newstudio

infill tour

noreply@blogger.com (newstudio) — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 22:03:00 +0000

IDEA, in conjunction with the CRSC and the City of Edmonton's CityLab, is planning to host an infill tour of our city on January 24th. They are looking for Edmonton's very best and brightest examples of infill to showcase, so please send them their way!

http://infilledmonton.ca/infillshowcase/

IDEA launch event

noreply@blogger.com (newstudio) — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 16:51:00 +0000

Please join us for IDEA's Public Launch Party & Infill Discussion Panel on Wednesday, April 9th at the Yellowhead Brewery. Learn more about this new association and hear from a group of local Edmontonians who have extensive knowledge in city planning and infill development. Our panel includes:

Moderator: Simon O'Byrne, Vice President, Practice Leader - Urban Planning, Stantec

Panelist: Dr. Sandeep Agrawal, Professor & Inaugural Director, Planning Program, University of Alberta

Panelist: Kalen Anderson, Acting Director, Urban Policy + Analysis, City of Edmonton

Panelist: Trevor Hoover, Director, Senior Designer, Habitat Studio

Panelist: Louis Pereira, Designer, thirdstone inc.

Panelist: Thomas Kalita, Community Member

Event date: Wednesday, April 9th, Yellowhead Brewery
Doors Open @ 5:30pm

Informal Mixer: 5:30pm to 7:00pm

Panel Discussion: 7:00pm to 8:00pm

Light snacks and appetizers will be provided. Beverages available for purchase at the bar.

IDEA (Infill Development in Edmonton Association) is a unique, local association recently formed by a group of Edmontonians passionate about infill development in this city. We promote and advocate for high quality infill in Edmonton.

For more information: www.infilledmonton.ca.

Active Design + Healthy Cities

noreply@blogger.com (newstudio) — Tue, 11 Feb 2014 00:32:00 +0000

Today Tai was able to attend Alberta Health Services' Design for Healthy
Cities conference, which was an excellent eye-opener into the serious
impact that the design of our built environment is having on our
population health.

While some pretty dire statistics were presented regarding the growing
incidence of type 2 diabetes, childhood obesity rates, and the
inadequate levels of activity most of us are getting, the good news is
that the design of our surroundings really do have the potential to
improve the situation. Some major take-homes were:

1. Escalators aren't helping anyone
They don't make it any easier for mobility-challenged users to get
around, and they don't help the rest of us get any exercise. Instead,
architects should focus on making active forms of transportation like
stairs both more visible and more convenient than elevators.

2. Walk to work, not for fun
The biggest decreases in our activity levels in recent decades aren't
coming from less leisure-based exercise, but from less active
transportation and domestic physical labour. This is true for both
children - who aren't walking to and from school nearly as much as they
used to - and for adults.

3. The design of our buildings and communities can change everything
The layout of our neighbourhoods - especially the inclusion of mixed-use
amenities in our residential communities - has a proven impact on the
activity levels of its residents. The New York City Department of Design
+ Construction has issued these helpful guidelines for Active Design -
definitely worth a browse and an effort to integrate into our work:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/ddc/html/design/active_design.shtml

All in all, there was definitely a feeling of consensus in the room
about what better-designed, healthier, and more sustainable communities
would look like. Our challenge now is in how to make that world the norm.

skyscraper envy

noreply@blogger.com (newstudio) — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 22:24:00 +0000

In case you missed it, Spacing Edmonton published this excellent article
by Tom Young in response to the discussion raised by the recent Edmonton
Journal article about "The Edmontonian":

http://spacing.ca/edmonton/2013/11/06/skyscraper-envy/

early edmonton apartments

noreply@blogger.com (newstudio) — Thu, 31 Oct 2013 20:46:00 +0000

Once again, Herzog on Heritage delivers with a great article about Edmonton's earliest apartment buildings. Apparently concern over the "quality" of residents led the City's administration to hold apartment developments to a very high standard, resulting in many of the hundred-year-old brick apartment buildings that pepper the Oliver area to this day:

http://www.edmontonheritage.ca/herzog-on-heritage/olivers-100-year-old-apartments/

ultima featured in the journal

noreply@blogger.com (newstudio) — Wed, 23 Oct 2013 21:01:00 +0000

Ultima tower was featured in the journal on Saturday as part of an
article on the increasing uptake of downtown lifestyles:

