Second last, but not second least, in our review of the proposals for the City Centre Redevelopment is that submitted by Perkins + Will. Their portfolio of past work is beautifully laid out and a real treat to click through, so go take a look. The company has a number of offices throughout North America, with this bid originating from Vancouver, BC. Let’s see their design:

Overview of the Perkins + Will proposal. Click for large version.

Similar to the BNIM proposal, Perkins + Will have decided to incorporate the angle of the former runways into the design, turning each of the former runways into a main street in the design. By main street, of course, I mean walkable transit-oriented area—this is the future after all. The former runway 16/34 is turned into a promenade along the new wedge shaped park. Eight neighbourhoods comprise the design, the most exciting of which are called “North Agri-hood” and “South Agri-hood”, insert your own gangster hillbilly joke here.

Background, downtown skyline; foreground, mysterious floating platform.

The proposed park feels like it’s designed by people who understand Edmonton and how we use our parks. In many ways it feels like a mashup of Hawrelak, Connors Hill, and Terwillegar Park. There’s places for rowing, sledding, and walking your dog. It’s the first of many things that makes me feel like Perkins + Will have really done their homework. Take a look at their proposal for sustainability of the site:

Perkins + Will sustainable energy diagram. Click for large version.

Look at this thing. Using a biomass boiler to produce power and make heat for homes? Multiple options for onsite power generation? Actual numbers for how much water can be produced on site? A proposal to extend district heating beyond the borders of the redevelopment and into downtown? Next to the other proposals it looks like Perkins + Will cheated and had their dad help with their science project. Everybody else is showing up with terrible papier maché “I guess we’ll have wind turbines” volcanoes.

I complained earlier how scant on information the Foster + Partners proposal was, and Perkins + Will have done the opposite and gone overboard on detail, including things like zonings, year-round uses for the public spaces, and possible construction phases, among many others. Some of it is absurdly specific for this early stage, but I’m sure much of it is provided for spice and to demonstrate to the selection committee that they’re thinking about these things. Things like the map for a proposed winter festival showing where the cross country race will be held. That’s really in there.

So far I’m making this proposal sound like the perfect straight A student, but there’s a few marks on the record. Transit isn’t mentioned much at all, except for one diagram (left) showing an LRT routing and an additional tram line. Not sure why they think a redundant link to downtown will fly when we can barely afford to get our southeast line down past the Whitemud at the moment.

In addition, the plan to create a loop of parkland between the development and the river valley is predicated on the required land magically becoming available, so file this with other things that require suspension of disbelief.

In the video (which is great, watch it), there’s also an obsession with the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital that goes largely unexplained. How they plan to incorporate something so far off the site is unclear.

A few minor points aside, this is a great proposal. It’s got a variety of residential, commercial, and even light industrial areas that will allow it to be more than just a suburb near downtown, and the parks space looks like it could be amazing. In only eight poster boards and a five minute video the design team has made it obvious they’re thinking about a lot of things for this site. For this reason I think they’re a very strong contender to be the selected team.

Let us know what you think in the comments. Next up, number five of five, Sweco International AB.