Originally published in Swerve Magazine
By Drew Anderson
Radiating out of the city’s core, past the strip malls, porn shops and gas stations of Macleod Trail, through countless lights, beside countless cars, under the overpasses that truly demarcate the line of what has been and what will be. This is where you find yourself in Gary Burns’ new documentary, Radiant City.
The celebrated Calgary filmmaker partnered with friend and CBC radio Eyeopener host Jim Brown to tackle the subject of modern North American suburbs. “We didn’t want to make a didactic doc—here’s the good guys, here’s the bad guys, here’s the victims and here’s the solution,” says Burns. “That melancholy—‘this is the best we can do’—I think that’s what we were trying to achieve.” It’s what propelled the duo, as they followed the Moss family and some of their friends and neighbours through the suburban experience, resigned to their fate or trying to embrace it.
The film sets beautifully coloured cinematography against the sparse environment in which the families live. The Moss children take the filmmakers on a quirky and funny tour through their surreal community; the father, Evan, resigns himself to his new reality and Ann, the mother, just stresses out.
“To me, it’s one of the biggest tragedies in North America—the way we’re building our cities and people are just kind of going along with it. People should be fighting for a decent place to live,” says Burns by way of telephone, sitting on his porch in Sunnyside.
Navigating through Calgary’s suburbs is like vertigo to the uninitiated; gone are the grids of the core, the only straight line is the hyperbolic trail that brings you out this far. But there is variety here: artists who can no longer afford the luxury of downtown; families that can’t fight the urge to own a yard, a mud room, an attached garage.
Here, on the edge, there is hope of an end, confinement of Calgary’s ecological footprint, the largest in Canada. The sky reaches out to still extant countryside, rolled hay bails in fields. Trees even.
But next to the billboard proclaiming a new, idealized marketing vision—Happy Hills, Paradise Gardens, Once-Had-Trees Ville or Babbling Brook Estates—is a mound of dirt and idle equipment designed to plow and dig and smooth.
Though the critics peppered throughout the movie either pan the whole suburban project, speak of its promise, or of its inevitability, the filmmakers just wanted to make people stop and think; to show the suburbs as they see it.
“This is it, this is the best you can do for people living?” says Brown. “You want to get an actual cup of coffee you have to get in your car and get on the freeway and drive for ten minutes. Is that living?”
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Friday, July 13, 2007
Dan's Not Calm
Originally published in BeatRoute Magazine
By: Drew Anderson
Standing watch on the corner of 11th Avenue and MacLeod Trail is a strange object made of old trinkets. Most people drive by, too busy commuting to take a second look at the sculpture and the store that it fronts. Those with a healthy amount of curiosity will be satisfied when they walk under the gaze of a plastic clown, through the door, and enter the wonderful world of Dan's Not Calm.
Passing through the threshold, senses are overwhelmed. The walls and counters are covered in velvet paintings, coconut monkey sculptures, a plasma buddha, old-school naked lady pens, politically incorrect black Americana, lava lamps and a multitude of other collectibles. CBC radio plays over the speakers and the smell of smoke envelopes the thick air. Dan, silver haired and casual, relaxes, leaning back with his feet on the counter and a cigarette between his fingers.
Dan Moore has run this store for the past four years, but has been collecting his impressive horde of goods for the past twenty. His store-front, a former donair shop, is located in a sort of pedestrian no-man's land on MacLeod Trail, right next door to the new Haymarket café and bookstore.
Moore is on the friendly side of eclectic store owners; not imposing or ingratiating, just friendly. As two punked-out kids walk through the door, Moore greets them with a friendly hello and then continues to relax behind his well worn desk. He even runs what he calls a "professional concierge service," keeping requests for items in a rolodex in case he tracks something down.
He estimates that there are around 200 people in that rolodex at the moment, waiting for Johnny Seven One Man Army weapons, Star Wars memorabilia and every other hard-to-find trinket you can think of.
