CITYlab

Completed CITYlab Projects

What makes a Happy City?

On October 1, 2015, Edmonton's NextGen hosted an engaging evening with the author of Happy City, Charles Montgomery.

Great Ideas. Great City.

Let's Talk Transit

On September 28, 2015, Taras Grescoe, a globe-trotting and award winning author of Straphanger shared inspiring stories about transit from around the world.

The public talk was part of the City of Edmonton's Transit Strategy Project What Moves You? and the first in the new Great Ideas. Great City. speaker series which invites Edmontonians to explore inspiring ideas that help shape a great city.

PARK(ing) Day 2015

Clothing Swap on Park(ing) Day

PARK(ing) Day is an international event where people transform parking stalls into temporary parks, interactive displays or art installations.

PARK(ing) Day was led by The Drawing Room, in collaboration with CITYlab and the City-Region Studies Centre, this year along 97 Street and 101A Avenue on September 18, 2015.

Placemaking at Clareview

Clareview LRT Station

CITYlab temporarily created a 'mini Churchill Square' with tables, chairs and a giant chess set at the Clareview LRT station. We were joined by our friends in Transportation engaging people about the City's new Transit Strategy, What Moves you?

Thanks to everyone who came and gave their feedback!

Whyte Ave Alley Project

Thanks to everyone who visited the Alley and shared what they would like to see in the Alley in the future! We had a lot of fun hearing your ideas, getting your feedback and seeing the creative sketches you worked on with our artists!

What we heard will help inform the next steps we take together with other city departments, the Old Strathcona Business Association and the Old Strathcona Foundation. We will be sharing what we heard and our lessons learned.

The Alley, on the north side of Whyte Avenue between 104 St and 105 St, was transformed to a public plaza by City Council on July 6, 2015. The Alley was temporarily painted as a low cost way to add colour and fun to what already makes Whyte Ave great - a place to stop, linger and explore what's going on! Check it out and get your hopscotch on!

Thanks to all who helped transform the alley!

#DIYcity

#DIYcity was a citizen driven urban makeover. Together with Make Something Edmonton, CITYlab encouraged residents to create short-term, safe, fun, placemaking projects to turn underused spaces into welcoming places. Projects included friends painting their back garage to add colour to the alley, a community garden tour, a chalk manadala, a pop-up patio and so many more! There were over two dozen projects happening around the city. It was exciting to see the creativity and new ways for people to gather and interact!

CITYChalk - Let's chalk about your Edmonton

CITYchalk was inspired by the many postcards CITYlab received, when we launched, that said to animate public space through chalk and colour. Artist, Jennifer Poburan, contributed an impressive collage along with the many people who stopped to chalk about Edmonton!

CITYchalk Summary

Check our our CITYchalk video!

Pride and Placemaking - Edmonton's first rainbow crosswalks

After reviewing the feedback, traffic data and the overwhelmingly positive response we will be exploring a permanent crosswalk!

Possible locations for a permanent rainbow crosswalk, will be reviewed this fall and you will have a chance to provide your input.

The rainbow crosswalks are still in place. Thank you to everyone who completed the survey. All your feedback is appreciated! Here is what we learned:

Rainbow Crosswalks Pilot Summary

The City of Edmonton's Transportation Planning, Transportation Operations and CITYlab collaborated to temporarily paint crosswalks into rainbow colours as part of the Edmonton Pride Parade.

Check out the rainbows being painted video!

106 Fest

106 Fest was a collaborative event led by QA Crossroads involving the communities of Strathcona, Queen Alexandra, Allendale, Pleasantview and Empire Park as a way to experience 106th Street in a new way.

106 Fest Video

106 Fest Summary

The Postcard Project

The Postcard Project was CITYlab’s launch and introduction! We received many great ideas and used the postcards to animate a space downtown. Here is what we learned: