Brentwood’s Hidden Treasures

Sat May 4 10:00am (1.5-2 hours)

About this Walk

Find out more about Brentwood’s Hidden Treasures!

We’ll meet at the Community Center and walk to the Brentwood mural.  Find out why there’s a dog on the mural and the significance of the other painted items.  From there we’ll take a look at one of Calgary’s outstanding examples of Brutalism design:  the architecture of concrete at St. Luke’s Church.

As we walk along Northland Drive, we’ll stop to discuss the redevelopment and changes planned for Northland Mall.  Have you ever wondered why there are two major malls (Northland and Market Mall) so close together?  We’ll look at the development and planning history that resulted in that decision.

We’ll continue along Northland Drive and continue along Brenner Drive up to Whispering Woods, behind EW Coffin School.  We’ll walk on the hidden paths through the woods.  From there, we can see Nose Hill Park, and we’ll look at a map showing the hidden creeks that start at Nose Hill and run underneath parts of Brentwood.  Did you know that the creek in Confederation Park actually starts on Nose Hill?

We’ll walk back down the hill on Barrett Drive, then down 33 Street to the Brentwood Community Garden.  We’ll stop at the garden and look at the original Skate Shack and community building next to the garden.  From there, we’ll return to the BCA.

Members of the Brentwood Development and Transportation Committee will lead the walk.

Quadrant: NW

Meeting Place: Brentwood Community Association, behind SWC Pool

Finish Point: Brentwood Community Association

Walk Duration: 2 Hours

Areas of Interest: Architecture, History, Environment

Led By: Melanie Swailes, Peter Johnson

Look for: Meet at the Brentwood Community Association (near the Nose Hill Library, just behind SWC Pool)

Inner City: Yes

About the Walk Team

Brentwood Development and Transportation Committee members are passionate about their community! We love Brentwood and we hope you’ll join us!

Who was Jane Jacobs?

Jane was an urban activist and writer (1916 – 2006).  She revolutionized the urban planning profession through her observations and writings about how cities function.  She believed in creating communities with a strong sense of belonging and spent a lot of her time observing people, interactions and neighbourhoods.

Jane coined the phrases “eyes on the street” and the “ballet of the sidewalk”.

Eyes on the street meant that everyone felt safe because the presence of a crowd protected everyone.

She also referred to the intricate Ballet of the Sidewalk in which many different people “have distinctive roles and miraculously reinforce each other and pose an orderly whole”.  All these roles have a fundamental role of their own, and together they make our neighbourhood.

Jane’s Walks are a way of connecting to our own neighbourhood and seeing things in a new or different light.

Walk Route:

1. Brentwood CA / Sportsplex building

2. The Brentwood Mural

• Created in 2016 through a grant from the Calgary Foundation
• Artists: Daniel J. Fink & Katie Green plus many youth volunteers!
• Celebrate the historical significance of this site, along with present-day references
  Left side:
  – tribute to Pauline, the woman who previously lived on a farm where the tennis courts are located. She had a brown house and an unpainted barn.
  – Penny, the border collie, was her dog and constant companion
  – Whenever Pauline would go to play bingo at the nearby community, Penny would be on Northmount Drive waiting for her return.Lower left:
  – Brown-eyed susans decorate Pauline’s barn with bright yellow.
  – They move across the mural intermingling with other native flowers such as the sticky purple geranium and harebells.

Center:
– Symbolic representation of Nose Hill.  The Nose Hill shape creates an arch through this visual landscape, connecting earth and Alberta’s open prairie sky.
– Within Nose Hill, you will see representations of grass, sage and other native plants.
– A neighbourhood rabbit sits as a central figure.  Its body integrates with Nose Hill, being and abstract pattern with repeating cell-like shapes.
– These cells represent the ecocsystem and reference the various life cycles that interconnect all things on earth.
– They may also be interpreted as a reference to the rich fossil deposits that exist in Alberta and a tribute to geological time.

Also included:
– Long-Eared Owl, a species which has been seen to nest on Nose Hill Park.
– Collage of abstract shapes and patterns.  They represent imagination as they developed from the creative input of the participating children.
– They are the connection point between land and sky.  They serve to remind us of our place as creative beings.

3. The Nose Hill Library
   Opened in 1988, replacing the former Varsity Library (which had been in a mobile structure)
   – Trivia:  Confusion with Crowfoot library, which is on Nose Hill Drive!
4. Luke’s Catholic Church
   – Brutalist style archictecture; a rare example of the Brutalist style used for a sacred institution.
   – A shift from traditional to modern church design.

This Change is a result of 2 things:
1.  A shift from traditional to modernism; the reflection of new, less formal modernist expressions for church design.  It was a radical new design.

2.  A result of the Second Vatican Council in 1962 – 1965.  Pope John wanted to “create an environment of dialogue, where the church would engage in all the forces of the modern world.”

Today, the council is credited with essentially shaping the modern Catholic Church.

– The Architects were Cohos, Delesalle & Evamy. Land set aside by 1964, church was dedicated in 1968.

Brutalism
– It is characterized by simple, block-like structures that often feature bare building materials.
– Brutalist buildings are characterised by their massive, monolithic and ‘blocky’ appearance with a rigid geometric style and large-scale use of poured concrete. The movement began to decline in prevalence in the 1970s, having been much criticised as unwelcoming and inhuman.
– The term ‘brutalism’ was coined by the British architects Alison and Peter Smithson, and popularised by the architectural historian Reyner Banham in 1954. It derives from ‘Béton brut’ (raw concrete) and was first associated in architecture with Le Corbusier.

