Living at Radius, Calgary

The Atlas

The roof settles it. Seven floors up on the east side of Bridgeland, with the skyline across the Bow in front of you and Tom Campbell's Hill behind, and a barbecue somebody else maintains. Downstairs there are rooms for spin and for yoga, and a third with weights in it, so the winter membership you keep meaning to cancel becomes an elevator ride. The train is about five minutes on foot. So is the river.

Grounds

Radius stands at 88 9 Street NE, on the eastern side of Bridgeland, northeast of downtown across the Bow. The community sits inside four hard lines. The Bow River closes the south, Deerfoot Trail the east, Edmonton Trail the west, and Renfrew rises to the north. Inside that, the ground climbs away from the water, so the lower streets get the river and the upper streets get the view.

Two histories run under this address. Riverside was settled during the boom of the 1880s by Russian-German families and was called Germantown then, and Italian and Ukrainian families followed by the early twentieth century, which is where the bakeries and grocers along 1 Avenue NE and the Little Italy name came from. The Calgary General Hospital stood here from 1910 until it closed in 1997, and it was brought down in a controlled explosion on October 4 1998. Its 37 acres became The Bridges, and a good deal of the newer housing on this side of the community, this building among it, sits on ground the hospital held for the better part of a century. People who were here before 1998 still give directions by it.

Homes

Seven storeys of concrete carrying 201 homes, completed in 2019 by Bucci Developments. Concrete is the material decision that shows up daily, because it carries sound differently than a wood-frame mid-rise and a household above you registers as a household rather than as a floor. The balconies face out toward downtown from the west and south sides.

Seven storeys is the right scale for this part of Bridgeland, and the building was drawn to it. Tall enough that the upper floors clear the roofline in front and take the skyline. Short enough that the building sits inside the block rather than over it. The Bridges ground around it carries the same generation of mid-rise, so the immediate neighbourhood reads as a piece of city planned at once, with the older grid of houses starting a few blocks west and climbing.

Everyday

Bridgeland and Memorial station opened on the Blue Line in 1985 and is about five minutes away on foot, which puts downtown one stop and one bridge from the front door. The river pathways are about the same walk, and from there a bike runs west into the core or east toward the zoo. St Patrick's Island and St George's Island sit south across the Bow, the second of them carrying the Wilder Institute and Calgary Zoo, so on summer mornings the peacocks carry across the water and you stop remarking on it. First Avenue NE handles the daily list end to end, groceries through to a table for dinner. Tom Campbell's Hill rises to the north with the skyline laid out below it, and it fills every evening in July with people who walked up.

Amenities

The building carries three studios and they are separate rooms rather than one shared floor. Yoga in the first, spin in the second, and weights in the third, which means the person on the bike is not in your way. The rooftop patio takes the top with a built-in barbecue and seating, facing the downtown towers. Parking comes with every home.

A concierge works the building. Residents share a car wash area and a dog washing station, which is the pair of amenities that decides a winter in this city, because the alley slush comes off both the car and the dog. Secure bicycle storage runs with a repair area, so a flat on the pathway does not become a trip across the river. Storage and balconies come with the homes.

Edges

The Bow closes the south with the pathways on it, and the two islands sit just offshore. Deerfoot Trail holds the eastern line and carries somebody else's traffic past the community without entering it. Edmonton Trail draws the west, and past it Crescent Heights climbs its own hill. To the north the escarpment rises to Renfrew, which runs its own bluff and its own breakfast counters. Every side of Bridgeland is water, a park, an escarpment or a road going somewhere else, so the community keeps its own pace. The wider map sits on the full neighbourhoods index.

The Radius Edit

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

Tom Campbell's Hill Natural Park
North of the community, the skyline laid out below. Go an hour before the light goes and take the long way down.

Bridgeland Market
1104 1 Avenue NE. Grocery, deli, cheese counter and a flower shop in the back, in a room small enough that the staff learn your order.

UNA Pizza and Wine
69 7A Street NE, two streets over. Thin crust and a wine list, in a room that stays busy on a Tuesday.

Lukes Drug Mart
112 4 Street NE. A pharmacy that also sells records and film, and has been on this corner a long time. Go in for one of those and come out with the other.

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