Unbuilt Calgary

by Stephanie White

The essence of a vibrant, growing, and changing Calgary is captured over the life of its development.Calgary is a typical boom-and-bust town that was first based on ranching and farming, then oil and gas, and now energy. And energy is what its citizens have, whether for skiing, work, or construction. It is a city that leaps ahead eagerly to new futures and rarely looks back., but Calgary can also be an unsentimental city, discarding its ideas, plans, and buildings with ease. Unbuilt Calgary is a survey of 30 projects that were proposed but not realized, schemes that were situated at critical times in Calgary’s development, and proposals that indicated the city’s ambitions through its first 100 years. Unbuilt Calgary looks back to ideas and notions that might have been, and building endeavours that would have changed the shape of the city for better or worse. The 30 critical projects are accompanied by drawings and models to illustrate something of Calgary’s irrepressible exuberance.

232 pages, ebook

First published October 27, 2012

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Reviews

[Alexis]

A great history of how Calgary was created. Of interest to anyone who is interested in urban planning, architecture, history.

[Chris Van Dyke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book, especially with the array of historical images, maps and plans, but it just seemed to me like it could have been so much more.