The Calgary Project: Urban Form/Urban Life

Frits Pannokoek is president of Athabasca University in Alberta.

This book deals with the development and planning of Calgary, from its
early days to the current boom. The authors, proponents of the livable
cities movement, see Calgary as a “teenaged” city with high-quality
private realms and roadways, but lacking in quality public
infrastructure. Sandalack and Nicolai would prefer a denser Calgary in
which the pedestrian takes precedence over the automobile and more
attention is focused on the quality of public space. They see promising
signs of a maturing city in such developments as the revitalization of
inner-city neighbourhoods and a growing concern with heritage.

In contrast to the work done by Calgary’s pre-eminent urban
historian, Max Foran, The Calgary Project offers little analysis of the
dynamics and politics of development that have shaped the city.
Historical development is not as inevitable as Sandalack and Nicolai
seem to think; they would have benefited from studying the work of
senior Canadian urbanites like Alan Artibise, who published a landmark
volume on Winnipeg.

And one might quarrel with some of the authors’ assertions. For
example, they indicate that the heritage movement did not arrive in
Calgary until the late 1970s, at which point it was “too late to have
a moderating influence on … urban renewal.” So how do they explain
Stephen Avenue Mall, Hillhurst, or Mount Royal? How do they explain the
preservation of the Hollingsworth Building in Bankers Hall? The heritage
legislation that the province passed in 1974 was embraced by a
significant number of Calgarians, including officers in the city’s
planning department.