Welcome to At the Arena. This weekly segment throughout the offseason will highlight and review the design outlined for Scotia Place, the new home of the Calgary Flames.
Each week will address a different aspect of the design. Where did the Flames hit it out of the park, and where did they flat-out miss?
The Saddledome currently sits on the western edge of Stampede Grounds concrete prairie overlooking the Elbow River. The parking space is great for travelling by car, but the entrances to the Stampede Grounds back up severely and often result in a lengthy journey to the entrance. Not that commuting by foot is a bad thing, it’s just that walking through rows and rows of cars can drag on.
Transit can alleviate a large portion of that stress. Calgary’s light rail system’s closest station to the Saddledome is Victoria/Stampede Park station, located adjacent to Macleod Trail north. The only issue with the current station is the approximately 10-minute walk to the closest Saddledome entrance.
The reality is you won’t eliminate parking lots and you won’t eliminate commuting by foot either. The latter, not exactly a bad thing.
So, how is Scotia Place planning to counteract these problems, and what’s happening currently with the situation?
Scotia Place Street Presence
One of Scotia Place’s selling features is its accessible street-level concourse access. Having this integrated urban facility allows the street traffic to enter the heart of the event space easily while also enabling the venue to be filled and emptied in an efficient and accessible way. This accessibility is also tied to a greater plan, connecting the concourse directly to the commercial and retail public realm on the street.
One criticism of the Scotia Place heard by Calgarians is its lack of connection to the Plus 15 networks in the city. The staple of Calgary’s downtown architectural and accessibility network, the Plus 15 system is a series of walkways connecting buildings in downtown Calgary, 15 feet above the street. Original name, right?
Despite the lack of Plus 15s around the build site currently, it doesn’t seem there are any plans to expand the network into the larger building plan surrounding CEC Block, the Rivers District Master Plan.
The integrated urban facility of CEC Block will be especially important in the Rivers District Master plan, which includes the CEC Block and the BMO Centre expansion at the core of its Culture and Entertainment district. The ambitious plan is focused on a 286-acre site on the east end of Calgary’s downtown. This 20-year masterplan aims to incorporate 8,000 residents and over four million square feet of new development space that would include a mixture of public, residential, and commercial space.
Transportation – Green Line
In order to facilitate the flow of people to this new district, the City of Calgary and the Alberta Government finally broke ground on an amended Green Line project originally launched by Mayor Naheed Nenshi in 2015. The original 46-kilometre light rail line was supposed to connect the South East of Calgary through the downtown core into the Northern depths of city lines.
The project has had a tumultuous past and has seen numerous setbacks over the past nine years. In 2021, the provincial government—led by Jason Kenny—reviewed the project and approved the City’s $5.5 billion dollar plan.
Fast forward to April 2023, when the City settles on a development partner after a lengthy competition, and they begin to determine what could be built and for how much. On July 30 of this year, the board announced that without an additional $700 million in funding, the Green Line could only run from the north end of downtown at Eau Claire, south to Lynwood Millican. Lacking the additional funding, the provincial government approved a shortened plan on August 1.
The Green Line would’ve connected parts of SE Calgary to the downtown core in phase one, with a station along 4th Street roughly 750m from the CEC Block. Scrutinized for its price tag, the downtown segment of the Green Line was always going to be the most expensive part of the project due to its need for underground tunnelling. Yet, it seemed the most substantial phase of the project was finally going to happen.
But that feeling was short-lived. September 3, Premiere Daniel Smith and the Government of Alberta announced the province would no longer be backing the current phase one project. It’s been weeks of city council meetings and a letter to the Premier from City of Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek. Despite all efforts, the project will wind down for the foreseeable future.
This will directly impact the CEC Block’s transportation plans. The Green Line would connect roughly 32,000 daily riders to the downtown core. Not to mention the influx in density during events and games.
The Green Line project is once again on ice, and it appears there won’t be much hope of reviving it anytime soon. It doesn’t derail the Scotia Place project by any means, but it certainly does mean a massive portion of fans still relying on driving to the games needing parking space.
Parking solution and foot traffic
The CEC Block will include a new above-ground parkade. The parkade appears to be five stories in the renderings provided by HOK Architecture and DIALOG Architecture and is adjacent to the new community rink off 5A Street SE.
Located on the east side of the block, the new multilevel parkade will also feature Indigenous art on its side, both physical and digital. There aren’t any details about the capacity of the parkade just yet, but it appears to be strictly private access.
The CEC block incorporates an underground loading bay system as well that allows for shipping and receiving to happen in as little space as possible. This requires the 5A side of the street to be strictly private access, as will 12 Avenue to the north. Stampede Trail will be reserved for walking and bike access only after 14 Ave heading north. Meanwhile, taxi routes and ridesharing will take place on 14th Ave.
Accessibility
Parking in Stampede Park will look to be a commonality between the Saddledome and Scotia Place despite the new venue’s parkade plans. It will surely take some stress off the current situation, but the arena is primarily accessible on foot. It’s a great thing for the experience outside the arena, and they’ve designed the space in a very accessible way, sinking the ice surface below ground to allow for barrier-free street-level access to the main concourse.
Wider pathways and corridors are utilized throughout the concourse, which is Rich Hansen Foundation Wheelchair Certified. There will be a universal washroom and “seating for all,” which caters to varying needs and comfort levels, even including service dog areas.
All things take time
Despite the outlined plan of the CEC Block and surrounding area being tantalizing as a concept, it will largely be just an arena for a long time. These things take a lot of planning, time, money, and moving parts.
The delay of the Green Line has major implications for the overall transportation plan of the CEC Block and the larger River District Master Plan. Although it will still take two years for Scotia Place to open (hopefully), phase one was projected to be completed in 2030 when it was ongoing. Now imagine how long it will take to revitalize the project and then how long to develop the district?
In essence, transportation will be status quo outside of the beefed-up walking and biking trails and a nifty new ride-share lane. The parkade could be accessible by private ticket holders if you’re willing to cough up the money, but it won’t change your commute across stampede grounds or the downtown core from a parking space.
Accessibility, however, will be much improved from the Saddledome’s ladder-like stairs and outdated bathrooms. The street-level concourse will be and blocks included amenities will make the experience more than just hockey. On a human scale, it seems like a good design for getting around easily on foot. However, car issues will continue to be a Calgary staple that we just can’t shake.
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