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Community+profile+Urban+lifestyle+draws+buyers+downtown/9043750/story.html

The area has certainly come a long way in terms of livability in the
last 5 years or so, and the addition of a few more towers of residents
should make the area even more attractive. Lots of change on the horizon!

great read on the future of the 'burbs

noreply@blogger.com (newstudio) — Wed, 04 Sep 2013 20:30:00 +0000

Tyler came across this article, which is a fantastic read on the potential that exists in the future of the suburbs - revising, reimagining, or readressing them to be architecturally and culturally rich places in their own right:

http://www.archdaily.com/420608/bold-new-suburbia-meet-the-architects-daring-to-better-the-burbs/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

barricade redesign competition

noreply@blogger.com (newstudio) — Wed, 10 Jul 2013 20:34:00 +0000

Here's a really worthwhile competition you might consider being a part
of, hosted by MADE in Edmonton. Haven't you always wondered whether
those traffic barricades could be better than they are?

http://www.makesomethingedmonton.ca/projects/287-yeg-barricade-re-design-competition/

If you're chock-full of ideas on how a new version of this ubiquitous
element could beautify the city, get going and submit! The deadline is
July 19th.

make something edmonton

noreply@blogger.com (newstudio) — Mon, 08 Jul 2013 18:01:00 +0000

Over the weekend, Tai was invited to attend an event organized by "Make Something Edmonton" - an organization who is seeking to "turn up the volume" on Edmonton's unique identity as "an unusually good city to start something from nothing, launch a new idea... to make something":

http://www.makesomethingedmonton.ca/about/

It was exciting to feel that this very positive story about our city resonated with a lot of people there - instead of the common impressions about "Deadmonton" being an awful place to HAVE TO live, against your will, with a horrible long winter and nothing to do, it was great to reconsider our city in this new light. I know most of us are here by choice, and see this as a great city to live, full of opportunity to make an impact. So what do you think - does this way of looking at Edmonton resonate with you?

reasons for optimism

noreply@blogger.com (newstudio) — Mon, 27 May 2013 15:57:00 +0000

A great summary from Spacing Edmonton's (fantastic!) website on reasons we should be optimistic about public engagement in Edmonton:

http://spacing.ca/edmonton/2013/04/22/my-top-five-reasons-to-be-optimistic-about-public-engagement-in-edmonton/

The site also posts a weekly recap of urbanism headlines for the city:

http://spacing.ca/edmonton/2013/05/24/edmontons-urbanism-headlines-may-19-to-25/

All in all, now that it's up and running, this is a fantastic resource on urbanism issues in Edmonton!

residential zoning changes

noreply@blogger.com (newstudio) — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 17:00:00 +0000

After a long day spent in Council chambers, Tai presented last night to City Council, speaking in favour of the proposed changes to the residential zoning bylaw to encourage infill development in mature neighbourhoods (and throughout the city). There was a lot of passionate discussion on both sides of the debate, and by 9:30 Council decided to postpone their discussion and voting on the issue in favour of hearing
the remainder of the speakers.

A few observations: generally, people in mature neighbourhoods - even those opposed to parts of the proposed bylaws - seemed to support the subdivision of 50' lots, as well as the addition of garage and garden suites as a permitted use in most neighbourhoods, as a means of increasing density. There were a lot of calls to extend these proposed changes to the RF1 zone, where it could have a greater impact on the
densification of the city in general and hopefully avoid the potential pitfall of driving up land costs in Edmonton's few RF2 and RF3 mature neighbourhoods. (But that said, since these price increases are already happening in RF2 and RF3, rather than postponing the implementation of ALL the changes, it would be wiser for Council to adopt the proposal and ensure that it is expanded in the near term to RF1, rather than waiting years to accomplish this.)