"Treat people as you want to be treated," says Moore, "it's a very simple rule. Sometimes it's very hard to do…"
"I can't fire myself, so I might as well do something I think is actually worthwhile."
This store is meant for browsing, for losing yourself in the clutter. And you can certainly do just that.
"That's the trick of the store," says Moore, "I have to pack it up really big, really dense. So when you come in, you can come in five or six times, look at exactly the same stuff and see a different thing."
Moore's favourite piece at the moment is a collapsible nickel-plated puzzle bank from 1897. It also happens to be one of the more expensive items on display, checking in at about $250. It is placed in a large glass cupboard at the back of the store along with other cherished items: an autographed Leave it to Beaver, Beav and Wally photograph signed when they were still young, a plaster of paris stuffed beaver tale with hair still clinging to its base among others.
These are among the rare items, not just for what they are, but also for their price. Dan's Not Calm is not an upscale boutique, and its prices reflect the more down to earth atmosphere.
Some of his items even end up on movie sets.
"I had a lamp make it into Brokeback Mountain," says Moore, obviously amused. Other items end up on sets, though he doesn't keep track.
Moore clearly enjoys his work, though he didn't set out to run an eclectic pop culture emporium.
After working in a design studio, doing computer and IT work as well as taking physics engineering at school for two years, Moore finally gave in to his ability to find unique objects that other people wanted.
"I'll pick it up because it's unusual; people seem to like my sensibilities when it comes to picking up things," he explains.
As for the name: "I wanted to have a store that sounded like a website that wasn't - so that in the event that I ever do put a website together, it will be Dan's Not Calm dot com," explains Moore with a chuckle.
And the name messes with people.
"Weirdest one I ever had. Some poor guy, I think he had dyslexia, said: 'So why's the store Dan's Not Clam?' And I didn't have the heart to say, read that carefully. I just said 'I don't sell seafood.'"
With Christmas carols already assaulting eardrums in the malls, Dan's Not Calm is an oasis of shopping, with fare that you will not find anywhere else.
"Goat hair pictures of shepherds. Who comes up with these things?" asks Moore, looking at a wall hanging.
By: Drew Anderson
Standing watch on the corner of 11th Avenue and MacLeod Trail is a strange object made of old trinkets. Most people drive by, too busy commuting to take a second look at the sculpture and the store that it fronts. Those with a healthy amount of curiosity will be satisfied when they walk under the gaze of a plastic clown, through the door, and enter the wonderful world of Dan's Not Calm.
Passing through the threshold, senses are overwhelmed. The walls and counters are covered in velvet paintings, coconut monkey sculptures, a plasma buddha, old-school naked lady pens, politically incorrect black Americana, lava lamps and a multitude of other collectibles. CBC radio plays over the speakers and the smell of smoke envelopes the thick air. Dan, silver haired and casual, relaxes, leaning back with his feet on the counter and a cigarette between his fingers.
Dan Moore has run this store for the past four years, but has been collecting his impressive horde of goods for the past twenty. His store-front, a former donair shop, is located in a sort of pedestrian no-man's land on MacLeod Trail, right next door to the new Haymarket café and bookstore.
Moore is on the friendly side of eclectic store owners; not imposing or ingratiating, just friendly. As two punked-out kids walk through the door, Moore greets them with a friendly hello and then continues to relax behind his well worn desk. He even runs what he calls a "professional concierge service," keeping requests for items in a rolodex in case he tracks something down.
He estimates that there are around 200 people in that rolodex at the moment, waiting for Johnny Seven One Man Army weapons, Star Wars memorabilia and every other hard-to-find trinket you can think of.
"Treat people as you want to be treated," says Moore, "it's a very simple rule. Sometimes it's very hard to do…"
"I can't fire myself, so I might as well do something I think is actually worthwhile."
This store is meant for browsing, for losing yourself in the clutter. And you can certainly do just that.
"That's the trick of the store," says Moore, "I have to pack it up really big, really dense. So when you come in, you can come in five or six times, look at exactly the same stuff and see a different thing."
