How did Bow to Bluff attract thousands of citizens to a public engagement process?
Extra, extra! Read all about it! Get yer copy of the new Bow to Bluff Process Guide right here, hot off the presses!
You can view the Bow to Bluff Process Guide, as well as the appendices Part 1 and Part 2 (zip archive).
The Process Guide describes the citizen-led initiative to re-imagine the Bow to Bluff corridor as a great public space. The guide not only describes what happened during the pilot project, but also explains how this successful ‘experiment in public engagement’ was defined, organized, and executed by a small group of citizens, contractors, and key supporters, including the City and HSCA. The guide breaks the project down into its components and processes to help readers learn from and hopefully build on the Bow to Bluff experience.
Bow to Bluff Resources and Planning Committee (RPC) with Councillor Druh Farrell will formally present both the Design Framework and Process Guide to City Council for review and consideration in early July. We also hope to start working on selected small projects—look for some fun placemaking activities in the corridor over the summer!
by davidw on April 3, 2012
in News
Toronto’s Underpass Park and the Bow to Bluff project share similar challenges and yet each has found innovative design solutions for overcoming those challenges. Waterfront Toronto has a great spread of information on Underpass Park. The Toronto Star has also reviewed the progress in an online video.
by davidw on April 3, 2012
in News
The Bow to Bluff team is pleased to have put the final touches on the Bow to Bluff Design Framework. O2 Planning + Design were charged with pulling together over 2,000 individual ideas provided by over 2,500 engaged citizens – and it hasn’t been easy to synthesize all those ideas, big and small, into one coherent vision. Big thanks to O2! Among the larger themes are design solutions for replacement of the LRT fence, revitalization of pocket parks for active living and recreation, re-purposing some streets as shared environments for more than just cars, activating laneway mews, and creating a new central corridor civic space.
The Design Framework provides an overall vision and broad design guidelines for future redevelopment and revitalization within the corridor. The Framework is intended to be used by developers (when preparing land use and development permit applications within the corridor), The City of Calgary (when addressing future public realm improvements when reviewing developer applications), and, the Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Association (when commenting on land use rezoning and development permit applications). Local residents and citizens at-large are strongly encouraged to use the framework to understand the overall vision and champion implementation, particularly as it relates to flexible or temporary programmatic uses that activate and improve the quality of experience for all users of the corridor.
The Bow to Bluff team is helping take the Design Framework forward to City Council for review and formal consideration. This will hopefully establish a City adopted vision for change in the corridor and help facilitate revitalization overtime. But, producing a ‘vision’ document alone is not where Bow to Bluff sees the project as a true success. Our team will begin to reach out to all those citizens that participated in engagement process and we hope to rally the ‘Friends of Bow to Bluff’ to become a group of champions, who as small groups or individuals, begin to realize implementation of the vision. Let us know if you’d like to be a champion by emailing us at: info@bowtobluff.org