Also, many examples of bad infill were cited - some which were the result of variances granted by development officers, but some that were very likely built without variances under the Mature Neighbourhood Overlay that were simply incompatible with the surrounding neighbourhood
fabric. In our view, this reflects a problem with the Mature Neighbourhood Overlay as it exists right now: Edmonton's mature neighbourhoods are incredibly diverse, and include everything from tall 2 to 3-storey houses on narrow lots with minimal front setbacks in a neighbourhood like Inglewood, to areas where front garages are common and front setbacks are generous like Crestwood and Ottewell, to those where small post-war bungalows are the norm, like Queen Mary Park. How can one overlay possibly apply a set of rules, heights, and setbacks that encompass all of these areas without producing development that sometimes (often?) looks incompatible? A 2.5 storey rowhouse is going to fit in to a neighbourhood like Inglewood much more seamlessly than it is in Queen Mary Park. Yet we have accepted the MNO's guidelines as the
mechanism for yielding an acceptable level of density balanced with a sensitivity to the surrounding neighbourhood. Perhaps what these examples tell us is that it's time to consider an alternative to the MNO
that is based on a more thorough design review process, allowing designers and builders to respond more sensitively and specifically to the surrounding conditions.

What is clear is that even with the implementation of the Residential Infill Guidelines in recent years, the process governing infill development has been flawed: developers and architects are seeking greater certainty, and communities are seeking greater control over what gets built. Neither of these goals can be accomplished under the current setup, which relies on a system of variances and appeals in the face of
bylaws that are clearly overly-restrictive. As several speakers pointed out last night, the current system is also not yielding anywhere close to the city's MDP targets of 25% infill development. Something big obviously needs to be rethought.

In my view, if mature neighbourhoods are to survive - and even thrive - they need to be asking how they can add more people within the same footprint, without sacrificing the qualities they feel add to the enjoyment of the neighbourhood. The problem is that those qualities are truly in the eye of the beholder - many would willingly sacrifice a degree of privacy or sunlight for the economic benefit of being able to build a garage suite, while some would not. Because there are many different visions for the future of mature neighbourhoods - from staying exactly as they are now through to becoming bustling mixed-use/mixed-density areas - unfortunately there is no solution that is likely to make us all perfectly happy. The question is what City Council's vision for the city of 20 years from now looks like - and whether they will implement strong policy today that we need to get us there. We'll be waiting with baited breath!

Gordon Kent's coverage in the Journal is here:

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Public+speaks+about+Edmonton+controversial+mature+neighbourhoods+bylaw/8117505/story.html

ROOPH awards

noreply@blogger.com (newstudio) — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 21:43:00 +0000

We just heard that our 'Home Next Door' project with the most excellent
WINGS of Providence organization won a ROOPH award for Excellence in
Building Design!

Big congratulations are deserved by the team at WINGS and Clark
Builders, our fabulous collaborators in this endeavor, who give so much
to our community through their hard work.

Below is a link to Homeward Trust's site about the awards:

http://www.homewardtrust.ca/programs/rooph-awards.php

curb issue

noreply@blogger.com (newstudio) — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 22:03:00 +0000

The newest issue of Curb magazine is now out, featuring an article by Tai and Tyler outlining newstudio's entry in the Strip Appeal competition - ParkAid. There are also lots of other excellent articles, making this issue an all-around great read. If you don't already subscribe to this fantastic publication, you can read it online, here:

http://www.crsc.ualberta.ca/en/CurbMagazine.aspx

brickyards

noreply@blogger.com (newstudio) — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 22:47:00 +0000

As always, Lawrence Herzog's weekly column on Edmonton's lost brickyards - and the impact they've had on the natural landscape of the river valley - is fascinating:

http://www.edmontonheritage.ca/go/herzog-on-heritage/edmontons-lost-brickyards/

It's really interesting to consider the ways that this now-nonexistent local industry has had effects we can still see on the city's topography, and makes me think about the creation of roads and our street grid as a long, gradual process that probably started with trapping routes centuries ago. I also wonder now about the heritage implications of using brick to mimic our prevalent building styles from the early twentieth century: it's one thing to talk about this as a local vernacular when brick was truly a structural element drawn from the banks of the river, just down the hill. But when we're now sending away to brick factories as far away as Iowa and British Columbia for blocks of their clay, to be applied as a rainscreen or decorative veneer which must be structurally supported by the underlying steel, concrete, or wood building, can that really be considered a design decision reflective of our heritage?

complete streets and designed neighbourhoods

noreply@blogger.com (newstudio) — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 19:35:00 +0000

The City of Edmonton is having two public input sessions on their proposed "complete streets" and "designing new neighbourhoods" guidelines:

Tuesday January 29, 2013
4-8 pm
Terwillegar Recreation Centre, 2051 Leger Road

Thursday January 31, 2013
4-8 pm
City Hall, 1 Sir Winston Churchill Square

The draft guidelines, contact information for the initiative(s), and links to their online discussion forums (in case you can't make it to either meeting) can be seen here:

http://edmonton.ca/city_government/urban_planning_and_design/designing-streets-neighbourhoods.aspx

