The Calgary Confluence:
A Tale of Two Rivers.

Calgary was born on the banks of a river – two rivers, actually, powerful streams with their sources high in the Rockies that flow, blue-grey, down to the plain, meeting right about at 51° 6' N 114° 1' W. First nations peoples thrived at this confluence, and the young city was nourished there and grew alongside the waters, which were named the Bow and Elbow. Yet for decades, the city that was framed by its rivers rarely felt their presence. Retail and residential streets ran parallel to the Bow in several neighbourhoods, but didn’t seem to lead to it; desultory paths were paved alongside it, and quickly became the scene for bad behavior. The flood plain didn’t help matters; high banks obstructed the view, putting the river out of sight and out of mind.

In 2007, as East Village was being reborn, it became clear that the rivers would be two of the most beloved characters in the story of the neighbourhood. Better, the rivers were a way for EV to connect to the rest of the city. A RiverWalk was envisioned as a way for Calgarians and visitors to find themselves on the river wherever they were in the city. It would become part of the collective back yard and part of the collective consciousness. Calgary would come to think of itself in a new way: as a Riverfront City.

”The RiverWalk was a paradigm shifter,“ says Ken Greenberg, a design consultant on RiverWalk and an international expert on the interface between people and their waterways. ”There’s a huge breakthrough that occurs in cities when you go from having access to the water at a single point, or over a short distance, to having access over a long distance. All of a sudden people can spend a day on the river in the heart of the city. Then it becomes a real attraction.“

While the waters of the Bow and Elbow had been spared the fate of many urban waterways – being used as an industrial dump – the delicate river ecology had to be protected in a sustainable fashion. And the riverbanks had to be made into secure and inviting places for all Calgarians. ”We wanted to bring forward a plan that would reinforce public use and enjoyment,“ said Fred Valentine of Stantec, the Calgary company that devised the RiverWalk masterplan in 2007 and helped shepherd it through several phases and countless political and public approvals. ”We wanted it to be of a ‘whole’, and a piece of imaginative, interesting work that would excite people from all over Calgary and its visitors. We knew that it had to be designed in a fashion that would be broad in its appeal – for all ages and for all ranges of activity, from walking to biking, from young mothers to seniors and sightseers. And while you can’t pretend that design will solve social problems, it can address aspects of human behavior that will assist in making the place as safe and democratic in its use as possible.“

Design can certainly be an attractor, and RiverWalk offers the best of current thinking about landscape, people and how they fit together. On the western edge, near the 4th Avenue flyover is a bioswale, a feature that performs aesthetic, ecological and traffic-control duties. A shallow trench, the bioswale helps collect rainwater and groundwater and supports a lush proliferation of indigenous grasses and prairie plant life, many of which are identified, to the delight of strollers. At the same time, it beautifully separates the pedestrians from fast-moving cyclists on the opposite side.
Innovative furniture will reinvent the park bench, allowing people to rest in a style that befits a sophisticated interior. Public art will also serve RiverWalk well: imaginative interpretations punctuate the pathways, inviting touching, contemplation, and, in the case of some large-scale pieces, awe.

When it’s done, RiverWalk will offer variety and surprise: there’ll be a juxtaposition of energy and calm between the patios on the river and the joggers, bikers and strollers below; between the people floating on river rafts, those lolling on its banks and others overlooking it. The water, the wonderful, mysterious water will be a hypnotic focal point experienced through all the senses: the swirls and eddys you can see; the murmers and roars you hear, and what you feel, the ”sense of pause“, according to one architect.

The river is also, eternally, a place of learning. ”The confluence of the Bow and Elbow river is where natives first settled and where Calgary was founded,“ says Chris Ollenberger of CMLC, ”so it’s a highly symbolic space for everyone. We wanted to tell those stories in an artistic way, not through the usual ‘interpretive panels’. We wanted people to think about where the water comes from, where it’s going.“

In East Village, billions and billions of watery molecules from the beginning of time engage the neighbourhood, rising and falling, reflecting moonlight in summer, freezing into sculpture in winter and melting with a torrent of water and a rush of sound, the surest and sweetest sign of spring.