Big changes are once again in the works for downtown Calgary’s original main street, as the city embarks this summer on a long-term beautification of Stephen Avenue. Read More
Refreshing the more-than-century-old avenue has become a flagship project of the city’s downtown strategy, says director Thom Mahler
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Refreshing the more-than-century-old avenue has become a flagship project of the city’s downtown strategy, says director Thom Mahler
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Big changes are once again in the works for downtown Calgary’s original main street, as the city embarks this summer on a long-term beautification of Stephen Avenue.
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Upon completion, the renovation project will span roughly a dozen blocks through downtown, from Olympic Plaza at the east end of Stephen Avenue to the Mewata Armoury on the west side of 11th Street S.W.
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The decision to spruce up the historic, pedestrian-focused thoroughfare was prompted by learning roughly a decade ago that utilities underneath Stephen Avenue were reaching their expected lifecycle.
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With the need to replace those below-ground pipes — an excavation process known as “deep trenching” — starting in July, the city has decided to add surface-level improvements afterward, hoping to breathe new life into a corridor that some officials admit is not meeting its full economic potential.
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‘It’s been a part of our downtown culture and vibrancy for many decades’
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Renovating the more-than-century-old avenue has become a flagship project of the city’s downtown strategy, which aims to reinvent Calgary’s core by spurring residential development and transforming underutilized skyscrapers into more active communities. The strategy came in response to the 2014 oil price crash that caused several downtown offices to empty out and property values to plummet.
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Thom Mahler, who is directing the downtown strategy, said the goal of redesigning Stephen Avenue is to make the street more enticing for Calgarians and visitors to shop, eat and enjoy arts and culture offerings.
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The project aims to create a more welcoming and walkable corridor by adding more patios and outdoor public seating, as well as improved lighting and a tree canopy to provide shade. It also seeks to accommodate more on-street programming along Stephen Avenue, including live music and public events.
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The beautification dovetails with other significant redevelopments that will help transform the corridor in the coming years, including the $660-million overhaul of Arts Commons and Olympic Plaza and the $205-million makeover of the Glenbow Museum, which is set to reopen in 2026.
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Mahler said it marks the first time since the 1990s that the city has invested in refurbishing Stephen Avenue, which has operated as a pedestrian mall for the last 50-plus years.
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“It’s been a part of our downtown culture and vibrancy for many decades,” he said in an interview. “However, it’s achieved a certain stage of lifecycle where you can just see, walking down the street, the pavement is in rough condition, curbs are chipping.”
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He noted that underneath Stephen Avenue, many of the water and sewer pipes are up to 100 years old. Much of the revitalization of the street is about replacing that aging infrastructure.
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“But when we do that, we want to make sure that we’re adding back into the community to set downtown up for success long term,” he said.
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‘It’s one of those “what ifs?” that I’m always fascinated by’
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Stephen Avenue’s importance to Calgary’s history dates back to the 1800s.
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Josh Traptow, the CEO of Heritage Calgary, said the thoroughfare is the city’s second-oldest main street. The only one older is 9th Avenue S.E., in nearby Inglewood.
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When the Canadian Pacific Railway reached Calgary in 1883, the company built its train station on land to the west of the Elbow River, where downtown currently sits. This was despite most Calgarians and businesses being on the east side of the river at the time.
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After the train station was built, many of the businesses migrated across the river and Stephen Avenue became the city’s main commercial street. From the 1880s to the 1930s, the avenue — which is named after the first president of the Canadian Pacific Railway, Sir George Stephen — was the epicentre of Calgary’s retail and business district, housing such mainstays as the Hudson’s Bay Company, the Alberta Hotel and the Calgary Herald.
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“You had banks, you had the Hudson’s Bay store, you had Eaton’s, you had the Palace Theatre. That is where the hub of Calgary was — and really still is to this day,” Traptow said.
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“If the CPR had not gone west of the river, it’s hard to say if our downtown would have shifted from Inglewood to where it is today. It’s one of those ‘what ifs?’ that I’m always fascinated by.”
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Seeped in sandstone
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Still located in the heart of downtown, Stephen Avenue is now one of Calgary’s most heritage-rich streets, Traptow said. Many of the avenue’s buildings were constructed with sandstone in the late 1800s and early 1900s, leading to Calgary’s then-nickname of the Sandstone City. With several sandstone quarries outside the city limits, the material was in abundance and “relatively cheap.”
