People's Choice Awards
Voting has now closed. Thank you to everyone who voted. We're busy counting up the votes and reviewing your comments. The winner will be revealed on Friday November 15, 2019 at the awards ceremony.
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We received a number of submissions for the 2019 Urban Design Awards. A variety of projects were submitted, from bike racks to transit stations - and everything in-between. The submissions are listed below by category and are in no particular order.
Thank you to everyone who submitted your projects to this year's competition. These awards would not be a success without your projects. In total, we received 58 projects, which is the highest to date since the program's launch in 2005.
Voting has now closed. Thank you to everyone who voted. We're busy counting up the votes and reviewing your comments. The winner will be revealed on Friday November 15, 2019 at the awards ceremony.
The Mechanized River Valley Access connects Edmonton’s downtown with its spectacular river valley.
More than simply a river crossing, the Walterdale Bridge creates a public space where the duality of the city and nature are experienced and celebrated at a pivotal, historically significant location.
This utility building functions as a large mechanical room focused on housing equipment for the community’s environmentally-friendly District Energy Sharing System.
The redevelopment of Paul Kane Park carefully considers the historic character of the existing park while providing new amenities and experiences. The design provides opportunities to touch, hear and engage with water.
The renovation of Cambridge Tunnel updates the tunnel connecting the ATB Building, the Cambridge Building, and the Central LRT station. Clad with perforated metal panels, these perforations depict a visual timeline of Jasper Avenue.
In 2009, a plan was prepared to revitalize the utilitarian space into a public park that could capture the vibrancy of the area, act as a keystone for neighbourhood gathering, and become a permanent destination for outdoor events.
This park is a unique open space that celebrates and reconciles European and Indigenous landscape traditions and proudly displays its cultural heritage in indigenous art installments found throughout the park.
The Historic McKay Avenue School Playground is Edmonton's first downtown playground, a gem overlooking the City's River Valley.
The advanced scorekeeping building at Wally Footz Field is part of Wally Footz’s vision to create a ‘Field of Dreams.’
Gibbard Block is the complete restoration and adaptive reuse of a beloved historic building in the community of Highlands. Built in 1913 as a commercial block with 3 storefronts and 9 luxury apartments, the building once boasted the latest in comfort and detail.
The project is a careful restoration of the former residence of Emily Murphy during her fight for women’s suffrage from 1919 to her death in 1932.
This project included the renovation of a telephone utility building into a community focused gathering/commercial hub for the community of Oliver.
This project included the rehabilitation of an existing heritage building built in 1907 with the intent to retain as much of the existing building, structure and architectural features as possible.
Decolicious started with a whimsical idea to save a local landmark from potential demolition. It was then paired with the practical motivation of a neighbour looking for an office space close to home, so he could walk to work.
This project raises the bar for the regeneration of affordable housing sites and enriches the vibrancy and depth of the Brittania-Youngstown neighbourhood.
Pehonan Drive is a streetscaping and redevelopment plan for 96th Avenue in the historic Rossdale neighbourhood. The project re-imagines a harsh pedestrian environment - focusing on shared space through a winter city design lens.
Using found spaces to enhance the connection between downtown and the River Valley, this project aims to create a shift in perspective towards winter as a positive asset.
The Chenier at Grandin is a mixed-use heritage preservation and urban design plan for 5 lots in the Oliver neighbourhood.
Through this project, Old Strathcona will become connected to the city like never before. The main feature is the urban linear parkway, which connects the natural river valley, to the urban Whyte avenue, with dense land uses parallel to the parkway.
The project envisions a new transit-oriented urban village adjacent to the Belvedere LRT Station that welcomes residential, commercial and recreational mixed uses, while taking a multigenerational approach, activating nearby communities, and creating a strong sense of place.
This seniors’ home, located on a surplus school site in Mill Woods, combines subsidized and affordable units. It runs on a mixed income model that allows the affordable suites to support the operation.
The Quarters Hotel is a mixed-use development that aspires to catalyze the neighbourhood by breathing new life into the emerging Quarters district.
This 10-storey office building, built on a single lot, features one of Canada’s largest solar walls. Its 560 solar panels provide 80% of the building’s electrical requirements.
Parkdale One blends affordable and market housing into a single unified development that provides a new front door to an existing affordable housing site.
Architecturally designed and custom crafted, this new 2½ -storey residence is located on prestigious Valleyview Crescent. This unique design boasts a spectacular roof top deck with bonus room and an amazing interior courtyard.
The Grand is a 3-storey commercial building located at 12408-108 Avenue NW. This building takes cues to reflect Edmonton’s Edwardian architecturally styled buildings from years past.
The Bianco Restaurant occupies the southeast corner of the Phipps McKinnon Building, and has been designed in tandem with the renovations of that building's public spaces and expanded lobby.
