{"id":3642,"date":"2014-01-10T20:48:53","date_gmt":"2014-01-11T03:48:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/?p=3642"},"modified":"2014-01-10T20:48:53","modified_gmt":"2014-01-11T03:48:53","slug":"placemaking-beyond-river-valley-part","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2014\/01\/10\/placemaking-beyond-river-valley-part\/","title":{"rendered":"Placemaking beyond the River Valley: Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like every other Edmontonian, I love the river valley. Without doubt, it’s the main physical feature that defines our city. This gem is worth celebrating and preserving: as the largest urban park in North America, an ecological corridor, a floodplain, a development buffer, and so forth.\u00a0However, with the numerous projects that the City of Edmonton has along the banks of the North Saskatchewan, have we forgotten about placemaking on the more accessible tablelands that lie above? After all, that is where most Edmontonians live. How can we also bring that similar pride in the river valley closer to us rather than constantly needing to travel distances there?<\/p>\n

Here, I list ten great (though not necessarily perfect) public places in Edmonton outside of the river valley.\u00a0What elements make these spaces more desirable in comparison to others? What makes them “places”? I have to thank Jason Markusoff<\/a>\u00a0for some of these entries as they were also listed in Spacing’s issue of\u00a0Canada’s 100 best public spaces<\/a>. In a later Part II post, I will examine potential opportunities for further placemaking in Edmonton.<\/p>\n