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While sandstone is not the most conducive material to dealing with Calgary’s climate, Traptow said city council passed a bylaw after the Great Fire of 1886 — a blaze that destroyed many downtown buildings — that any public building must be built out of fire-resistant material. That included Calgary’s historic city hall, which was completed in 1911 after facing delays and cost overruns.
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Preserving Stephen Avenue’s sandstone-steeped character has made attempts to reinvent the street a challenge, Traptow said. He referenced a recent development application from Triovest that sought to build a 66-storey condo tower, a 54-storey rental tower and a 24-storey office tower between Stephen Avenue and 7th Avenue. Triovest’s application was scrapped in 2023.
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Had it gone ahead, Traptow said the project would have put Stephen Avenue’s National Historic District designation, which it received in 2002, at risk.
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“There’s lots of places along Stephen Avenue that could accommodate density and development,” he said. “It’s making sure we’re being mindful about where density and development happens on Stephen Avenue and not losing the two or three blocks we have that are still largely intact, from a heritage perspective.”
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‘This will be a long-term project’
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The first phase of the Stephen Avenue revitalization began in 2019, when the city hired U.S.-based Gehl Studio to conduct a public realm study to develop a roadmap for the project. The urban research and landscape architectural firm’s portfolio includes public upgrade projects spanning from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Berlin, Germany and Christchurch, New Zealand.
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In 2022, following pandemic-induced delays, the city rehired Gehl Studio to work with Stantec on re-envisioning Stephen Avenue’s streetscape design.
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After three years of study and public consultation, the city, Gehl and Stantec unveiled Stephen Avenue’s Streetscape Master Plan in 2023. The plan envisions dividing 12 blocks of the thoroughfare into three separate zones, each with its own character, according to Mahler.
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“We’ve really taken that approach to add to what the pedestrian mall used to be, which was a heavy focus on retail and hospitality. But now it’s adding in that element of programming and activation to be something that we can use for many other functions,” Mahler said.
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The east zone, from Olympic Plaza to 4th Street S.W., aims to be a destination point for Calgary’s arts and culture scene. This pedestrian-only section will include the new-look Glenbow Museum, as well as the revamped Arts Commons campus and Olympic Plaza, which are set to be completed in 2028.
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The middle of Stephen Avenue will be the “core zone,” focusing primarily on retail and dining. The 500 block, between 4th and 5th Streets S.W., will act as the transition point connecting the east and west zones.
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While these two zones will prohibit private vehicles, emergency first response vehicles would be able to access these blocks.
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The west side of Stephen Avenue, from 5th to 11th Street S.W., will feature a neighbourhood-scale street with designated spaces for vehicles, pedestrians and “active mobility modes,” including cycling and e-scooters. Conceptual renderings show this seven-block zone will have single two-way lanes for cars and cycling in the centre of the street, while pedestrian access would be separated from vehicular and bike traffic by on-street furniture and trees.
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The west end will feature more residential and mixed-use development, added Mahler, referring to the city’s office-to-residential conversions and other residential developments on that side of downtown.
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“We’re expecting Stephen Avenue to be much more a place where there’s a local community,” he said, likening the street to future residents’ living room.
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“So evenings, weekends, they’re going to come here.”
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Construction to start this summer
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In the east zone, deep-trenching will start this year to replace subsurface infrastructure. The partial excavation of the street between 1st Street S.E. and Centre Street will begin in late July, Mahler said, soon after the Calgary Stampede has wrapped.
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Construction is expected to last until the end of 2026. Mahler added funding has only been approved for the first phase of the beautification project, so officials will need to go back to council to request additional funds as construction progresses to the other zones.
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Mahler didn’t cite a dollar figure attached to the overall project, but the city set aside $108 million in its last four-year budget cycle for downtown capital improvements, some of which will go toward the Stephen Avenue revitalization.
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“We have 12 blocks to go through, so we’ll have more to announce on that in the future as we get more funding,” he said.
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“This will be a long-term project.”
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‘We need this street to be a part of the bigger festival event strategy’
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Mark Garner doesn’t shy away from saying Stephen Avenue is not meeting its full economic potential. The executive director of the Calgary Downtown Association said the pedestrian mall used to attract upwards of six million people annually, but currently welcomes just shy of five million a year.
