{"id":2767,"date":"2013-11-28T08:00:59","date_gmt":"2013-11-28T15:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/?p=2767"},"modified":"2013-11-28T11:08:03","modified_gmt":"2013-11-28T18:08:03","slug":"celebrating-blatchford-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2013\/11\/28\/celebrating-blatchford-field\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating Blatchford"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Did you know that Blatchford field was the world&#8217;s busiest airport during World War II? Or that it was Canada&#8217;s first public airport in response to a petition made by Wop May, the World War I flying ace who shot down the famous Red Baron? Or that modern air cargo and air traffic control was pioneered in Edmonton, which then was later spread to the rest of the world?<\/p>\n<p>These memories are definitely worthy of preservation and celebration beyond the books and archives. It is a shame that few residents or city planners are aware of these facts and thus unable to see the value of this heritage. Even recently, we were at risk of <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.edmontonjournal.com\/2012\/06\/20\/central-park-or-crossroads-consultant-proposes-names-for-city-centre-airport\/\">replacing the original name of the field<\/a>. However, there is opportunity to take advantage of the increased exposure resulting from redevelopment and to incorporate these memories into the urban form. Part of the Alberta Aviation Museum and potentially other structures will remain on the site, but what other elements could be preserved? What could be added to enhance this unique experience?<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3112\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3112\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2013\/11\/1001858418-1001858459.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-3112\" alt=\"1001858418-1001858459\" src=\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2013\/11\/1001858418-1001858459-600x473.jpg\" width=\"600\" height=\"473\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2013\/11\/1001858418-1001858459-600x473.jpg 600w, https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2013\/11\/1001858418-1001858459-300x236.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2013\/11\/1001858418-1001858459.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3112\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Will this vision for Blatchford made by Perkins + Will be achieved? Is there more that could be done to celebrate our history? Image by Perkins + Will<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Daily this week until the 30th of November, the Alberta Aviation Museum is hosting a series of talks on the city&#8217;s rich aviation history. I strongly encourage Edmontonians and visitors alike to come learn what this significant site has to offer.<\/p>\n<p>For more information on the event, see\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.albertaaviationmuseum.com\/news\/upcoming-events\">http:\/\/www.albertaaviationmuseum.com\/news\/upcoming-events<br \/>\n<\/a>For those who cannot make it, an excellent reading on Edmonton&#8217;s aviation history can be found <a href=\"http:\/\/www.connect2edmonton.ca\/forum\/showthread.php?t=34311\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3106\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3106\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2013\/11\/blatchford_flies.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-3106\" alt=\"Planes swarming like flies in Blatchford Field. Screen capture from Global Edmonton.\" src=\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2013\/11\/blatchford_flies-600x304.jpg\" width=\"600\" height=\"304\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2013\/11\/blatchford_flies-600x304.jpg 600w, https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2013\/11\/blatchford_flies-300x152.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2013\/11\/blatchford_flies.jpg 656w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3106\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Planes swarming like flies in Blatchford Field. Screen capture from <a href=\"http:\/\/globalnews.ca\/video\/987499\/history-of-edmontons-blatchford-field\">Global Edmonton<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Did you know that Blatchford field was the world&#8217;s busiest airport during World War II? Or that it was Canada&#8217;s first public airport in response to a petition made by Wop May, the World War I flying ace who shot down the famous Red Baron? Or that modern air cargo and air traffic control was<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2013\/11\/28\/celebrating-blatchford-field\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;Celebrating Blatchford&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8111,"featured_media":3104,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7,8,9,15,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-culture","category-curiosities","category-events","category-history","category-neighbourhoods"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Celebrating Blatchford - Spacing Edmonton<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2013\/11\/28\/celebrating-blatchford-field\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Paul Giang\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2013\/11\/28\/celebrating-blatchford-field\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2013\/11\/28\/celebrating-blatchford-field\/\",\"name\":\"Celebrating Blatchford - Spacing Edmonton\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2013\/11\/28\/celebrating-blatchford-field\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2013\/11\/28\/celebrating-blatchford-field\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2013\/11\/preserving-edmontons-rich-history.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-11-28T15:00:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-11-28T18:08:03+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/#\/schema\/person\/5c568d4ad3a9e6a81f55f1a6b7e94b5f\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2013\/11\/28\/celebrating-blatchford-field\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2013\/11\/28\/celebrating-blatchford-field\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2013\/11\/28\/celebrating-blatchford-field\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2013\/11\/preserving-edmontons-rich-history.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2013\/11\/preserving-edmontons-rich-history.jpg\",\"width\":2200,\"height\":1600,\"caption\":\"1945 aerial of Blatchford Field. City of Edmonton Archives EA-160-250\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2013\/11\/28\/celebrating-blatchford-field\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Celebrating Blatchford\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/\",\"name\":\"Spacing Edmonton\",\"description\":\"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered  |  Edmonton Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/#\/schema\/person\/5c568d4ad3a9e6a81f55f1a6b7e94b5f\",\"name\":\"Paul Giang\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8dad202f181ce90ee1809ba23cac7aa7?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8dad202f181ce90ee1809ba23cac7aa7?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Paul Giang\"},\"description\":\"Paul Giang grew up exploring Edmonton's landscape, which led him to become an ecologist and urbanist. After studying in Montreal and India, he came back to Edmonton to rediscover and share what he loves about the city. Contact: paulgiang@spacing.ca\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/author\/paulgiang\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Celebrating Blatchford - Spacing Edmonton","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2013\/11\/28\/celebrating-blatchford-field\/","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Paul Giang","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2013\/11\/28\/celebrating-blatchford-field\/","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2013\/11\/28\/celebrating-blatchford-field\/","name":"Celebrating Blatchford - Spacing Edmonton","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2013\/11\/28\/celebrating-blatchford-field\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2013\/11\/28\/celebrating-blatchford-field\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2013\/11\/preserving-edmontons-rich-history.jpg","datePublished":"2013-11-28T15:00:59+00:00","dateModified":"2013-11-28T18:08:03+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/#\/schema\/person\/5c568d4ad3a9e6a81f55f1a6b7e94b5f"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2013\/11\/28\/celebrating-blatchford-field\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2013\/11\/28\/celebrating-blatchford-field\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2013\/11\/28\/celebrating-blatchford-field\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2013\/11\/preserving-edmontons-rich-history.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2013\/11\/preserving-edmontons-rich-history.jpg","width":2200,"height":1600,"caption":"1945 aerial of Blatchford Field. City of Edmonton Archives EA-160-250"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2013\/11\/28\/celebrating-blatchford-field\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Celebrating Blatchford"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/#website","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/","name":"Spacing Edmonton","description":"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered  |  Edmonton Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/#\/schema\/person\/5c568d4ad3a9e6a81f55f1a6b7e94b5f","name":"Paul Giang","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8dad202f181ce90ee1809ba23cac7aa7?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8dad202f181ce90ee1809ba23cac7aa7?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Paul Giang"},"description":"Paul Giang grew up exploring Edmonton's landscape, which led him to become an ecologist and urbanist. After studying in Montreal and India, he came back to Edmonton to rediscover and share what he loves about the city. Contact: paulgiang@spacing.ca","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/author\/paulgiang\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2767"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3122,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2767\/revisions\/3122"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}