This seems like a really valuable opportunity to have some discussion on the structure of new development and infrastructure in the City. Hope to see you there!

the challenges of walking...

noreply@blogger.com (newstudio) — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 16:42:00 +0000

An article on the challenges of retrofitting areas designed poorly for walking into more pedestrian-friendly places:

http://www.planetizen.com/node/60293

'...in Montgomery County, Maryland, the local Department of Transportation denied parents' request for a crosswalk because "the safest way is to have them bused to school."'

When combined with the tough economic situation we're currently seeing globally, it seems the usual problems associated with upgrading infrastructure are multiplied significantly: not only do communities not have the money to make major changes to urban and traffic systems, but many citizens have fewer and fewer resources to devote to more fuel-efficient new vehicles, or to gassing up their old clunker. Add to this the ever-increasing cost of oil (which some say is at the very root of the current economic crisis: http://www.jeffrubinssmallerworld.com/), and the decisions we are making now about how to build our cities for the future becomes incredibly important.

infill in saskatoon

noreply@blogger.com (newstudio) — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 17:33:00 +0000

Came across this interesting article on strategies for more infill development in Saskatoon - a city with a lot of paralells to Edmonton in its development pattern:

http://www.thestarphoenix.com/news/Architect+works+infill+strategy/7537999/story.html

The idea that infill development - when done well - can actually improve quality of life and efficiency of infrastructure in mature neighbourhoods seems particularly timely as Edmonton's City Council will be considering a number of proposed changes to its RF1-RF5 low-density residential zones and the Mature Neighbourhood Overlay later this month. The changes are primarily to incorporate the Residential Infill
Guidelines for Mature Neighbourhoods into the individual zones and MNO, rather than having a third document governing regulations. While there has been a degree of uproar in the media about front garages (still not allowed in mature neighbourhoods where the majority of the block does not have them, by the way) and monster mcmansions (a minor increase in site coverage has been proposed only for small lots, to enable the building of a double garage), we have actually been hearing a lot of excitement over the possibilities that these changes to the bylaws might present - especially for the new narrow lots. (See the results of a great competition the City of Seattle held for designs for 25' lots here: http://www.portlandonline.com/bds/index.cfm?&a=271581&c=51302) After a thorough review, complete with some modelling of what could be possible on typical lots if these changes are accepted, it seems to us that they could be a positive step towards encouraging sensitive and affordable infill development that could help to revitalize Edmonton's mature neighbourhoods.

You can see some PDFs we prepared for the City of Edmonton's department of Sustainable Development detailing the proposed changes in each zone here:

http://www.edmonton.ca/city_government/urban_planning_and_design/low-density-residential-zones.aspx

We'd encourage you to have a look and let your Councillor know what you think!

new newstudio

noreply@blogger.com (newstudio) — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 17:22:00 +0000

As of 2013, ziola newstudio architecture is happy to announce that we will simply be 'newstudio architecture'. We look forward to fully realizing this 'new' identity in the new year: a perpetual new-ness. Our great thanks to everyone who has helped put this together, specifically a shout-out to Fat Crow Design.
www.fatcrowdesign.com

We extend our warm wishes for the holiday season and a great 2013.

SNAP Print Affair

noreply@blogger.com (newstudio) — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 21:38:00 +0000

In case you don't have plans yet for December 15, it's worth checking out the Society of Northern Alberta Print-artists' always-epic Print Affair:

http://snapartists.com/

This event is always a great time, and helps support the amazing work that SNAP does in their fantastic new facility.

Hope some of you can make it!