The museum is the northern anchor of Edmonton’s Arts District and a destination for all Albertans. The design concept begins from a deep understanding of the museum, Alberta and the site.
Prominently situated in Edmonton’s River Valley, the Whitemud Equine Centre offers equine activities including lesson programs for children and adults, therapeutic programs designed for persons with disabilities, and equestrian events.
Sited on a narrow strip of land between a suburban neighbourhood and an orphaned ravine, this library lends an intimate proximity to nature and has catalyzed landscape restoration efforts to reconnect the orphaned ravine to its larger riparian ecosystem.
Raymond Block brings new life to Edmonton’s vibrant Old Strathcona neighbourhood. The contaminated site of a former gas station was vacant for almost 20 years, but now it is a re-energized mix of retail, restaurants, office space, and residential suites.
This student residence building includes 300 beds and related amenity spaces including community use areas into the mature neighbourhood of Garneau in an area of the University of Alberta called East Campus Village (ECV).
Animation of the Lane by fostering a sense of place and character, creating a project that is of architectural interest, all about sustainability, innovation, and design solutions that would help our client get the most out of their space.
A duality of legacy and landscape informed the design and guided the decision-making process for the Norwood-McCauley Medical Centre.
CO*LAB rehabilitates an existing City-owned building in The Quarters neighbourhood, creating a physical space for the Quarters Art Society to call home.
The Borden Park Natural Swimming Pool is the first chemical-free public outdoor pool to be built in Canada.
This centre is a beautiful contribution to the transit network, combining innovative design and construction techniques with light, dynamic aesthetics to provide a high quality, weather protected waiting area for a major suburban transit stop.
Revitalizing a vacant building, on a prominent corner of The Quarters neighbourhood, the Ociciwan Contemporary Art Centre will finally provide a physical home for the avant-garde organization.
The renovations have transformed the ground plane of this downtown office tower from an uninviting sequence of spaces that turned their backs on the streetscape to one that spills out to the sidewalk and welcomes the downtown community in.
The centre includes classrooms, lecture theatres, advanced manufacturing labs, and a dedicated hub for applied research. Workspaces are adaptable, ranging from private offices to a 400-person lecture theatre.
This area proposes a “street art and farmers’ market” venue in downtown Edmonton through the use of 100 sea-cans stacked around existing parking lots.
Connecting Edmonton's two cultural cores and eight central neighbourhoods, High Level Line is the re-imagination of an underutilized rail corridor through the heart of the city.
This area would provide an exciting signature development which would bring people to the river and announce the entry to downtown. It would also provide accessibility and parking for the area.
The Bonnie Doon Master Plan provides a development framework to facilitate evolution of the current centre over 30 years to transform to a sustainable, integrated, compact, mixed-use urban community.
The Alberta Avenue Urban Design Analysis (UDA) identifies infrastructure gaps in the neighbourhood and establishes a framework for future improvements.
This plan was a focused urban design analysis that identified placemaking tools and established the direction for potential public and private sector interventions that support the established economic development pillars for the area.
This study established a vision for the future of 101 Avenue identifying options for land use changes, street design and community programming, and recommending specific actions to realize the area's potential.
Developed through collaborative efforts, this area recognizes and enhances the unique historic character of Westmount’s buildings and streetscapes while allowing for complementary infill development and changes in the area.
These new spaces will reflect Indigenous culture and our shared heritage, accommodate future needs, enable access to calm and soothing spaces, and offer safe, desirable outdoor spaces.
Strathcona will serve as a prototype of the first neighbourhood retrofitted to a 30km design speed, and tests multiple new Dutch inspired spaces in which ownership is blurred between pedestrians and vehicles.
The Magpies’ Nests consists of 4 geometric structures - pyramid, cube, pentagon, and sphere. Each houses several life-sized, cast-bronze magpies - 9 in all.
'Animal Family' is a colourful public art work that celebrates diversity, invites approachability, and provides an entry into the lives of the farm animals.
This public sculpture was developed to explore intersections between cars, commerce, mass production, consumer culture, surrealism, glitch aesthetics, and everyday spaces.
This family-owned mall improved their community by creating a pedestrian-friendly environment which engages people at street level.
104 Street offers an urban main street experience to residents and visitors. The planning initiatives coupled with the streetscape improvements attracted more cafes, restaurants and pedestrian-oriented businesses.
The Forest Thicket beautifies and adds interest to the roof level of a downtown parking structure while providing an innovative solution to an urgent community issue.
ᐄᓃᐤ (ÎNÎW) River Lot 11∞ reinforces the Indigenous presence in Edmonton’s River Valley. The 6 artworks express the depth of Indigenous cultural practice celebrated as the heart of Canada’s contemporary identity.