Eau-Claire Market Re-Development

[Spring2008]

Maybe they're serious this time? Who knows

Four of the buildings would be residential (townhouses, condos and rental units) and one would be an office building — or potentially a hotel/office building.

Harvard wants to more than double Eau Claire's existing population.

Jeff Till, the architect designing the new Eau Claire vision for Harvard, recently told city council that having more people living in the area will ensure there's a built-in population for a grocery store and other services during evening hours and weekends.


During the day, the office workers will help support the restaurants, cafes and other businesses.

Till wants to link the new site with downtown towers through a Plus 15 connection, and a link to the proposed Green Line C-Train station on Second Street S.W.

His plan also takes on some of the problems with the previous Eau Claire site.


(Artist rendering/Harvard Developments Inc.)
"Today, the Eau Claire Market turns its back on the plaza. There's a roadway between pedestrians and the plaza. This design embraces the plaza with permeability to allow people to flow directly between the plaza and the retail and restaurants of the new development, without any roadway in between," said Till.

Major redesigns of neighbourhoods can work. They can build new communities. Think about the land at the old military base which was turned into the Garrison Woods neighbourhood.


(Artist rendering/Harvard Developments Inc.)
Harvard hopes to put shovel into soil at Eau Claire by the end of this year. The latest effort in a 130 year attempt to make best use of prime Calgary real estate.

"We think that in the future, people will be saying things on the street like "meet me at Eau Claire" or "I live at Eau Claire", really changing the way the public and the whole city feels about Eau Claire" said Till.

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/calga...-history-city-council-new-plan-1.3464885