframe><br /><a href="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=adcea054687b522c1936bd85d3f5e01d">Park Towers, the Panorama and the Edgehill</a><br /><br /><iframe src='http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=e4e6374eac7e37bc1936bd85d3f5e01d&etyp=sw&width=400&height=300' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' width='400' height='300'></iframe><br /><a href="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=e4e6374eac7e37bc1936bd85d3f5e01d">Central Park, the Trethway, Dorchester House & Maureen Manor</a><br /><br /><iframe src='http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=eb5cfc6c01bba0911936bd85d3f5e01d&etyp=sw&width=400&height=300' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' width='400' height='300'></iframe><br /><a href="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=eb5cfc6c01bba0911936bd85d3f5e01d">Valhalla and Victoria Park Tower</a><br /><br /><iframe src='http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=d7fe28e14a7ca5a11936bd85d3f5e01d&etyp=sw&width=400&height=300' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' width='400' height='300'></iframe><br /><a href="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=d7fe28e14a7ca5a11936bd85d3f5e01d">York House, Bondell Tower, Lancaster House & the DeVille</a><br /><br /><iframe src='http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=399be6f7f1452bae1936bd85d3f5e01d&etyp=sw&width=400&height=300' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' width='400' height='300'></iframe><br /><a href="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=399be6f7f1452bae1936bd85d3f5e01d">Academy Place and Windsor Arms</a><br /><br /><iframe src='http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=3ff3bf1d6173cce81936bd85d3f5e01d&etyp=sw&width=400&height=300' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' width='400' height='300'></iframe><br /><a href="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=3ff3bf1d6173cce81936bd85d3f5e01d">Capital Place, Tower on the Park and Grandin Manor</a><br /><br /><iframe src='http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=32955dec6468c2e11936bd85d3f5e01d&etyp=sw&width=400&height=300' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' width='400' height='300'></iframe><br /><a href="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=32955dec6468c2e11936bd85d3f5e01d">Westwind Estates and Le Jardin</a><br /><br /><iframe src='http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=89bdaff399a1bee11936bd85d3f5e01d&etyp=sw&width=400&height=300' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' width='400' height='300'></iframe><br /><a href="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=89bdaff399a1bee11936bd85d3f5e01d">Tegler Manor, Rosedale Place, Westcliffe Arms and Grandin Towers</a><br /><br /><iframe src='http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=d09d4a2ce26ca4e91936bd85d3f5e01d&etyp=sw&width=400&height=300' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' width='400' height='300'></iframe><br /><a href="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=d09d4a2ce26ca4e91936bd85d3f5e01d">Cathedral Court</a><br /><br />Apartment buildings are a really great way to learn how to do photereferenced models in Sketchup. If you're interested in taking a crack at modeling they are the absolute best place to start because apartment buildings are impossible to screw up.<br /><br />In the same way that they are impossible to screw up they are also almost impossible to do really well. There are three or four different ways to model balconies (all on display here), and none of them are good. With a model like the <a href="http://inthreedimensions.blogspot.com/2009/04/baker-clinic.html">Baker Clinic,</a> <a href="http://inthreedimensions.blogspot.com/2009/04/queen-elizabeth-ii-planetarium.html">QE II Planetarium</a> or <a href="http://inthreedimensions.blogspot.com/2009/05/seniors-association-of-greater-edmonton.html">SAGE</a> you can strip away the questionable additions, the neglect, and the urban clutter to reveal the hidden intent. With an apartment building there's nothing hidden - it's a box; or in this case many, many boxes. Apartments get pretty boring once the initial learning is over.<br /><br />Probably the most interesting thing about these models is seeing "families" of buildings pop up. There are the obvious ones like Hillside Estates North and South; and the more recent Grandin Manor, Grand Central Manor, Lord Strathcona Manor, etc. There are also:<br /><br />The David Thompson and Capital Centre<br />The Edgehill and Victoria Park Towers<br />Maureen Manor, York House, Academy Place, Windsor Arms and several more I haven't gotten to.