Moore's favourite piece at the moment is a collapsible nickel-plated puzzle bank from 1897. It also happens to be one of the more expensive items on display, checking in at about $250. It is placed in a large glass cupboard at the back of the store along with other cherished items: an autographed Leave it to Beaver, Beav and Wally photograph signed when they were still young, a plaster of paris stuffed beaver tale with hair still clinging to its base among others.
These are among the rare items, not just for what they are, but also for their price. Dan's Not Calm is not an upscale boutique, and its prices reflect the more down to earth atmosphere.
Some of his items even end up on movie sets.
"I had a lamp make it into Brokeback Mountain," says Moore, obviously amused. Other items end up on sets, though he doesn't keep track.
Moore clearly enjoys his work, though he didn't set out to run an eclectic pop culture emporium.
After working in a design studio, doing computer and IT work as well as taking physics engineering at school for two years, Moore finally gave in to his ability to find unique objects that other people wanted.
"I'll pick it up because it's unusual; people seem to like my sensibilities when it comes to picking up things," he explains.
As for the name: "I wanted to have a store that sounded like a website that wasn't - so that in the event that I ever do put a website together, it will be Dan's Not Calm dot com," explains Moore with a chuckle.
And the name messes with people.
"Weirdest one I ever had. Some poor guy, I think he had dyslexia, said: 'So why's the store Dan's Not Clam?' And I didn't have the heart to say, read that carefully. I just said 'I don't sell seafood.'"
With Christmas carols already assaulting eardrums in the malls, Dan's Not Calm is an oasis of shopping, with fare that you will not find anywhere else.
"Goat hair pictures of shepherds. Who comes up with these things?" asks Moore, looking at a wall hanging.
Rant on oil subsidies
Won’t someone please think of the oil companies? Battered on all sides, these behemoths are desperate for love and to retain the generous amounts of money the government has customarily bequeathed them.
In the recent federal budget, Alberta’s would-be and current operators in the tar sands were told that the free ride was over…in 8 years. Notice that anyone with a job would love to receive. The government announced the phasing out of the Accelerated Capital Cost Allowance (ACCA) which gave companies tax incentives to destroy the north of our province.
Hal Walker, Chairman of the board of directors for the Chamber of Commerce in Calgary, speaking to the Calgary Herald said: “A change to the ACCA for oilsands developers undermines the single biggest contributor to Canada’s economic prosperity.”
Let’s think about that comment for a minute.
Walker is furious because the single largest contributor to Canada’s economic prosperity is no longer going to receive government money to help it increase it's billion dollar bottom line.
What do you suppose Mr. Walker would say if the government lowered the already desperately low social assistance money it pays out? We won’t even mention provincial AISH payments.
Are these the same people that say we should all pull ourselves up by our bootstraps? Maybe it only applies to people with no money. It’s confusing but I’m trying to understand.
Let’s recap.
The government has decided to scrap an outdated corporate welfare program designed to encourage growth in the tar sands when oil prices were low and the industry needed incentives.
Now growth in the region is likely to destroy the ecosystem, specifically the Athabasca river, and is already overwhelming northern infrastructure due to the pace of development. Sites have trouble recruiting enough workers.
Remind me again what I’m supposed to be outraged about.
In the recent federal budget, Alberta’s would-be and current operators in the tar sands were told that the free ride was over…in 8 years. Notice that anyone with a job would love to receive. The government announced the phasing out of the Accelerated Capital Cost Allowance (ACCA) which gave companies tax incentives to destroy the north of our province.
Hal Walker, Chairman of the board of directors for the Chamber of Commerce in Calgary, speaking to the Calgary Herald said: “A change to the ACCA for oilsands developers undermines the single biggest contributor to Canada’s economic prosperity.”
Let’s think about that comment for a minute.
Walker is furious because the single largest contributor to Canada’s economic prosperity is no longer going to receive government money to help it increase it's billion dollar bottom line.
What do you suppose Mr. Walker would say if the government lowered the already desperately low social assistance money it pays out? We won’t even mention provincial AISH payments.
Are these the same people that say we should all pull ourselves up by our bootstraps? Maybe it only applies to people with no money. It’s confusing but I’m trying to understand.
Let’s recap.
The government has decided to scrap an outdated corporate welfare program designed to encourage growth in the tar sands when oil prices were low and the industry needed incentives.
Now growth in the region is likely to destroy the ecosystem, specifically the Athabasca river, and is already overwhelming northern infrastructure due to the pace of development. Sites have trouble recruiting enough workers.
Remind me again what I’m supposed to be outraged about.
Stampede picture series
The Calgary Stampede has taken over the city once again. Though I'm not the biggest supporter, there is still a charm to the midway.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Phone news conference with Jack Layton, Feb. 2007
Originally published in The Weal, February, 2007
Interview By: Drew Anderson
The federal NDP is presenting a bill to the House of Commons on Monday Feb. 5, outlining the role they would like to see the federal government play in funding post-secondary education.
The act would call for stable federal funding to the provinces in response to promises of lowered tuition and increased quality, changes to the Canada student loan program, and implementation of a comprehensive needs-based student grant program for all years of study.
In lead up to the bill, Jack Layton, leader of the federal NDP held a virtual news conference with student journalists
This is what he had to say to The Weal’s news editor, Drew Anderson:
DA: How would you ensure provincial cooperation in return for these reliable federal funding policies that you propose? I’m thinking particularly of Alberta and Quebec. And would this help the patchwork of post-secondary costs and quality across the provinces?
JL: “Well I hope that this would help, and or course, ultimately there’s jurisdiction issues that you have to work through in the Canadian context. As you know we have certain constitutional divisions of responsibility that have to be respected. However, when you are able to offer funds, then you are opening the door to some influence over the way in which those funds are used and it takes a diligent government to make sure that those (assurances) are honoured.”
DA: Your website speaks of a looming skills shortage. Alberta is already in the middle of such a crisis. Does your party have any immediate solutions for increase training opportunities in post-secondary education?
JL: “Precisely how the training is delivered would inevitably have to be up to the provinces, but we believe that training, and I haven’t spoken specifically about jobs and skills training here, that’s a separate area of work for us and we’re working with the labour movement and business sectors in making sure that that issue is front and centre. Certainly you’re right about Alberta, it’s just an enormous shortage of the kind of labour that’s needed; and we’ve proposed in past election platforms, major investments in training and we’re calling on the federal government in their budget, which is coming down in two months, to address that question as a major priority.”
DA: You’re talking about substantial increases in federal transfers, so provinces can roll back tuition and re-invest in faculty and resources. How much would it cost to implement these federal transfers to the provinces?
JL: “Well, it’s something that has to be phased in of course with the financial capabilities of the federal government and that’s why, for instance, when we had the opportunity to force the federal Liberals into action we were able to construct a proposal that was a $1.6 billion investment. We are crunching the numbers now as to what the dollars would be that we could put forward in this particular budget. Of course that requires Mr. Harper to get off his massive tax cutting approach to running the government. If he continues to cut the taxes then that means you haven’t got the funds available to invest.
We’re trying to urge him not to reduce taxes further, we think that in fact that is jeopardizing our ability to make these kinds of investments.”
I can’t give you a specific dollar figure for this year’s budget right now for example.”
Interview By: Drew Anderson
The federal NDP is presenting a bill to the House of Commons on Monday Feb. 5, outlining the role they would like to see the federal government play in funding post-secondary education.
The act would call for stable federal funding to the provinces in response to promises of lowered tuition and increased quality, changes to the Canada student loan program, and implementation of a comprehensive needs-based student grant program for all years of study.
