Winter Design Guidelines
Winter is a core part of Edmonton’s identity and needs to be fully considered as our city grows. Winter design guidelines will provide flexible guidance and inspiration for future development decisions throughout Edmonton.
The Winter Design Guidelines are comprehensive and are intended to facilitate leading-practice urban design solutions with a winter lens. Five winter design principles are found throughout the guidelines, and are instrumental to achieving not only a great winter city, but a great year-round city.
These 5 principles apply to the public realm of our streets, parks and open spaces, and include:
- Incorporating design strategies to block wind
- Maximizing exposure to sunshine through orientation and design
- Using colour to enliven the winterscape
- Creating visual interest with light
- Providing infrastructure that supports a desired winter life
Active Stakeholders & International Reviewers
The Winter Design Working Group has been leading the development of these guidelines and includes key stakeholders from the areas of local government, urban planning and design, landscape architecture, architecture, engineering, transportation, parks planning, EFCL, and land development. In addition, 3 collaborative sessions called Design Dens were held to provide an opportunity to reach a broader group of stakeholders and to workshop the draft guidelines.
A Core Project Team with staff from City Wide Planning and the WinterCity Office is responsible for coordinating and supporting the Working Group, as well as developing and finalizing the Winter Design Guidelines.
Key Audience
The guidelines are intended for the use of city builders such as landowners, developers, planners, designers, engineers and their consultants, as well as City staff reviewing development applications. They will also be used by the City when designing civic and public realm improvements. These guidelines are expected to be a useful resource for community groups and the general public as well.
Next Steps
The next steps of the project are to finalize the document in summer of 2015, and present to Council in fall of 2015. The implementation plan for the guidelines calls for City-wide adoption of the winter design principles, as well as a review and update of some City regulations, policies, guidelines and development standards. Some operational procedures may also need to be updated.
The implementation plan also recommends producing information resources to share leading practices with local communities. We are now working on winter design brochures that will be widely distributed to community leagues, business owners and residents, to ensure all our citizens understand the benefits of designing for winter.
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Winter Design Elements
For More Information
WinterCity Strategy
| Telephone | 780-496-3664 |
|---|---|
| wintercity@edmonton.ca |
