Bringing more life to our downtown cores

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Downtown West

Downtown West, Calgary, Nov. 27, 2016. The neighbourhood is home to a forest of residential towers. (Ricky Leong photo)

Skyscrapers are the hallmarks of many modern cities.
But what if our race to the sky was a mistake?
In my newspaper column last week, I shared my thoughts on some of the difficulties facing the City of Calgary as property tax revenues slump due to empty office spaces downtown.
The more time I spent thinking about the subject, the more I wondered about whether the central neighbourhoods in many of our cities were unintentionally set up to fall — and fall hard — with every economic slowdown.

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A piece of art to turn your head

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This will turn heads

Not only will this work turn heads, the individual pieces that make up this creation also spin on their vertical axis. You can find this intriguing specimen of urban art in central Prague.

Displaced from Neues Palais

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Displaced

At Sanssouci Park in Potsdam, near Berlin, a number of statues were moved out of the New Palace (Neues Palais) there, owing to restoration and renovations in the building. It made for an unusual capture when I visited this September.

Wooden celebration of life

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Celebrating life

While wandering to get my bearings upon arrival in Prague for a visit just about two months ago, I stumbled across this fantastic piece of user-participation public art. Positive vibes and bright colours all around.

Colourful Wenceslas Square

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Beautiful block

The heart of Prague on a beautiful afternoon this September.

Garage

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Autos, real and imagined

What an awesome way to illustrate the outside of a garage! Functional street art, to be sure. Spotted in Leipzig back in September.

Dresden street art

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Scaling to new heights

Äussere Neustadt in Dresden is a hive of fun places to eat and hang out.
It’s also filled with quirky, imaginative street art.
The neighbourhood is just a short tram ride (or a nice, long stroll) across the Elbe River, north of the old, restored city centre.

Terrific

Face it

Gimme five

Rift in the wall

Arts school

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Arts school

To my layman’s eyes, the glass dome of the arts school in Dresden looks like a lemon juicer. I’m sure I’ll be forgiven for my active imagination … because I later learned locals call this structure the “lemon squeezer!”

Leipzig street art

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Digital troglodyte

South of Leipzig’s city centre is the neighbourhood affectionately known as Karli, named after the main commercial street, Karl-Liebknecht-Straße.
As you can see from some of the fantastic street art I spotted in the area, it’s not quite the spit and polish of the old quarter just a few trams stops away … and that’s just fine by me.

Diversity

Bird with a Godzilla complex

Fine monkey

Worlds collide

In the company of arches

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Stately arches

This is a lovely detour off the Georgenbau city gate on the way to the Neumarkt square. Not exactly off the beaten path, but a lot less crowded and a bit more visually interesting. Snapped this view on a visit back in September.