Living at Alura, Calgary

The Atlas

Two towers, one podium, and a terrace laid across the top of it that belongs to both. That is the arrangement at Alura, and it is the thing you feel first. The neighbour you nod to on the terrace may live in the other building. Downstairs on the same block a Korean supermarket runs nine until nine, which is a shorter walk than the parkade.

Grounds

Alura stands at 1320 1 Street SE, on the Victoria Park side of the Beltline, one block west of Macleod Trail. The height register files it as Alura at Nuera, because it shares its podium and its name with the tower next door at 211 13 Avenue SE.

Both came from Cove Properties, and so did the two towers before them. Sasso went up in 2006, the first residential high-rise in Victoria Park, and Vetro followed in 2008. Nuera came in 2010 and Alura in 2014. Four towers from one developer across eight years is an unusually complete piece of single-hand redevelopment for a district this size, and it is the reason Victoria Park changed its skyline in one decade instead of three. Ground-level frontage runs along 1 Street.

Homes

Twenty-nine storeys and 110.4 metres, finished in 2014. Nuera beside it runs taller on the register, at 34 storeys and 120.4 metres, so the pair reads as a step rather than as a matched set, and the four floors of difference decide which building holds a given view.

Unit counts for Alura vary between the listing sites and we have found none published by Cove, so we are leaving that figure alone. What we can say from the plans is that the tower runs one and two bedroom homes on a floor plate served by three high-speed elevators, and that the shared podium underneath is the reason a buyer here is really buying into common property that two towers use. A resident weighing Alura against a standalone tower is weighing that arrangement. It gives more terrace than the footprint would otherwise allow and it gives more people using it.

Everyday

H Mart is at 1308 1 Street SE, on your own block, and it opens at nine and closes at nine. Central Memorial Park is three blocks west, laid out as a formal Victorian garden of geometric paths and garden beds on ground the federal government released in 1899, with the sandstone library along its north edge that has been lending since early 1912.

Southeast, the Victoria Park and Stampede station is four blocks off. That platform has served the Red Line since the line opened in May 1981 and was rebuilt as a street-level two-platform station in 2023. It is the station for Stampede Park, where the BMO Centre expansion opened on June 5 2024 and made the building Western Canada's largest convention centre at over a million square feet. Scotia Place is going up at 12 Avenue and Stampede Trail with a planned opening in 2027, which will change this walk again. Go north instead and 12 Avenue carries you toward the older warehouse stock and the Simmons Building beyond it. The 17 Avenue SW retail blocks are three south and one west.

Amenities

The building holds a fitness centre with a yoga studio and a steam room alongside it, and an owner's lounge. A business centre is available to residents. The landscaped terrace sits on the elevated podium shared with Nuera, which is the amenity the two towers were planned around.

A concierge works around the clock and security runs with it. Parking is titled and heated underground, with visitor stalls and bike storage below. Homes take assigned storage lockers. Three high-speed elevators serve the tower and entry runs on fob access.

Edges

Macleod Trail closes the east one block over and takes the traffic south toward the Stampede grounds. West the Beltline runs on toward 17 Avenue and the 4 Street restaurants. North, 12 Avenue and then the warehouse blocks and the office core. Southeast is Stampede Park, which is the loudest edge in the city for ten days in July and an ordinary neighbour for the other fifty-one weeks.

That July fortnight is the thing to raise about this address, and a showing in April will not tell you about it. Ask a resident. The district around the tower has its own arc, which we set out in Living in Beltline.

The Alura Edit

Where to start. Hours move, so check before you go.

Stampede Park and the BMO Centre
Four blocks southeast. The expansion opened June 5 2024 and took the building past a million square feet.

Central Memorial Park
Three blocks west. A Victorian garden plan complete by 1912, with a cenotaph and Alberta's first public library on the north edge.

First Street Market
1327 1 Street SW, two blocks west across Centre Street. Nine kitchens and a bar under one roof, with the patio opening onto Haultain Park.

H Mart Calgary Downtown
1308 1 Street SE, on your own block. Korean groceries and a hot-food counter, nine until nine.

We keep the building page current as listings move. Start with Alura condos for sale.