9th Avenue Parkade and Innovation Center

5468796 Architecture, Contributors, Densities, Formats, Middle Density, Project, Territory and mobility, Topics, Urban Paradigms.

Adaptive reuse, Canada, Circulation, Community Facilities, Design process, Flexibility, Programmatic coexistences, Project, Public Space, Residential, Soft mobility, Urban Development, Urban mobility, User's experience.

The City of Calgary required a downtown parkade to free up multiple lots for development. Understanding the likelihood of the building’s future obsolescence, municipal officials also wanted a creative solution that would justify the expenditure now and in the future. And so the clients, Calgary Municipal Land Corporation and the Calgary Parking Authority, asked the collaborative team of 5468796 Architecture and Kasian Architecture, Interior Design and Planning to design a 510-stall parkade that could be easily converted into an office, light industrial or residential building. The project site – adjacent to the new Calgary Library, Calgary City Hall and the Studio Bell, (the National Music Center) – included an unbuildable easement for an underground light rail tunnel, which cuts through the middle of the project site and represents what the city determined was a 20% loss in buildable area.