In lead up to the bill, Jack Layton, leader of the federal NDP held a virtual news conference with student journalists
This is what he had to say to The Weal’s news editor, Drew Anderson:
DA: How would you ensure provincial cooperation in return for these reliable federal funding policies that you propose? I’m thinking particularly of Alberta and Quebec. And would this help the patchwork of post-secondary costs and quality across the provinces?
JL: “Well I hope that this would help, and or course, ultimately there’s jurisdiction issues that you have to work through in the Canadian context. As you know we have certain constitutional divisions of responsibility that have to be respected. However, when you are able to offer funds, then you are opening the door to some influence over the way in which those funds are used and it takes a diligent government to make sure that those (assurances) are honoured.”
DA: Your website speaks of a looming skills shortage. Alberta is already in the middle of such a crisis. Does your party have any immediate solutions for increase training opportunities in post-secondary education?
JL: “Precisely how the training is delivered would inevitably have to be up to the provinces, but we believe that training, and I haven’t spoken specifically about jobs and skills training here, that’s a separate area of work for us and we’re working with the labour movement and business sectors in making sure that that issue is front and centre. Certainly you’re right about Alberta, it’s just an enormous shortage of the kind of labour that’s needed; and we’ve proposed in past election platforms, major investments in training and we’re calling on the federal government in their budget, which is coming down in two months, to address that question as a major priority.”
DA: You’re talking about substantial increases in federal transfers, so provinces can roll back tuition and re-invest in faculty and resources. How much would it cost to implement these federal transfers to the provinces?
JL: “Well, it’s something that has to be phased in of course with the financial capabilities of the federal government and that’s why, for instance, when we had the opportunity to force the federal Liberals into action we were able to construct a proposal that was a $1.6 billion investment. We are crunching the numbers now as to what the dollars would be that we could put forward in this particular budget. Of course that requires Mr. Harper to get off his massive tax cutting approach to running the government. If he continues to cut the taxes then that means you haven’t got the funds available to invest.
We’re trying to urge him not to reduce taxes further, we think that in fact that is jeopardizing our ability to make these kinds of investments.”
I can’t give you a specific dollar figure for this year’s budget right now for example.”
Book review - The Italian Letter
Originally published in FAST FORWARD, July 5, 2007
By: Drew Anderson
It is shocking when a known truth is revealed to be a great deal more sinister than originally believed, or when an assumption is turned to fact and presented with mountains of evidence. That is precisely what investigative journalists Peter Eisner and Knut Royce have accomplished.
We now know that the war in Iraq was based on faulty intelligence and hinged on the intentions of the executive administration in the U.S. What Eisner and Royce have done is collect all the strands of that shady endeavour and woven them into a compelling, though often repetitive, retelling of the facts.
As though out of a movie, the book begins and continuously returns to an Italian journalist named Elisabetta Burba-portrayed as earnest, hard working and misled-and her dealings with a shadowy trafficker of information. This relationship brings forth the Italian Letter, a forged document that would ultimately send Iraq into chaos.
In the letter, purportedly sent from the former president of Niger to Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, is confirmation of a deal to sell 500 tonnes of yellowcake uranium to Iraq. The problem with the letter, and the rest of the information included in a package of documents, is that it was a clear fraud, easily discovered with a simple Google search.
It is this package of information that Burba brings to the Americans for vetting. It is this information that finally ends in the lap of George W. Bush and his cadre of neo-conservative believers.
From this beginning, the authors expose the politicization of intelligence, the failure of the storied American system of political checks and balances and the astonishing delusion of those in the administration. They expose the links between actors, interview countless participants in the system and lay bare devastating institutional failures in the intelligence community, governments and journalism.
Readers are left to wonder at the conspiracy theory feel to it all, and no doubt fans of that particular genre of thinking will take this information and run. What is startling is that it doesn’t need any more information or intrigue to make it terrifying.
Plato once proposed the need for a noble lie, a secret vested in the ruling class that would benefit society. In this book we are presented with the rise of public relations in manipulating the opinions of the citizenry, the presentation of untenable facts spun into a cohesive deception; the ignoble lie and its devastating consequences for a democracy. The U.S. administration used fear, based on cooked information, to entice a nation into war.
