’Students that are going to be moving in here early next year are going to be blown away at the opportunities they have,’ said Mayor Jyoti Gondek
‘Students that are going to be moving in here early next year are going to be blown away at the opportunities they have,’ said Mayor Jyoti Gondek
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An underused office tower in downtown Calgary is becoming an innovation hub for the University of Calgary’s School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape.
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The building located at 801 7th Avenue S.W., once the headquarters for energy company Nexen, will be transformed into a 180,000 square foot academic, teaching, and research space for 1,200 students.
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Set to serve as the new home for School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape students beginning January 2026, the goal is to put young talent in the heart of Calgary — right next to the 8th Street CTrain station.
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“The same way that a medical student needs to be in a hospital, a design student needs to be downtown,” said John Brown, dean of the school.
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Students will have access to design studios, classrooms, research spaces, a robotic fabrication workshop, an exhibition gallery, and a community-facing design justice lab.
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“We’re looking forward to transforming the way we think about 21st century design education,” said Brown. “We need to be embedded in the world in which we’re going to work.”
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‘We’re going to make everything we do here about bettering Calgary’
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The goal is to work with the vulnerable populations, with public space, professionals, the broader community, to learn how to have an impact.
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“We’re making downtown better by our presence and we’re going to make everything we do here about bettering Calgary,” Brown said.
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Made possible due to up to $9 million in funding through the City of Calgary’s Downtown Post-Secondary Institution Incentive Program, the new satellite campus fits into the city’s broader downtown strategy.
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“We’ve been talking about reimagining downtown, revitalizing downtown . . . we’ve talked about office-to-residential conversions,” Mayor Jyoti Gondek told reporters. “This project is such an important part of what we’re doing.”
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Additional students downtown will be a boon for nearby businesses according to Gondek, while immersing them in “city building at its finest.”
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“Students that are going to be moving in here early next year are going to be blown away at the opportunities they have,” said Gondek.
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Additional student presence expected to add neighbourhood vibrancy
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Near the new space several City of Calgary initiatives are underway, including streetscape improvements to 8 Street S.W. and 8 Avenue S.W. and four office-to-residential conversion projects within two blocks.