Edmonton - newly urban, again U rban design, in theory, strives to attain a multitude of ends simultaneously, from the provision of shelter for activities, to the creation of a sense of place, to the technological soundness of the built environment, to the health of fiscal and biological elements. The Modern movement and our post cultural information age have generally ignored climate and culture in the making of architecture, relying instead on technological solutions to keep out weather and provide state if the art environmental controls.This has given us placeless cities with buildings that could be in Edmonton,Toronto or Shanghai, compromising the integrity of architecture as a cultural expression. For decades Edmonton has taken infrastructure and placed it in the suburbs, enabled by fifty years of automobile culture. For every car in the downtown there are two parking stalls — an automobile graveyard! Edmonton’s Planning Commission has recently begun to reclaim the open spaces of downtown for infrastructure to anchor both residence and amenities to bolster Edmonton’s presence as a city. Philip Lofts is a project of mixed-use, turn of the nineteenth century spaces in Edmonton’s warehouse district that main- tains both commercial and residential components. As the need for downtown employees and professionals increases, the need for infill projects such as the Philip Lofts will also expand and building typologies will evolve, recolonizing the downtown core. Louise McKinney Park, on the North Saskatchewan River is part of Edmonton’s protected green belt. At the moment the river front is not as defined as it could be. Year-round events have spurred a long-term community initiative to give a harder edge and a primary entry to the river valley. This includes public single story buildings with a river walk, spinning off smaller public centres that are still tied back to the downtown. The most controversial of these urban renewal projects is the early twentieth century Rossdale Water Treatment Facility, located on the flood planes of the North Saskatchewan. The architectural community proposes a mixed use building incorporating seasonal and year round uses, with a residential component. Its presence on the river sustains a natural con- nection to the valley’s pedestrian and bicycle paths, while maintaining the hard edge of the downtown core, a quality that Edmonton needs to exploit. Decipher this place. Convert these underused artifacts of a superseded infrastructure and link them back to the working downtown. Edmonton’s sense of urban place with its extreme winters and summers, its river and its valleys will start to re-validate its placeless downtown core. Dean Russell
de hausser la présence d’Edmonton en tant que ville. Le projet Philip Lofts est un projet à multiples usages. Il s’agit d’espaces datant du virant du IXXe siècle dans un district d’entrepôts d’Edmonton, qui garde des composantes com- merciales et résidentielles. Le Parc Louise McKinney, sur la rive de la rivière Saskatchewan-Nord et une partie de la ceinture de verdure pro- tégée d’Edmonton développe un con- tour à caractère nettement délimité,
avec des immeubles publiques à un niveau, un sentier longeant la rivière et de plus petits centres publics qui sont reliés au centre-ville. Le projet le plus controversé est celui d’une instal- lation de traitement des eaux naturel- les de Rossdale, datant du début du XXe siècle, se trouvant sur les terres inondées de la rivière Saskatchewan- Nord. Sa présence sur la rivière vient assurer la continuité d’un lien naturel aux pistes pédestres et cyclables de la vallée, tout en assurant la délimita-
tion du cœur du centre-ville, une qual- ité que la ville d’Edmonton se doit d’exploiter. Venez décoder cet endroit! Conver- tissez ces artefact sous-utilisés d’une infrastructure supplantée et reliez-les au centre-ville du travail. Le sens d’Edmonton d’une place urbaine, avec ses hivers et ses étés extrêmes, sa rivière et ses vallées, viendront remettre en vigueur son centre-ville dépourvu d’endroits.
Urbaine, une fois de plus P endant plusieurs décennies, Edmonton a pris son infrastruc- ture et l’a placée dans ses banlieux, ce qui a été possible en raison des cinquante dernières années de culture automobile. La Commission de plan- ification d’Edmonton a récemment commencé à rapatrier les espaces de bureau du centre-ville à des fins d’infrastructures et pour ancrer rési- dences et commodités dans le but
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