Ongoing Calgarians complaining about pedestrian bridges thread

[Phanuthier]

Originally Posted by Table 5

What Calgary might look like in a few years if all the current projects, including our elitist bridge, get built. Courtesy of Devin Henry on Skyscraperpage.com

Contrast for you cheapo's who are looking at only functionality, and would rather save the money and have big ugly gray concrete cuildings:



Or even trying to make it look better by using the sunrise/sunset



Maybe a river might help it out a bit?

[jayswin]

What city is that?

[SteveToms]

Buffalo.

[moon]

Originally Posted by Phanuthier

Contrast for you cheapo's who are looking at only functionality, and would rather save the money and have big ugly gray concrete cuildings:



Or even trying to make it look better by using the sunrise/sunset



Maybe a river might help it out a bit?

It doesn't look any better/worse than the picture that Table 5 posted.

[CaptainCrunch]

wonder if we're going to have to have a poop patrol, because that red is going to become speckled pretty quickly.

I'm more concerned that this monstrosity is going to end up costing 40 million. There's a history with these types of bridges being difficult to construct and going over budget.

[calgaryrocks]

Originally Posted by moon

It doesn't look any better/worse than the picture that Table 5 posted.

i would much rather have a downtown with some colour and beauty, then beige and concrete all over.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

wonder if we're going to have to have a poop patrol, because that red is going to become speckled pretty quickly.

Think off all the bird droppings on the glass roof of the bridge. Hate to be the person who'll have to clean that crap up

[CaptainCrunch]

Have you ever tried to clean bird poop off of glass, a pressure washer just doesn't do it.

You have to scrub that goo off.

[Bunk]

Full Article:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle1238116/


Is Calatrava the future of Calgary? Let's hope so

A breathtaking bridge by the Spaniard is causing controversy, but designs for a music centre prove the city is ready to take risks

Lisa Rochon - The Globe and Mail

As psycho-cultural snapshots, there's nothing more entertaining and instructive than the sound bites of Calgarians who like to loudly protest against the possibility of evolving a merely functioning city into a more visually enticing metropolis. To attempt something more than the utilitarian – as in the red-and-white torpedo-shaped pedestrian and bicycle bridge designed by architect-engineer genius Santiago Calatrava to shoot across Calgary's Bow River – is to risk a public flogging.

Check the dark tone of reporter Jason Markusoff, who in an interview printed this week in the Calgary Herald requires Calatrava to answer the following petty, chauvinistic charges: “As I walk along the riverbank, where this bridge is going to be, people I ask say this is the epitome of terrible decisions. This was a bad use of taxpayers' money. Why should we be hiring this fellow from Spain to build this bridge?”

.....

Even in the last week, despite the childish insults hurled at Calatrava, the new cultural consciousness has gained tremendous ground. One of the most invigorating shout-outs for a reinvented Calgary involves the Cantos Music Foundation and the five international firms that have now been shortlisted to design its new headquarters.
......

I wish I could declare that the outrage over Calatrava's sensibly costed and beguiling pedestrian bridge belongs to a minority of voices. And I will, I hope, but only once major funding from the public sector and private donors is secured for the new music centre – and when the Epcor Centre, designed by Vancouver architect Bing Thom, lands the funding to expand its performance-arts centre in Calgary's downtown. Those announcements are expected this fall. Stay tuned to see whether Calgary is intent on a stunning rise – or a childish tumble down a nasty hill.



----------------------------------------------

I'm so glad Ms. Rochon called out Mr. Markusoff's utter BS in his reporting. Overall, her article is bang on. I hope people in Calgary take notice of how all this has made us look and what real, amazing potential we actually have. People do notice these kinds of big, bold moves.

[Table 5]

I believe the children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way.

[HotHotHeat]

Great article. Glad to see Calgary is getting noticed for something other than rodeos and Nickelback fans.

She's right how she speaks of Calgarians beginning to reject suburbs and are more and more attracted to the inner city. This whole spat about the bridge isn't really about the bridge, it's about old, closed off minds vs. new, intriguing and fresh thinking.

[Nage Waza]

I think Lisa missed the point that the city is planning on building a luxurious foot bridge when people think we are taxed too much and many people are at risk of losing their jobs. This bridge also comes after the blue bins, property tax raises and assorted other crazy municipal government dealings.

[Table 5]

Oh boy, I can see where this is going again...

[Bunk]

Table and Muta, you must have loved this quote given the debate in the other thread.

But how to defend his stunning record as a maker of iconic designs when confronted by the ultimate diss by a whinging Herald reader who wrote to the paper that Calatrava's work belongs in an elementary-level art class: “This to me looks like something a child in school would dream up and it would cost far less than $24.5-million.” If that's the case, good on the Alberta school system. It's must be producing some creative minds.

