Above: The “Peace Bridge” under construction in Calgary – November 11, 2010.
Since I live in the area, I’ve been wanting to take a moment to grab a quick photo of Calgary’s newest, and somewhat controversial, architectural landmark.
Designed by award-winning architect and bridge designer Santiago Calatrava, the new $25 million-dollar “Peace Bridge” is going to span the Bow River, connecting pedestrians in Kensington to Eau Claire and downtown. Construction began in March of this year, with the primary parts being built in Spain and then shipped to Canada, where it is scheduled to be completed in late January 2011.
I’ve heard a lot of good and bad things about the new bridge. Most of it is the personal opinions of people trying to come up with better ways to spend $25M to help improve the city. I think the bridge looks kind of neat, compared to the other concrete walkways in Calgary. It brings a bit of character to the city (Spanish or not). Despite whether Calgarians want it, or even care about, the bridge is being built regardless.
What do you think of the new bridge?
Some other works by Santiago Calatrava:
– Sundial Bridge at Turtle Bay, Redding, California
– Lyon Airport Station, France
– World Trade Center Transportation Hub, New York City
LOVE IT! who cares if it costs millions. rednecks of calgary would have rather have spent it on something ugly most likely. this is going to be something beautiful… for once in this city. it will also provide for new locations to take photos for my blog 😀
Who cares if it costs millions? Uh, maybe the fine people of the city of Calgary who have to foot the bill with their tax dollars. Beauty or not, it represents waste. From wikipedia:
– Three other pedestrian bridges already exist just 275m West, 400m West, and 900m East from its location.
– The city’s estimate of 13,000 pedestrians per day on the existing bridges may have been overstated.
– The design was awarded with “no bids”, disregarding the city’s normal procurement process.
– The design was awarded to a foreign firm, ignoring local talent.
– The $25M bridge is being constructed during a year when the city has a $60M deficit.
dont you mean “Piece Bridge” ? :p
hey AG! do you know where your tax money ever goes? probbaly not, just like everyone else. the city does contruction 10 months out of the year just to give people jobs, they do shit work on infrastructure so there will be something to fix later. in your opinion that isn’t wasting your precious tax dollars? the reality is you pay taxes regardless, you can’t opt out of them, increase in taxes naturally happens over years because of inflation, you can’t do anythign about that either so why is it so bad that this gray, ugly city with nothing to do, with zero art with zero life will finally have something world class that it can be proud to show to the world. urgh! even the mantality here is disguisting.
ps:
– Three other pedestrian bridges already exist just 275m West, 400m West, and 900m East from its location- I guess for a city where everyone is too lazy to get off their ass and walk somewhere instead of driving this is one bridge too many.
– The city’s estimate of 13,000 pedestrians per day on the existing bridges may have been overstated-etimating traffic and then estimating that it MAY have been estimated is not a very convincing argument.
– The design was awarded with “no bids”, disregarding the city’s normal procurement process-look above at contruction comment
– The design was awarded to a foreign firm, ignoring local talent- look at all the currently existing bridges. i think it’s safe to give a sigh of relief we are not getting any more of that around here.
– The $25M bridge is being constructed during a year when the city has a $60M deficit- alberta is the richest province in canada, regardless of deficit it’s not very efficient sitting around waiting for profits to promote growth.
It’s always easiest to criticise isn’t it. And people in Canada just LOVE to complain but never actually act.
I am not sure you have made a counter point to my most basic of statement that this bridge is waste, so until you do this will be my last response. Do I want a pretty bridge in the middle of the city so artistic people can feel good about crossing it or telling their friends as they drive past it, even though there are several useful bridges steps away? Not particularly and I think this is an opinion shared by most reasonable Calgarians. For example, Do I want a city where the snow is removed from roads so people don’t get in accidents or get hurt? Yep, a good use of tax dollars. How about clean, drinkable running water? Yep, probably important. How about a sewer system that functions? Yep, don’t want to deal with more shit than I already have to. Or in terms of cleaning up this grey, ugly city….how about a place where less fortunate street people can have shelter from the cold? That probably doesn’t speak to your advanced aesthetic but this would be something to support. A foreign designed bridge where there are already 3 completely functional bridges less than 1 km away is the last thing the city is spending its money on.
Perhaps you would care to enlighten us more on your advanced knowledge of city/provincial finances along with your theories on infrastructure repair practises? You speculate to have high levels of experience and expertise in these subjects based off your statements above. I think we’d get the most value from these, comedic or otherwise.
said by a man (i assume is a man for obvious reason, or a really angry manly woman perhaps(??)) who is too scared to put his full name by his so called “practical” opinions. cheers AG i feel sorry for you
Ok kids, let’s play nice now shall we? Opinions are allowed here and are also encouraged, but there is no need to go beyond that.
I think there are a lot more practical things we could have used that money for, helping the homeless being one of many great options. At the same time, Calgary’s culture and arts scene could use some more development. It’s gotten better over the years but it still needs work. It’s interesting architecture like this that helps to grow Calgary as a more metropolitan place that you would want to lay down roots in, rather than a conservative corporate city that you come to for the purpose of making money. They should have let people bid on it though, there is a lot of talent out there.
Thanks for the thought provoking post, Ian.
[…] photos: The new Peace Bridge opened to the public today. It has been a long overdue event, but thousands of Calgarians came out […]
I was all in love with the post <3
