Iconic mall in downtown Calgary being torn down

There’s a immense translation taking spot this week successful Calgary’s Eau Claire neighbourhood arsenic the city’s iconic Eau Claire promenade is being torn down — but the aboriginal of the onshore it sits connected and surrounding country is uncertain.

The mall, primitively opened successful 1993, was designed to beryllium a destination akin to Vancouver’s celebrated Granville Island.

But its popularity yet waned, and aft Eau Claire was chosen arsenic the determination of a caller underground LRT presumption arsenic portion of Calgary’s Green Line enlargement project, the owners of the promenade decided to redevelop the onshore the promenade sits on.

To marque mode for the expansion, the promenade closed successful May 2024.

From Eau Claire, the Green Line was primitively designed to widen north, crossed the Bow River.

But aft the Alberta authorities precocious stepped in, acrophobic astir the expanding outgo of the Green Line, the aboriginal of the Eau Claire presumption is uncertain.

While a last determination has yet to beryllium made connected the way of the Green Line done downtown Calgary, the demolition of the promenade is going ahead.

On Wednesday, demolition crews moved successful with a ample crane to commencement the process of tearing the gathering down.

“This volition astir apt instrumentality america astir 1 to 2 months, upwind depending,” said Greg Morgan of Priestly Demolition.  “We’ve got a fewer challenges with the upwind close now, particularly this acold beforehand coming through.”

The somesthesia successful the Calgary country connected Wednesday was forecast to deed a precocious of astir -20 C.

Morgan says the gathering is mostly constructed of alloy and concrete, which helium describes arsenic emblematic gathering materials.

Before the demolition began, Morgan added, crews besides had to bash a thorough expanse of the gathering to marque definite immoderate hazardous worldly was removed.

The onshore the promenade occupies is owned by Harvard Developments which, until the LRT presumption was enactment connected hold, had been readying a premix of commercialized and residential developments successful the area.