Living at Ezra on Riley Park, Calgary

The Atlas

The park's south boundary is 5 Avenue NW, which is this building's own street, so the address and the name are the same fact said twice. Walk north up 12 Street and you are in it, past cricket pitches and a wading pool and into a rock garden built in 1956 out of a demolished mansion. Walk east instead and the 10 Street shops start, a cinema and a bookshop next door to each other and a café that has been pouring since 1982. Neither walk needs a vehicle, and that is the whole argument for this address.

Grounds

Ezra on Riley Park stands at 1234 5 Avenue NW, in Hillhurst, on the flats between the Bow River and the escarpment that carries the neighbourhood up toward Briar Hill. The flats are the reason the walking works. This part of Hillhurst is level, and the hill that defines the wider neighbourhood starts well north of here.

Riley Park is bounded by 8 Avenue NW, 10 Street NW, 5 Avenue NW, and 12 Street NW, so the building sits at the park's southwest corner rather than near it. The name points further back. Riley Park was the 1910 gift of Ezra Riley, whose family farmed this land before the city reached it, and the building borrows his first name.

East, the 10 Street NW shops run from the river up to Kensington Road with bookshops, coffee, restaurants, and the Plaza Theatre along the way. Sunnyside CTrain station on the Red Line is a walk east along the flats, one stop from downtown. South, the Bow River pathway, and the Peace Bridge crossing into the West End.

Homes

Two towers of eight storeys carrying a hundred homes, finished in November 2017. Birchwood Properties developed it and Graham Construction built it, and the completion month comes from Graham's own project record rather than from a listing.

Eight storeys is the governing decision. It puts the building above the surrounding walk-up stock without reaching for tower height, which is the scale much of Hillhurst has settled into over the past decade, and it is why this does not read as an intrusion from the park side. Two levels of parking sit below grade, which is what lets the social club and the fitness room take the main floor rather than a basement. An amenity room with daylight in it gets used in a way a windowless one does not.

Everyday

The daily list is a compass exercise. North is the park, and the park is not one thing, so it holds cricket pitches, a wading pool, a playground, and a rock garden and each of those brings a different crowd on a different day. East is Kensington for dinner, a film, a haircut, and the bookshop. South is the river and the pathway, and across the Peace Bridge is downtown on foot in about twenty minutes.

The train handles the rest. Sunnyside station is a flat walk east and downtown is one stop, which is the structural reason a household can hold a smaller floor plan here and not feel the loss.

Winter changes the balance without breaking it. The park empties and the shops fill, and the cinema two blocks east reopened in 2024 with a café and a bar attached. Summer runs the other way. The cricket season takes the park and the wading pool opens.

Amenities

The social club is the main-floor room and it is the one to see before deciding about this building. It runs as a two-sided lounge with a fireplace and a full kitchen, so it works for a dinner for twelve and for an afternoon with a laptop, and a secure wine storage and tasting room sits alongside it.

A furnished guest suite is available for residents to book for overnight visitors, which is the amenity that changes what size of home a household actually needs. A second bedroom used four weekends a year is an expensive way to house your mother, and a bookable suite is the alternative.

The fitness room is on the main floor with the social club. The concierge is a remote service reached by video link, covering guest access and building monitoring, so somebody answers at three in the morning without anybody sitting at a desk. Parking below grade is titled and the parkade carries bike storage. Between the two towers, an exterior courtyard sits on top of the parkade, which is the outdoor room and the reason the two buildings read as one address.

Edges

The park closes the north and it is an edge you can walk into. East, 10 Street NW carries the commerce and Kensington Road takes over at the top. South, the flats run down to the Bow, and the river is the boundary that does not negotiate. West, Hillhurst continues toward West Hillhurst on the same flat grid. Kensington is the name everybody uses and it covers three City communities that behave differently from one another, so a Kensington address and a Hillhurst address are not always the same thing. We separate them on the community page.

The Ezra on Riley Park Edit

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

Riley Park
North across 5 Avenue. Two cricket grounds and a wading pool, bounded by 8 Avenue, 10 Street, 5 Avenue, and 12 Street NW.

Senator Patrick Burns Memorial Rock Garden
Inside the park. Built in 1956 from 20,000 sandstone blocks salvaged out of Burns's mansion when it came down the year before, and planted in 1957.

Plaza Theatre
1133 Kensington Road NW. The independent cinema, reopened in 2022 with a café and a bar in it.

Pages on Kensington
1135 Kensington Road NW, next door to the Plaza. Three floors of books, trading since 1994.

We keep the listings on the building page, updated as the market moves. Start with Ezra on Riley Park condos for sale.