Two years ago, Sustainable Calgary asked why it was that more children didn’t walk to school.

To answer that question, a collaboration between the non-profit, SPECTACLE Bureau for Architecture and Urbanism, Everactive Schools, Toole Design, UCalgary, one YMCA program, and four different elementary schools was formed.

The result was the Kids Reimagine School Streets project, which saw Martindale Boulevard, 13 Avenue SW next to Connaught School, and the Meridian railway spur line reimagined by elementary-aged students with things they thought would improve the walking experience.

“The idea was, how can we encourage more kids to walk to school? We know that kids aren’t getting enough physical activity. We know that getting more physical activity in the morning improves learning outcomes,” said Celia Lee, executive director for Sustainable Calgary.

“We also knew that kids are feeling anxious about climate change and about their environmental impacts, and we know that switching to more walking and biking and taking transit actually has a measurable impact on our overall emissions.”

What resulted was a trio of projects that were prototyped to provide safer and more interesting routes to school.

At Meridan, the Rails to Trails project took the abandoned rail track and made a pathway system that connected students to their school, and provided people who live in the community a safer way to travel to and from work from the Franklin LRT station.

In Martindale, the kids wanted a play street that eventually saw curb bump-outs to slow down traffic and make that road safer for walking to school.

On 13 Avenue SW, Connaught Street was closed down and became, temporarily, a public park.

“The kids decided they wanted to close three streets and put in a pond and cover it with trees and grasses. Our lovely landscape Architecture student said, ‘Well, there’s actually a piece of the road where we could where we could do that, and it wouldn’t impede traffic, and it would create a safe place for kids.’ So, we were able to prototype that,” said Lee.

The entire project was awarded with a 2024 National Urban Design Award from the Royal Architecture Institute of Canada in the category of community initiatives.

Other award-winning projects for 2024 included sθәqәlxenәm ts’exwts’áxwi7, also known as Rainbow Park, in Vancouver, and the Stadium LRT Station in Edmonton.

Lee said that it was a testament to the persistence of Sustainable Calgary, and its partners, to improve communities.

“Sustainable Calgary is made up of really passionate people who care about their communities and who don’t tend to give up. And so even if we have to put something on pause, we kind of take it up later,” she said.

“That happened in all of the communities we worked with for this award. I think it’s also a testament to an approach we take to this work, which is always what quick win can we have to empower us, empower the kids, and make us realize we can make change.”

She said that part of that process was talking to engineers and architects about how projects could eventually be scaled.

“We also worked with architects and designers and engineers to say, ‘OK, well, what if we scaled up? What would an entire neighbourhood that was safe and inviting for kids look like, and those designs were awesome and really exciting.'”

An application was put forward by landscape architects The Tula Project (who also designed the Hawkwood outdoor recreation area among others) to develop a portion of 13 Street SW next to Connaught School to turn the street into a permanent park, earlier in August of this year.

That project is set to go before Calgary’s planning commission later this fall.