[Dion]

Chris Ollenberger, who is in charge of the project to build a second pedestrian bridge, understands the need for such input. The president and CEO of the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation immediately announced he will hold an open competition to find the right design for the next bridge;one located in his jurisdiction, the East Village. He says members of the public will have a chance to express their opinions in some fashion.

"Not everybody is going to come to a consensus on this bridge, that is going to be the sure outcome," says Ollenberger, who had no hand in the Peace Bridge process or the ill-conceived decision to acclaim Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava.

" Not everybody is going to like whatever happens. But to actually have a debate and engage people with it should lead to a better project and should lead to a sense of pride in the city for being involved with it. It's good."

By acclaiming someone famous, the city paid top dollar for a design many now feel has been imposed upon Calgary by an outsider who has no connection with Calgarians.

Understandably, many are overly critical of the red, helix-like structure often likened to a Chinese finger trap or hamster tunnel. One Herald reader said "it looks like something you would find wrapped around asparagus in the produce section." Another called it "ugly as sin" and said: "Say No to the orange torpedo."

http://www.calgaryherald.com/enterta...281/story.html

[Claeren]

Originally Posted by Dion

http://www.calgaryherald.com/enterta...281/story.html

Wow, finding 'artistic consensus' amongst a bunch of suburbanite NIMBY morons.... sounds like a GREAT plan.

That is how you end up with something that is boring and 'safe' and without any personality at all -- and likely even worse, is tacky and cumbersome and behind the times before it is even built.

It all sounds good in theory, but in 50 years the safe bet is being torn down while those behind the (today's) bold works are being adored for their vision.



I just hope the design competition is about finding a great 'best of the best' design, and not to find 'the easiest to sell to the most vocal part of the NIMBY conservative public' design.



Claeren.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by Claeren

Wow, finding 'artistic consensus' amongst a bunch of suburbanite NIMBY morons.... sounds like a GREAT plan.

Better than shoving it down the throats of Calgarians without any public consultation. This bridge might have been more accepted by Calgarians if everything hadn't been done in secret.

[Claeren]

Originally Posted by Dion

Better than shoving it down the throats of Calgarians without any public consultation. This bridge might have been more accepted by Calgarians if everything hadn't been done in secret.

Orrrrrrr maybe, if a couple of horrible/opportunistic city councillors along with a sensationalist press (especially the Calgary Sun and talk radio) that gave a disproportionate voice to the typical handful of resist-all-change conservatives we all could just enjoy what will come to be a center piece of Calgary art and image abroad and used by hundreds of thousands of Calgarians each and every day/week?

Too much input is even worse than too little, because the agenda always gets hijacked by those on the extremes, and in Calgary those extremes lean heavily to the right. Those people that will use this bridge daily are not typically the ones complaining, from what I have seen it is almost exclusively people who will NOT use it that complain, even though they are more than happy driving along their billions and billions of dollars in new suburban road infrastructure to work each day....

Next time Calgary wants to build an interchange in some far flung unsustainable suburb we should let all of innercity Calgary vote on whether it is a good and fair use of the public purse? lol


Perhaps the funniest part is that most every person I know opposed to the bridge has little-to-no-clue about the underlying funding issues behind the bridge, blame Bronconnier (which is laughable), do not blame the province at all (which is where you should really look if the money is that big of a deal to you), do not understand how design competitions work (Calatrava would not have bothered competing for this tiny contract, awarding it directly to him was critical if not for this bridge's design than to the quality of bid that the next bridge will generate when designers can have a bridge forever linked to Calatrava's own bridge on their resume), or acknowledge that good or bad a Calatrava built bridge generates revenue in the city that will likely pay for the bridge itself within a short period of time relative to the life of the bridge, etc. The economics on this are not bad at all, and even if you think they are please stop saying we could have just filled potholes instead with it -- that is not how the province allocates its budget.

And perhaps worse of all -- they seem to feel as an opposing group that if they are not going to use the bridge themsevles, they cannot see how anyone else in Calgary deserves something for their own area of the city.



Claeren.

[TurnedTheCorner]

Bridge or no, those skyline pictures look f'n cool.

[Muta]

Originally Posted by Dion

http://www.calgaryherald.com/enterta...281/story.html

I told you guys it'll be an open competition.

Anybody who wants to respond to the RFP can when it comes out. If people think they know how to better design a bridge, and know how to make a bridge better than Calatrava and for less money, then have at 'er.

Although, if the location of the Calatrava bridge got people all up in arms because of it's location to other pedestrian bridges, wait until they hear where the new one supposedly going to be.

This should be interesting to watch.