Andrew Card, the White House Chief of Staff, illustrated the attitude of the administration when discussing the PR campaign that was launched to build support for the war in September of 2002 (three days before the first anniversary of 9/11). He told the New York Times: “From a marketing point of view, you don’t introduce new products in August.”
This book reveals the slow decline of American and British democracy and the important role that journalism plays in the dialogue of a society. It also makes it frustratingly clear that institutions can take on a life of their own and that information sometimes isn’t exposed in time.
As the book progresses through the entanglements of nations, administrations, editors and spooks, the truth becomes overwhelming and clear. Though decidedly on the side of overkill, the information proves too important to lay out in a few pages and move along. It requires the affirmation and double confirmation from many sources, and the authors expertly track the links and the movements of documents and failures as they snake their way across the globe.
For anyone opposed to the war in Iraq, this is essential reading. To understand just why this war is wrong requires a lesson in its original failings. For anyone that still supports the war, the information is driven home so often and so well in this book, it might just lift that veil from your eyes.
By: Drew Anderson
It is shocking when a known truth is revealed to be a great deal more sinister than originally believed, or when an assumption is turned to fact and presented with mountains of evidence. That is precisely what investigative journalists Peter Eisner and Knut Royce have accomplished.
We now know that the war in Iraq was based on faulty intelligence and hinged on the intentions of the executive administration in the U.S. What Eisner and Royce have done is collect all the strands of that shady endeavour and woven them into a compelling, though often repetitive, retelling of the facts.
As though out of a movie, the book begins and continuously returns to an Italian journalist named Elisabetta Burba-portrayed as earnest, hard working and misled-and her dealings with a shadowy trafficker of information. This relationship brings forth the Italian Letter, a forged document that would ultimately send Iraq into chaos.
In the letter, purportedly sent from the former president of Niger to Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, is confirmation of a deal to sell 500 tonnes of yellowcake uranium to Iraq. The problem with the letter, and the rest of the information included in a package of documents, is that it was a clear fraud, easily discovered with a simple Google search.
It is this package of information that Burba brings to the Americans for vetting. It is this information that finally ends in the lap of George W. Bush and his cadre of neo-conservative believers.
From this beginning, the authors expose the politicization of intelligence, the failure of the storied American system of political checks and balances and the astonishing delusion of those in the administration. They expose the links between actors, interview countless participants in the system and lay bare devastating institutional failures in the intelligence community, governments and journalism.
Readers are left to wonder at the conspiracy theory feel to it all, and no doubt fans of that particular genre of thinking will take this information and run. What is startling is that it doesn’t need any more information or intrigue to make it terrifying.
Plato once proposed the need for a noble lie, a secret vested in the ruling class that would benefit society. In this book we are presented with the rise of public relations in manipulating the opinions of the citizenry, the presentation of untenable facts spun into a cohesive deception; the ignoble lie and its devastating consequences for a democracy. The U.S. administration used fear, based on cooked information, to entice a nation into war.
Andrew Card, the White House Chief of Staff, illustrated the attitude of the administration when discussing the PR campaign that was launched to build support for the war in September of 2002 (three days before the first anniversary of 9/11). He told the New York Times: “From a marketing point of view, you don’t introduce new products in August.”
This book reveals the slow decline of American and British democracy and the important role that journalism plays in the dialogue of a society. It also makes it frustratingly clear that institutions can take on a life of their own and that information sometimes isn’t exposed in time.
As the book progresses through the entanglements of nations, administrations, editors and spooks, the truth becomes overwhelming and clear. Though decidedly on the side of overkill, the information proves too important to lay out in a few pages and move along. It requires the affirmation and double confirmation from many sources, and the authors expertly track the links and the movements of documents and failures as they snake their way across the globe.
