What makes a city beautiful?
Today I don’t want to talk about the stock markets crashing around the world, or the credit crisis or bailouts….lets have a break. Tomorrow the monthly stats go up and we can all get back into the debate.
Comment on our city. What would make it more beautiful? More attractive to young families, more enjoyable to live in?
Many people think the climate in Edmonton will always prevent it from being a great city. I disagree…. I think one of the major things that is holding us back is our "tear it down and build something cheap on top" mentality.
Paris, New York, London, Prague, just to name a few, are all gorgeous cities in cold climates.
The reason I got on this topic is that
I was saddened (but not surprised) to learn today that yet another historic building in Edmonton is going to be torn down. I may be the only person in Edmonton who cares about this, perhaps because I come from a place that takes care of its history – my parents live in a home built in 1840, and that’s young for the neighbourhood – and takes steps to preserve it. My dad spent the entire summer last year removing mortar that was covering the original stone exterior of their home – it looks great!
My hometown – Dundas, Ontario – gives historic designations to beautiful, old buildings (hopefully my parent’s home soon too!). Having a historic designation plaque on your home actually increases its value, even though it limits the renovations you can do to your home. Basically, you can’t significantly alter the outside appearance of a historically designated home without approval. Can you imagine that system here? I think there would be a major revolt, yet it works beautifully and increases property values elsewhere.
The main street that runs through Dundas is bustling with shops and tourists (on the left is a shot I took during a parade there). The historic buildings house retail spaces with apartments above. Numerous films and TV shows have been shot there since the street can look 100 years old with almost no effort.
To me, keeping part of our historic buildings is part of what makes a city beautiful. On top of that, interesting new architecture, landmarks, trees, and beautiful public spaces – parks with art, not just utilitarian structures – make a city beautiful. Look at Toronto, Vancouver, Halifax, Montreal, Quebec City, even Calgary – all these cities have preserved some of their heritage, have added beautiful art, have lots of trees (except Calgary), have interesting architecture, and they are beautiful cities.
When I think of Edmonton, there are two beautiful things that come to mind – the river valley and the legislature. The rest of it (for the most part) is boring. We have the oldest and ugliest stadium in the NHL. The new condos that go up are cookie cutter and boring. The art in public places is not pretty, it is big and modern…but its not beautiful. The only original architecture ideas we seem to be able to come up with are pyramids. Why can’t we build some new condos that would beautify our skyline – like these on the right going up in Toronto, they look cool! Sure, we have the second or third largest mall in the world, but it’s also got to be one of the ugliest malls in the world!
You can do amazing things with old buildings. One of my favourites is BCE Place in Toronto (below) – they built right around old buildings, creating "Toronto’s oldest intact streetscape" indoors, protected by a huge solarium. It’s really cool!
It seems to me that the attitude here is that it is generally easier and cheaper to replace something, than to repair or restore it. What is missing is the intrinsic value a beautiful building possesses – it can’t be calculated by penny pushers so therefore it has no value. We have a gorgeous character home for sale on University avenue right now, and all the feedback is that the basement ceilings are too low. The house is 100 years old – of course the basement ceilings are low! It also has the cleanest basement, in the best condition of any 100 year old home I’ve ever seen!
Don’t get me wrong, I love Edmonton. I think it is a city that has HUGE potential. But every time I see another building bulldozed, rather than improved or modernized we lose a bit of that potential and it hurts our city.
Old IS beautiful!