Tai's Top 40

noreply@blogger.com (newstudio) — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 00:03:00 +0000

In case you haven't had a chance to pick up November's Avenue magazine, I'd like to note that Tai has been awarded as one of Edmonton's 'Top 40 Under 40' for 2012. Congratulations, Tai! We're really happy that Tai's been recognized for all her hard work, contributing to a number of good causes and always putting an emphasis on making this city a better place. Here's a link to the web-article - but don't miss out on the extras the actual magazine has to offer:

http://www.avenueedmonton.com/top-40-under-40/tai-ziola

Urban Agriculture

noreply@blogger.com (newstudio) — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 16:22:00 +0000

Today, the Edmonton City Council Executive Committee will be listening to a number of concerned citizens during a public hearing about the implementation of a draft policy, 'Fresh: Edmonton's Food & Urban Agriculture Strategy'. Fortunately, we are lucky to have Tai going down to provide her comments as we note that, although the principles within the Strategy may be sound, much of the language lacks definitive parameters that may actually steer new Area Structure Plans in a direction consistent with the vision of the Municipal Development Plan. The risk here is a continuation of development in the status quo, deflating positive momentum to rein in urban sprawl by allowing loopholes ad infinitum instead of creating enforceable parameters and real metrics.

As this issue has also absorbed the Land Use contention of Northeast Edmonton's existing farmlands, we cannot help but mention that this provides the City a unique opportunity. Despite the provinces reasons for allowing annexation of these lands 30 years ago, the City now has within its borders a chance to establish a physical boundary to limit urban sprawl through the creation of a 'greenbelt' - maintaining existing farmlands and greenfield sites through zoning protection. By setting this precedence, 'land value' may be assessed under the lens of longer-term sustainability rather than our current, subsidized short-term economic reasoning.

During this debate, many have said that these issues won't affect the common Edmontonian - that we don't have a vested interest in the property values of Northeast Edmonton, but this is not true. Physical limitations on this city will act only to increase property values of ALL developed and developable sites in the city limits. By allowing unabated growth of low-density development, property values throughout the entire city are at risk in the long run.

If you can't make it to City Hall today, it may be worth listening in via streaming video:
http://councilontheweb.edmonton.ca/

meet anthony

noreply@blogger.com (newstudio) — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 21:59:00 +0000

This weekend, we had a chance to meet Anthony - a man trying to develop
a great business providing pick up and delivery service within Edmonton.
I think the following video is a far better presentation than I can do
with words alone, so I encourage you to take a look and spread the word
to everyone who could use better services:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yv5nzgrYBIQ

www.anthonyatyourservice.com

urban agriculture strategy

noreply@blogger.com (newstudio) — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 19:36:00 +0000

The City finally released their long-awaited food and agriculture strategy draft yesterday, as discussed in this article from the Edmonton Journal:

http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/2012/10/01/urban-food-and-agriculture-strategy-titled-fresh-is-strangely-stale/

You can read the entire draft policy (as well as some of the background on its development) on the City's Food and Ag site:

http://www.edmonton.ca/city_government/urban_planning_and_design/food-and-agriculture-project.aspx

There is a limited window during which to provide your feedback; the online survey closes October 8th, but can be found here:

http://fluidsurveys.com/s/fresh/

Better yet, you can show up in person at the all-day council hearing they have set aside on Friday, October 26 at City Hall. This is a major opportunity to be heard on an issue that affects quality of life, access to healthy local food, and our land use patterns in Edmonton... hope you can make it!

more mapping edmonton

noreply@blogger.com (newstudio) — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 00:30:00 +0000

Here is an interesting map I came across on the Journal's site from a project they did last summer about the reality of living in the infamous 'burbs. Their conclusion? Edmonton's suburbs, while facing a lot of infrastructure-based challenges, are much more diverse and faceted than we often give them credit for...

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/living-on-the-edge/origins/index.html

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/living-on-the-edge/index.html

home next door

noreply@blogger.com (newstudio) — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 23:26:00 +0000

We are pleased to tell you that our project for the WINGS of Providence Society - the Home Next Door - has come to completion, and the first well-deserving families are moving in. These are up to 29 moms with children who have taken the mind-bogglingly courageous step to leave an abusive relationship and start a new life. We're extremely grateful to the crew at WINGS for inviting us to work on this meaningful project, and VERY impressed at their tireless fundraising efforts to date: they have raised over $6 million to date to make the project happen! This means that they have just $1 million to go, and they are calling on the Edmonton community to pitch in, through their 1000 gals, $1000 gifts campaign:

http://secure.smilebox.com/ecom/openTheBox?sendevent=4d7a4d774d6a55784d6a42384e7a4d304f5441334e44413d0d0a&sb=1

If Tai is one of their 1000 gals, that means newstudio only needs to find 10 people with a $100 gift to make this a reality and get their day care open! That's doable, right? If you're willing to make one of these small donations, please get in touch - we'd love to hear from you!