For anyone opposed to the war in Iraq, this is essential reading. To understand just why this war is wrong requires a lesson in its original failings. For anyone that still supports the war, the information is driven home so often and so well in this book, it might just lift that veil from your eyes.
Calgary's new water centre
Originally published in FAST FORWARD, June 7, 2007
By: Drew Anderson
Following the curved roadway of 25th Ave., itself a mimic of the old CN rail line that forged this route, the City of Calgary’s newest building, the Water Centre, stands along its curb and almost distracts the driver right off the road. A looming curved wall of galvanized aluminum rises on the edge of the city’s Manchester yards evoking a sense of the water that will be the occupants primary concern.
The building will house approximately 800 Water Services and Water Resource employees, bringing them together in one building for the first time.
Rounding the bend in the road the first question that comes to mind is: what is that? Quickly followed by a sense of architectural hope, a sense that perhaps Calgary is not doomed to a sort of design purgatory, brutalized on all sides by four walls and a roof.
“I was very interested, and have been for a long time, in the curvilinear nature of 25th Ave.,” says lead architect Jeremy Sturgess, whose firm Sturgess Architecture collaborated on the project with Manasc Isaac Architects of Edmonton.
He wanted to pay homage to the historical nature of that curve as the former path of the railway, to maintain and reinforce it while also cupping the yards and the green space that will nestle into the building’s south side.
“So not only is the building, by its location, creating a garden that is going to be very useful to the users of the building and also to the public, but it is also defining and establishing 25th Ave. as an important piece of Calgary’s fabric,” he says.
While motorists will be confronted with a sloping quarter circle roof slashed with long banks of tempered windows, the south side will be a massive wall of glass with alternating blue and green hues - another water-inspired design feature - facing a landscaped area.
Resting comfortably within its protective embrace, the green space will feature meandering stone walkways with simulated creek beds rushing water run-off from the roof, to ponds and cisterns in the yard. The collected water will be used for irrigation.
The centre was inspired by American architect Stephen Holl’s Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki, and mimics both its curved design as well as its ready supply of natural light.
“One of our features that we want to provide people, is access to a window and access to daylight while they’re at work,” says Russ Golightly, project manager of the water centre for the City of Calgary corporate properties and buildings.
This, along with the landscape design is part of meeting the city’s new sustainable building policy, approved in 2003, which calls for all new city projects to be certified LEED (Leadeship in Energy and Environmental Design) silver or above.
LEED is the industry standard certification system that monitors and certifies buildings based on 70 established points, including access to public transportation, energy efficiency, water use and innovative design. Levels of certification are: certified, silver, gold and platinum. A building that achieves 33-38 of those available points will be certified silver.
The impressive exterior of the building is a fitting shell for the environmental innovation contained within. According to the City of Calgary website, the building will be day lit, recycle 95 per cent of excess construction material, reduce water use by 59 per cent, waste water by 72 per cent, and save 58 per cent in annual energy consumption.
Over 700,000 kilograms of reinforcing steel used in the construction was recycled product.
Wider on the west end and narrowing as it flows east towards the industrial heart of the city, the building is long and narrow, an intentional design to foster community by encouraging walking and talking all while avoiding elevators.
Inside, all four floors are open on the south side, each railed with recycled wheat stock boards, creating an atrium feel to the interior. The design team made the space open, hoping to foster not only communication, but also air-flow and movement.
“We were very strong that it should not be a high rise,” says Sturgess, “because if we’re going to make a building that is a collaboration we want to make as much public space in the building as we can.”
Alderman Bob Hawkesworth, who introduced the motion for the new building policy is thrilled with the centre, in terms of its environmental prowess and its architectural beauty.
“I think that’s where we have to go (innovative design), we have to raise the bar. If we’re going to get the private sector to go beyond the mediocre, the city first has to go beyond mediocre and raise the bar for itself,” he says.
“It’s saying to the rest of Calgary and the private sector, we can do it and we expect you to be able to do it too.”
