Multilevel Urbanism & The Plus 15 (2020)
A study supported through Next Calgary, a research initiative at the University of Calgary focused on stakeholder partnerships and co-creation in the planning profession.
Elevated pedestrian systems (also known as skybridges, skyways, skywalks, pedways, etc.) emerged as a modernist approach to urban design in the mid 20th century and have altered the formal and spatial logic of many cities across the world. Calgary's Plus 15 system, being among the most extensive elevated pedestrian systems in North America, is a key example of how early experiments in multi-level urban design in the 1960s have continued to impact the present and future of the city's development, as well as the social dynamics within the urban core.
This work aims to trace the story of the Plus 15's conception to determine how it came to be in its current form while studying the motivations and desires of the various institutional agents that allow it to function.
This research was presented at the Eleventh International Conference on the Constructed Environment and published in the International Journal of Architectonic, Spatial, and Environmental Design.