<br />Grandin Towers and Jasper House<br />Le Jardin, Jasper 111 and Rocky Mountain Court in CalgaryUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264897552844100849.post-84004439679851354912009-06-01T08:14:00.008-06:002009-06-17T19:36:48.131-06:0010830 Jasper Avenue<iframe src='http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=50bb02abc46e54101936bd85d3f5e01d&etyp=sw&width=400&height=300' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' width='400' height='300'></iframe><br /><a href="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=50bb02abc46e54101936bd85d3f5e01d">Model and Building information</a><br /><br /><iframe src='http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=661ec51f4cb3c147dcf3aa5cc0c09272&etyp=sw&width=400&height=300' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' width='400' height='300'></iframe><br /><a href="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=661ec51f4cb3c147dcf3aa5cc0c09272&prevstart=0">Model and Building Information</a><br /><br />It was however, a building doomed by its material choices. The drab concrete lattice over the drab brown brick is tough to defend, and the building probably looked tired and dirty on the day that it opened. Maybe if the brick had been red or if the lattice was a shiny aluminum then there would have been more affection for the building, or at least it might have been less disliked. The new version and all of its crazy shapes upholds the quirkiness of the original, but I do wish that they'd somehow managed to integrate the lattice into the new design.<br /><br />This will mark the fifth shiny blue office building prominently visible from Jasper Avenue (sixth if you count all the way down to 124st). With it's odd shape there is no real risk that it will be confused with any of the others, but some diversity wouldn't hurt. Downtown Edmonton is already a sea of brutalist concrete, and I'm not sure that striking back with a wave of reflective blue monoliths is the way to go. Would another Bell or Canadian Western Bank have been too much to ask?<br /><br />One nice change is that the windows are a slightly different blue than the spandrel panels below them. This combined with the exaggerated horizontal mullions and the hidden vertical mullions gives it a banded appearance, rather than the uniformity of Manulife or the new Devonian. I think they could have gone a bit further with it though, either darkening the spandrels or making the windows more transparent (humbug to energy efficiency). The banding is prominent but it doesn't quite pop, and on a cloudy day you might not even notice it.<br /><br />The building is also subject to the same height restrictions that have led to downtown Edmonton's many cubic "high-rises" which are as tall as they are wide. 10830 is actually quite a bit wider than it is tall, but the manic massing tries to hide that. That seems to be the approach Procura will be taking with all of its developments in the area, which should feel more interesting than the duplo-blocks-as-urban-design approach of the government area a few blocks to the south.<br /><br />It also goes without saying that the new retail spaces will be such a welcome addition to Jasper, in an area that has been a black hole for a decade? More?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264897552844100849.post-29981081910678037972009-05-27T18:55:00.012-06:002009-07-06T22:34:26.795-06:00Shaw Conference Centre<iframe src='http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=3c5fbdd16c1bee1f1936bd85d3f5e01d&etyp=sw&width=400&height=300' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' width='400' height='300'></iframe><br /><a href="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=3c5fbdd16c1bee1f1936bd85d3f5e01d">Model and Building information</a><br /><br />The Shaw Conference Centre is probably the last major building in downtown Edmonton that I hadn't modeled. That depends how you count, of course - First Presbyterian is definitely significant; and the Baccarat casino is...well it's downtown; and there are a lot of apartment buildings that aren't done. But when people think of prominent buildings in Edmonton the Shaw is probably near the top of the list, and it took me a long time to get to it.<br /><br />There are a few reasons for that.<br /><br />Firstly, the building annoys me. It must be one of the world's nicest escalator showcases, which isn't much of an accomplishment at all. I've used the stairs and escalators in the Shaw many times, but I can't say that I have ever stopped to marvel at the natural beauty outside of its atrium windows. Why not? Well, it's probably because I'm either concentrating on not falling down the stairs, or because stopping and marveling from an escalator is not an option. In either case when I'm in the atrium I'm likely preoccupied with getting to wherever it is that I'm actually going. Circulation and the simultaneous appreciation of sweeping vistas do not mix.