‘Let’s hope Taylor Swift tours arenas’: Development permit approved for Calgary’s Scotia Place

Calgary’s new arena cleared one of the last remaining hurdles before construction on the project can begin next year.

The Calgary Planning Commission approved the development permit for Scotia Place on Thursday.

Project committee member Bob Hunter says the new $900 million building will be “unlike anything that’s been built” in the city before.

“Crews are already digging, and we’re excited to see the venue take shape over the next few years of construction,” he says.

Previous permit approvals have already allowed for shoring, stripping, and grading at the site at Stampede Trail SE and 12 Avenue SE. The latest approval allows for construction of the building itself to begin.

Several amendments were made to the development application as part of a collaboration between administration and the applicant before it was submitted for committee approval.

Those changes include refining the elevation of Stampede Trail, revisions to the interface of the new building, a commitment to commemorate the Saddledome in the new Scotia Place, simplification of landscaping for better pedestrian movement, modifications to the play space above the community rink, and the incorporation of distinct Indigenous worldviews and cultures through design, imagery, and landscaping.

Scotia Place will be inspired by fire and ice; the bowl — which houses the venue’s seating — will be visualized as a cauldron with flames made of coloured lighting that will be especially visible at night. The ice element comes in with the use of white metal panels in the building elevations prominent most on the north and south facades.

The applicant says the design was approved following consultation with local Indigenous communities. First Nations tipi rings and a Métis trapper’s tent rectangle will also be integrated in the southern plaza.

The overall cost of the project is about $1.2 billion.

Scotia Place design highlights

Scotia Place is proposed to be five storeys tall, with the ice level two storeys below grade. There will be four levels of seating — two levels below grade and two levels above grade.

The new arena will have a capacity of 18,400 people for hockey games and sporting events, and 20,000 for concerts.

“We will go from about 90,000 tonnes that we can hang in our roof to 400,000,” says Susie Darrington, committee member and VP of building operations. “If you think about that, that brings us those big A-shows that are going to Edmonton right now, or other markets.”

“Let’s all hope Taylor Swift tours arenas and we have her back here in Calgary.”

During discussions about what the building will look like, it was also revealed there will be 340 public toilets, which is more than double the Saddledome and 20 per cent more than Edmonton’s Rogers Place.

Some bathrooms are being designated to be able to change from male to female, and vice-versa, depending on the demographics of the event being held.

The venue is also being designed so that it can be fully electrified and net-zero by the year 2050.

Other design highlights according to the City of Calgary, include:

• Indoor and outdoor gathering spaces
• 500 stall parkade on the east side
• 1,000 seat community rink at the southeast corner of the site, where the Calgary community will have access to booking times throughout the week and weekends
• Custom digital LED ribbon display, spanning the exterior Southwest Entry, the interior public concourse space and the outdoor south event plaza
• 5A Street S.E. – will have a wide, tree-lined sidewalk for people visiting the Calgary Stampede Sam Centre and Stampede Youth Campus, and the Elbow River Pathway
• On opening day, in addition to 600 solar panels on the building that will generate on-site power, the venue features a district energy connection to Calgary’s District Energy System, which lowers carbon emissions, while decreasing energy and maintenance costs
• The 124-year-old Stephenson & Co. Grocers building will be integrated into the building’s façade and interior programming opportunities, as a key architectural element within the future Food Hall
• The Saddledome will be commemorated following the decommissioning of the building. The project team will work with a variety of interested parties and partners to design an appropriate interpretive feature that will be visible from, or located within, a publicly accessible area of Scotia Place