Re-imagining Cambridge

[Duke-Of-Waterloo]

Re-imagining Cambridge

There was an article in The Waterloo Region Record on Saturday, August 22, 2009 about students at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture in Galt working on a project to "polish the rough diamond that is downtown Galt". They took current pictures of various locations in Galt, and redesigned them as vibrant urban spaces. It's a really neat project, which The Record calls "achievable".

Here is an example of River West in Galt:

Before


After

(STUDENTS: ELMUTAZ ELRABAA, PETER GRAHAM, CHRISTY HEMPEL (ALL WATER COLOURS))


The Record's website did not have an article or pictures on the project, so here is a link to the .pdf of the page article:

http://www.therecord.com/pdfs/20090822/A09.pdf

I would love to see that cladding taken off of the former Shoppers Drug Mart at Main and Ainslie. It boggles my mind that they would put that cladding on in the first place.

[DHLawrence]

So there is something under the Big V after all--I thought they just demolished what was there before. Maybe those guys who bought half of Main Street can do something with it.

Sounds like a good start, but let's not stop there. I'd like to see what they'd make of Preston, Hespeler, and the Hespeler Road nightmare.

On the topic of Galt, does anybody remember where the Marks and Spencer was in Galt? Apparently they had one, but I can't for the life of me imagine where it was.

[DHLawrence]

There was another article on this project, this time in the Cambridge Times. Their website is still displaying yesterday's articles, so I won't be able to add it here until later tonight or tomorrow

However, the state of the city address indicates that some of these proposals might make it off the drawing board.

Craig praises downtown growth in State of the City address
October 01, 2009
By Kevin Swayze, Record staff

CAMBRIDGE — Mayor Doug Craig expects good news about the expansion of Cambridge Memorial Hospital by spring.

And he’s ready to run for re-election in 2010 with a sweeping vision to connect citizens and tourists with Cambridge’s often ignored waterways, as part of push to green the city and boost its economy.

Speaking after his annual State of the City address, he predicted Queen’s Park will put the $39-million hospital expansion into the province’s new, multi-year construction budget. He’s also optimistic the deficit-plagued hospital will emerge from provincial supervision ready for the expansion.

“We bounce back. We always bounce back,” he said.

More than 100 business and community leaders gathered in the foyer of new City Hall, to hear Craig outline the city’s budget challenges for the next year.

Craig updated the audience on the status of big public and private projects, from the city building a 650-seat theatre for Drayton Entertainment, set to open by 2012, to expansions at the Cambridge Conference Centre on Hespeler, condominium plans in the former American Standard factory in Hespeler, and other projects.

“It’s all about people in the downtown — it’s about population in the downtown and making things happen,” Craig said.

The three-term mayor pitched a multi-year plan to build community interest in creating walkways and café areas along the Grand and Speed rivers.

They’re ideas first suggested by city-hired experts 15 years ago, but now revived by students at the University of Waterloo school of architecture overlooking the Grand.

Craig showed photos of a dozen bright-pink Muskoka chairs that students placed along the river’s edge over the summer, at an access stairway punched through three-metre-tall flood wall a few years ago. The impromptu urban beach was a hit, Craig said.

“What they found out was people really wanted to be down there,” Craig said.

He said Cambridge needs to start looking at attractions like waterfalls behind the historic post office on Water Street, or building terraces behind buildings upstream of the Main Street bridge and completing a long-dreamed-of pedestrian bridge across the river south of Main Street.

At the same time, the city needs to push environmental projects to not only create a healthier city, but to save money by not wasting energy. The city’s two-year-old, $30-million city hall was designed to stringent green standards and costs 42 per cent less to operate than a conventional building of the same size, he said.

With Waterloo Region Chair Ken Seiling and Kitchener Mayor Karl Zehr in the audience, Craig made no reference to his long-standing opposition to local government amalgamation.

Instead, Craig made light of his vocal rejection of region’s rapid transit plan — which proposes light rail trains in Kitchener-Waterloo and fast buses in Cambridge — by proposing a cheaper Cambridge-designed plan.

People laughed when Craig put his tongue firmly in cheek by putting up a photo of city councillors riding a multi-seat bicycle at a charity fundraiser.

Indeed, he praised the region for pushing ahead plans for a bridge over the traffic choking CP Rail tracks north of the Delta intersection. Work starts in 2010 on the two-year project. He hinted a soon-to-be-released regional study supports long-awaited extension of GO train service from Milton into Cambridge.

Start of GO bus service through Cambridge to Kitchener is expected to be announced by month’s end, Craig said.

Craig offered “frankness about the budget challenges we face” at city hall. Like every family and business, the city is hurting from the slow economy. In 2010, he proposes no changes to city services while pushing ahead with cost-cutting efforts across the city bureaucracy to eliminate a $255,000 deficit.

“Essentially, for the next year, it’s financially treading water . . . If we keep on track and we keep it tightened, we can achieve this.”

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How can you tell an election's coming?