<br /><br />So the addition of Hall D finally - after more than 20 years - provided the Shaw with a room with a view. Problem solved. Except that it was solved by building a 200' long wall along a section of prime, rivervalley Jasper Avenue. It doesn't matter how that 200' wall has been dressed up with slogans and public art, it's an elevation that belongs on the back of a Safeway somewhere and not on Edmonton's main street.<br /><br />The Shaw is obviously a challenging site, and I'm sure (or at least I hope) that those constraints led to the design decisions that were made. But yeah, there's some bitterness there.<br /><br />The second reason it took so long to make the model is because it's hard to get a good picture of the Shaw. The best location that I know of is on some trails that are just west of Rafter's landing. I bike through there all the time, but my rides are not without injury or risk, so it was a matter of being down there with a camera. Even from the location though, parts of the Shaw are obscured by trees and the terrain.<br /><br />And speaking of terrain, the final reason that this model took so long is because Google's terrain in the area is very incorrect. In Google Earth the whole lower terrace of the model is hidden by the ground, along with much of the second terrace. This was a compromise, because the only way that I could get any of the terraces to show up was by raising the whole model up by nearly 25'. That transforms Wall D on Jasper Avenue from awful to comical, and if I had raised the building enough so that all the terraces were visible then it would have just been ridiculous.<br /><br />The model is interesting though, because the Shaw isn't a building that I ever really think of as a building. The terracing and the concrete really do meld into the surrounding landscape, so it appears as a collection of disconnected bits. It's nice to see how the whole thing fits together.<br /><br />(The atrium is also not as tall as it probably should be, but I'm just going to pretend I didn't notice that.)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264897552844100849.post-38775173448564360862009-05-27T18:39:00.005-06:002009-07-06T22:34:40.128-06:00Edmonton Queen Riverboat<iframe src='http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=1e3b9ea585a45aba1936bd85d3f5e01d&etyp=sw&width=400&height=300' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' width='400' height='300'></iframe><br /><a href="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=1e3b9ea585a45aba1936bd85d3f5e01d">Model and Building information</a><br /><br />One of the things about a model in Google Earth is that it can draw attention. Especially for something located a little bit away from everything else, people might notice that bumpy shape on the horizon and go check it out. I like to think that somewhere out there in the interwebs visitors to Edmonton are poking around in Google Earth, clicking on buildings that they find interesting, and maybe adjusting their trips accordingly. I don't know if that actually happens, but the possibility of it happening is always in the back of my mind.<br /><br />And because of that I modeled the Edmonton Queen. It is a unique and somewhat unexpected attraction in Edmonton, and I think it deserves to be noticed.<br /><br />As for the model, it is...a boat. It's okay, but once again is more on the side of gets-the-point-across than isn't-that-amazing.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1264897552844100849.post-64545784227022321102009-05-26T14:41:00.005-06:002009-06-17T19:38:58.499-06:00Low Level Bridge<iframe src='http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/mini?mid=68fddd1453ab88b1936bd85d3f5e01d&etyp=sw&width=400&height=300' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' marginheight='0' marginwidth='0' width='400' height='300'></iframe><br /><a href="http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=68fddd1453ab88b1936bd85d3f5e01d">Model and Building information</a><br /><br />I've often wished that Edmonton didn't paint so many of its bridges in funny colours. The Walterdale is green, the Dawson is blue, the ones straddling Groat are red, and on the Capilano they are green again. What's wrong with good, old, Victorian black?<br /><br />Then there is the Low Level, which does have a bit of a greenish hue but which is basically just gray. And I don't like it. I guess that neutral colours work on fancy bridges like the High Level, but that the smaller bridges really do need something extra.<br /><br />For the model Google's terrain was once again way off. The level of the water under the bridge slopes by 25', which means that the piers had to be different heights which makes no sense at all. The elevation of the south approach is also too low, so there is quite a major speedbump at that end.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0