The Destruction of Place Identity by Urban Renewal

An article written by Alexandra Zabjek entitled “City risks being defined by generic urban landmarks; Heritage Foundation chair worries Edmonton's future identity will come from big-box landscape, not unique architecture” is written about the concerns of the chair of Heritage Canada Foundations Catherine Cole concerning urban renewal. The article suggests that the city of Edmonton’s historic architecture and neighbourhoods are being torn down for more modern buildings and big box retail centers. Cole describes this process as being disastrous to the community’s sense of culture seeing that “The built environment is so important because it helps to shape that community identity.” (Zabjek: 2007, Edmonton Journal). Cole sees the downtown of Edmonton falling under the same attacks as so many other cities across Canada are in the face of urban renewal programs which is the destruction of historic architecture and the creation of modern prosperities which is creating sameness amongst once distinct urban centers.
Whether dealing with the city, local or neighbourhood scale urban renewal is a process that must be contested by the community if the embodiment of the population believes it to bring forth negative effects on the city as a whole. In the case of Edmonton’s culture being erased as a direct cause of urban renewal, Zabjak describes Catherine Cole who is a willing member of the community contributing to the stoppage of such attacks on the cities identity. As Cole is quoted in the article, “If we become so generic that you can drive through Edmonton and it's the same as anywhere else, who would want to live here?"

The Edmonton Journal
Alexandra Zabjak

Article available online through York E-Resources
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Posted by Nick Michael