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To boost those numbers, he argues Stephen Avenue needs to become a “destination” again. To do this, he said it needs to play a bigger role in the city’s overall festival strategy, by connecting the street’s bars, restaurant and retailers to public events that happen elsewhere in the core.
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Garner cited Calgary International Blues Festival, which is relocating from Cowboys Park to The Confluence Historic Site and Parkland this summer, as an example of an event that will draw people to the core, but likely not to Stephen Avenue.
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“We need this street to be a part of the bigger festival event strategy for downtown,” Garner said. “We’ve done stuff with Chinook (Blast) on the mall, but I think for some of the bigger events and activations, the mall needs to be part of that strategy.
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“If we look at Folk Fest and the comedy fest all up on (Prince’s Island Park), how do we pull those people down here? Well, we should probably have programming on the mall that supports that festival.”
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Stephen Avenue is not able to compete with other entertainment districts in Calgary that cater to nightlife, such as 17th Avenue or Mission, Garner concedes. This, he added, is likely due to the larger population base along those streets.
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While Stephen Avenue has, for decades, been a “convenient meeting space” for downtown workers to socialize at lunch or after work, Garner argued it has under-performed in terms of tapping into the city’s night-time economy.
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“We want to make sure that with the new Stephen Avenue, that it’s still the destination for people that live here, that come and work here, and also for the tourism economy,” he said.
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Bar owners express worry about patio changes, construction
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Not everyone seems gung-ho on the future of Stephen Avenue.
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When Postmedia canvassed businesses along the street in early April, multiple employees said they had either not heard of the city’s plans to beautify the street, or expressed opposition to them.
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Some business owners, who did not wish to be interviewed, brought up safety concerns driven by drug use and homelessness, arguing those factors have played a larger role in keeping away customers than the public realm or accessibility of the street.
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Area Coun. Terry Wong, whose ward encompasses downtown, said he’s heard concerns from bars and restaurants about the city’s plan to shift patios, which currently but up against the building facades, into the middle of Stephen Avenue.
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“The businesses west of Centre Street, the pubs particularly, are concerned about the fact that the patios that are against their property now may be in the centre of the roadways,” he said. “And because they’re in the centre of the roadways, that will disrupt their business.”
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Garner said the patio program has been an ongoing discussion between the downtown association and its members.
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“We’re still working with the city to understand the economics of the new patio design and how businesses function with this (concept),” he said. “Because you’re going to have to ban scooters, you’re going to have to get off your bike. You’re not going to be able to ride down this section because bar, restaurants (staff) are going to be carrying food across public realm into a centre-street (patio).”
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Another grievance some businesses anonymously voiced relates to the construction this July which, for retailers in the 100 block of Stephen Avenue S.E., will start during one of their busiest times of the year.
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Garner said while it would be preferred if utilities could be replaced during the shoulder season, the ground has to be thawed enough to carry out the deep trenching.
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“Obviously, we’re trying to mitigate those things as best as possible to ensure that business is still open and access is still there,” he said. “That’ll be the challenge, because summer is the prime time to be able to make as much money as possible to get you through the shoulder season, so we’re very sensitive to that.”
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‘People expect it to be great’
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While there may not be consensus surrounding what Stephen Avenue should look like, or what the city’s focus along the corridor should be, Mayor Jyoti Gondek said the historic street’s role will be vital in reshaping Calgary’s downtown culture.
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“Stephen Avenue is an amazing place that residents and visitors enjoy equally,” she said. “And I think it’s important to make sure that we are maintaining the public realm, that we are making it more attractive, more walkable, and that we are very business-friendly in that area as well, because it’s really those businesses that make it so successful.
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“So the future of Stephen Avenue must be one where we are actively making investments and ensuring that people are going there to experience all that’s great in downtown Calgary.”
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As evidenced by Stephen Avenue’s sandstone-steeped heritage, the street has been an important part of downtown’s evolution for more than a century, said Mahler, the downtown strategy director. Revitalizing the thoroughfare is about ensuring it remains important for the next chapter in Calgary’s history.
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“People expect it to be great, and they’re looking forward to seeing it being refreshed and renewed for the next generation,” he said.
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