Edmonton's funicular wins international architecture award

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One of the designers of Edmonton’s river valley funicular is “proud and humble” to have won an international architecture award.

“We weren’t designing it to win awards, we were designing it to make the city better. It’s lovely to be recognized, but the fact that people use it everyday and take selfies and wedding photos — that’s what makes me proud of it. We live in this city, and we use the funicular. Some of us use it every day to commute to work,” said principal and landscape architect Jill Robertson, who began thinking about the project with a team at DIALOG Design 10 years ago.

DIALOG’s work was recognized by the International Architecture Awards for its innovation and originality, its capacity to stimulate, engage and delight occupants and visitors, and its accessibility and sustainability.

“This project is really inspired by Edmonton. It was really specific even to the site that it was in. It’s a response to the place. I don’t think that it would work anywhere else in the world,” said Robertson.

Known as the “mechanized river valley access project,” the funicular opened in December 2017. It includes a large staircase adjacent to a glass elevator that travels partway down the hill on an angle, a lookout and another elevator that runs to the valley floor.

It was built to connect people downtown with the river valley.

“But we thought about it more broadly. For us it was a social connection, a cultural connection. We wanted it to be a place where people could come and meet people and linger,” said Robertson.

Council approved the project in June 2015, and contributed $550,000 towards the $24-million project, which was also funded by the federal and provincial governments.

“It wouldn’t have been possible without the vision of the city,” said Robertson.

Despite closing several times for maintenance work last year, it remains a popular destination. So far this year, it has counted 48,948 one-way trips, the city said.

The awards are organized by the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design and the European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies to recognize the most outstanding architecture designed throughout the world.

lijohnson@postmedia.com