The project, though impressive, is estimated to cost only 2 per cent more than a conventional building, and will bring significant savings in terms of energy and water use, it is expected to pay for itself in 15 years.
By: Drew Anderson
Following the curved roadway of 25th Ave., itself a mimic of the old CN rail line that forged this route, the City of Calgary’s newest building, the Water Centre, stands along its curb and almost distracts the driver right off the road. A looming curved wall of galvanized aluminum rises on the edge of the city’s Manchester yards evoking a sense of the water that will be the occupants primary concern.
The building will house approximately 800 Water Services and Water Resource employees, bringing them together in one building for the first time.
Rounding the bend in the road the first question that comes to mind is: what is that? Quickly followed by a sense of architectural hope, a sense that perhaps Calgary is not doomed to a sort of design purgatory, brutalized on all sides by four walls and a roof.
“I was very interested, and have been for a long time, in the curvilinear nature of 25th Ave.,” says lead architect Jeremy Sturgess, whose firm Sturgess Architecture collaborated on the project with Manasc Isaac Architects of Edmonton.
He wanted to pay homage to the historical nature of that curve as the former path of the railway, to maintain and reinforce it while also cupping the yards and the green space that will nestle into the building’s south side.
“So not only is the building, by its location, creating a garden that is going to be very useful to the users of the building and also to the public, but it is also defining and establishing 25th Ave. as an important piece of Calgary’s fabric,” he says.
While motorists will be confronted with a sloping quarter circle roof slashed with long banks of tempered windows, the south side will be a massive wall of glass with alternating blue and green hues - another water-inspired design feature - facing a landscaped area.
Resting comfortably within its protective embrace, the green space will feature meandering stone walkways with simulated creek beds rushing water run-off from the roof, to ponds and cisterns in the yard. The collected water will be used for irrigation.
The centre was inspired by American architect Stephen Holl’s Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki, and mimics both its curved design as well as its ready supply of natural light.
“One of our features that we want to provide people, is access to a window and access to daylight while they’re at work,” says Russ Golightly, project manager of the water centre for the City of Calgary corporate properties and buildings.
This, along with the landscape design is part of meeting the city’s new sustainable building policy, approved in 2003, which calls for all new city projects to be certified LEED (Leadeship in Energy and Environmental Design) silver or above.
LEED is the industry standard certification system that monitors and certifies buildings based on 70 established points, including access to public transportation, energy efficiency, water use and innovative design. Levels of certification are: certified, silver, gold and platinum. A building that achieves 33-38 of those available points will be certified silver.
The impressive exterior of the building is a fitting shell for the environmental innovation contained within. According to the City of Calgary website, the building will be day lit, recycle 95 per cent of excess construction material, reduce water use by 59 per cent, waste water by 72 per cent, and save 58 per cent in annual energy consumption.
Over 700,000 kilograms of reinforcing steel used in the construction was recycled product.
Wider on the west end and narrowing as it flows east towards the industrial heart of the city, the building is long and narrow, an intentional design to foster community by encouraging walking and talking all while avoiding elevators.
Inside, all four floors are open on the south side, each railed with recycled wheat stock boards, creating an atrium feel to the interior. The design team made the space open, hoping to foster not only communication, but also air-flow and movement.
“We were very strong that it should not be a high rise,” says Sturgess, “because if we’re going to make a building that is a collaboration we want to make as much public space in the building as we can.”
Alderman Bob Hawkesworth, who introduced the motion for the new building policy is thrilled with the centre, in terms of its environmental prowess and its architectural beauty.
“I think that’s where we have to go (innovative design), we have to raise the bar. If we’re going to get the private sector to go beyond the mediocre, the city first has to go beyond mediocre and raise the bar for itself,” he says.
“It’s saying to the rest of Calgary and the private sector, we can do it and we expect you to be able to do it too.”
The project, though impressive, is estimated to cost only 2 per cent more than a conventional building, and will bring significant savings in terms of energy and water use, it is expected to pay for itself in 15 years.
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