Walking Towards Resilience: The Rebirth of High River Post Flood ( breakout presentation )

Abstract

Following the Southern Alberta floods of 2013, the Town of High River discovered opportunity in the aftermath of disaster. As floodwaters receded, a new vision for the historic downtown emerged. This session will present the public engagement methods and design solutions that leveraged a disaster into an act of urban renewal. The flood gave High River a rare opportunity the streets had to be ripped up to replace infrastructure ruined by the flood. The goal for the project was to strengthen social and cultural resilience post-disaster by transforming the downtown into an attractive people-focused place. The aftermath of the flood required a quick solution to replace the underground infrastructure. A rapid engagement and planning process was undertaken to create new vision for the downtown. The resulting design solution created a pedestrian-focused streetscape and main street buildings that brought an authentic image back to the Town. The resulting vision for the downtown transformed car-centric wide roads, narrow sidewalks and angle parking to pedestrian-friendly narrow streets, wide sidewalks and limited parallel parking. The main street was designed to act as a shared space during events with rolled curbs and continuous pedestrian paving materials. The image of the downtown is now defined by tree-lined sidewalks, patios, main street storefronts and midblock connections between buildings. How do you retain authenticity in the face of adversity? The Town of High River used the natural disaster of a devastating flood to rapidly re-imagine and rebuild their downtown. Through an intensive public engagement process the Town reconsidered 40 years of automobile dominance and chose to rebuild a set of downtown streets in order to prioritize placemaking and pedestrian life. High River is a rare example of a rural prairie town that is moving away from pick-up trucks to walkable main streets.