Examples in Calgary:

• The old Public Board of Education building
• The old Planetarium buildingAccording to Cynthia Klaassen, president of the Calgary Heritage Initiative Society, … one of the reasons why brutalism provokes negative reactions. “Brutalism is tied to the 1960s idea that, to make cities more liveable, we needed to destroy big swathes of neighbourhoods for these buildings,” she says. It was a utopian “just get rid of it and create something new” ideal that has since fallen out of vogue. Now, she says, we recognize that “new ideas do come from old buildings.”
  – Brutalism in many was responsible for creating the negative perception of downtowns and urban spaces as “concrete jungles.”

Unlike those who see brutalism as a conquest of nature, Jeremy Sturgess sees it as being in tune with its surroundings. “The thing about brutalism is that it’s a function of building organically to the landscape,” he says. “It used, typically, poured-in-place concrete to create heroic forms that are really sympathetic to the landscape.”

Planetarium is a building that is both responsive to its external environment and useful. “Brutalism allows architecture to be very expressive of its place and the ethos of its place,” he says. “Calgary has always been a raw, aggressive, and risk-taking kind of place. I think this building has always been a symbol of that.”

5. Northland Mall
   “the poorer cousin to Market Mall”. We have 2 major regional malls very close together, not something often seen or allowed via planning zoning or regulations.
   
   How it came to be:
   – As early as 1962, Northland Mall was destined to become the first regional shopping mall in the NW
   – The Calgary Planning Commission deemed the project premature at this point.- Carma was developing the area around Varsity and expressed interest in creating a mall, now Market Mall.
   – By 1966, a planning study unexpectedly determined that not only was a regional shopping mall viable in the NW, but more than one could survive.
   – Much to the displeasure of the applicants, the CPC recommended that both proposals should proceed to the rezoning stage.
   – Both were presented to Council in January 1967.
   – Council ruled in favor of Carma, and Northland was temporarily abandoned.
   Why?  Possibly because:
   – more citizens opposed to Northland
   – Just before Council’s decision, Carma offered to put down a $25,000 bond and construct a golf course in the area (the Silver Springs golf course).
   – In 1969, Carma proposed transferring density from the golf course to multi-family complexes adjacent to Market Mall.  The City agreed to build Shaganappi Trail up to the mall, widen 40^th, etc.
   – Criticism of the process, 40^th avenue split the community
   – Northland ultimately ended up being built, but only after controversial changes to density on the Dalhousie side.Future Plans for Northland Mall
   – open air mall space in center, outdoor access buildings
   – similar to Deerfoot Mall renovation
   – outdoor stores, restaurants, etc.
6. Sir Winston Churchhill High School
   – construction began in 1968, opened in 1970
   – has the IB program, over 2100 students
   Gross Area (sq. m): 19,936.90

Replacement Cost: $58,985,000 (2012)

7. Wispering Woods Park
   opened in 2008 next to EW Coffin School
   – In September of 1995, the Dr. Coffin School community officially adopted Whispering Woods through the City of Calgary Parks and Recreation Adopt-A-Park program.
   – website:  http://www.natureground.org/wsigns_gps_on.html to find all the signs
8. Nose Hill
   From EW Coffin, you can see Nose Hill
   Created in 1980 – I remember a march that was organized while I was in high school; a march to preserve the park instead of developing it.
   – 11 square Km, 4 largest urban park in CanadaDevelopment history:
   In 1954, Spyhill Development and Holding Company purchased 190 acres on the upper east slope of Hose Hill.
   In 1956, the company went to City Council with a proposal for 1000 – 1200 homes over a 4-year period.  The City Technical Palnning Board conditionally approved the proposal.
   Development would have gone ahead except for 2 factors:
9. The Federal Aviation Commission, Airport officials and City: the upper 70 acres obstructed the clear flight path from the airport to the immediate east (the old McCall Field Airport).
   Jet planes were coming into use and needed a longer flight path, which would have extended closer to Nose Hill.  First jet plan in 1961. (land for new airport 1966, openend in 1977)

Utimately, there was a deal for a land swap in Collingwood, and a reprieve for Nose Hill.
(Note:  not based on the emerging concept of the area as a prime asset in its natural state.)

In 1971 Hartel Holdings planned to develop a residential community on the site of present day Nose Hill Park and requested amendments to the prevailing zoning by-law.
In the 1970s, a grassroots group consisting of members of local communities(most notably North Haven) and Calgary Field Naturalists’ Society, later known as Nature Calgary, worked together to lobby the city to protect Nose Hill from development.
In 1972 the City offered Hartel “$6873 per acre”. In 1972 the On July 3, 1972 the City passed a resolution to defer “development of the area in question until completion of a sector plan had been made.” By April 16, 1973 the City restricted urban development on 4100 acres in the Nose Hill area and began investigating acquiring the land.
The City adopted a municipal plan for development of Nose Hill Park on March 12, 1979. and a Master Plan for the park was incorporated in the City’s General Municipal Plan on June 17, 1980 created a regional park with 1,129 hectares of grassland.
In 1984 in Hartel Holdings vs the City of Calgary, the Supreme Court of Canada gave the City the “right to purchase land on Nose Hill at its own pace.”

In the 1980s Nose Hill Park was officially designated a protected area by the city.

Confederation Creek
– Why it’s relevant:  Brentwood is a catchment area for Confederation Creek; Nose Hill is the source

– Highland Park – City Council approved a land use change in 2017, ignoring residents’ concerns of overland flooding and pleas to stall approval until report is complete.
– The Confederation Park Regional Drainage study released June 2018, proposed construction of water storage sites to deal with flooding, at an estimated cost of $35,000,000 and requiring a significant chunk of the land slated for redevelopment.
– map of historical creeks from Nose Hill
– example of relevance: underground creek at Northmount / Brisebois

 Old Hall / Community Garden