New St. Mary Education and Wellness Centre Looks Fantastic

The exterior treatment on the new St. Mary Education and Wellness Centre is nearly done.  The school looks substantial with lots of masonry, yet friendly and warm.  Plenty of windows are part of the design to allow natural light to enter the building and take advantage of what will be great views of the new Grace Adam Park.

St. Mary Front Entrance - South & East Facade

St. Mary North Facade



The masonry work on the new Columbian Place Seniors' complex also has similar exterior brick work to tie the developments together.  These two developments are the largest within the Pleasant Hill Village project.  Once these are completed in 2012, there are three remaining development sites which will be offered to home builders for construction of more family-oriented housing in 2013.

Columbian Place 20th Street (north) Facade

Another Sale at Pleasant Hill Village

Slowly, but surely, market sales are occurring in Pleasant Hill Village.
This week another unit was sold in the Cenith Townhouse Devlopment, now called "South Pleasant Hill Solar Village."  Thirty-six units were completed last year of which 13 remain for sale.

New Traffic Calming Proposed for Avenue N

The new St. Mary Wellness and Education Centre will be opening its doors in 2012.  The new school is located on the 300 block of Avenue N South.  The current St. Mary School is located on the 300 block of Avenue O South.  Avenue O South has never been a through-street.  In other words, the street dead-ended at the CPR tracks.  As a result, most of the traffic on Avenue O South was school related traffic.  The new location is on a through street.  Furthermore, the street has a rail crossing which creates the need to ensure traffic slows down as it approaches the school crossing.
The Infrastructure Services Department has designed a plan to ensure traffic reduces speed within the new school zone, in particular around the rail crossing.  The plan includes crosswalks and and two traffic islands with signage.  The traffic calming elements will be installed by the time the new school opens.

Project Update

Due to some good summer weather this year, two major developments within the Pleasant Hill Village project are making good progress.

New St. Mary School

below are some recent photos of the new school, which is the backbone of the new Pleasant Hill Village project. Anticipated completion is March 2012.

Columbian Place

K.C. Charities Inc.'s new 75 unit seniors' residence has changed the face of the 1400 block of 20th Street. Demand for the units remains strong according to K.C. Charities and it is expected that the building will be fully occupied by completion.

Early Scenes of New Grace Adam Park

Grace Adam Park in Pleasant Hill Village is undergoing a complete transformation. Phase 1 of park development located south of St. Mary school contains a new playground, landscaping, trail system and lighting. The trail sytem will meander between the new sites and link the new developments to one another. The plan below shows the final layout of the new park system which will be completed in late 2013.

The photos below are an early look at the park and some of the completed features.

In early June, the playground will be opened and the park will host the popular community PowWow which runs all day on June 17th.

Warm Dry Weather Means Progress

A Progress Report.

The largest buildings in the Pleasant Hill Village Project and the new park are showing progress under drier, warmer conditions.




PCL is at the structural stage of the new St. Mary School.










Northridge has started framing the new Columbian Place seniors' housing project.




Two more dwellings were sold in the last two weeks, one at Parkview Green and one at the Cenith Townhouses. Crews were also back out to finish the first phase of the new Grace Adam Park.




Infrastructure such as new streets and sidewalks are scheduled for late 2012 or 2013 once most of the construction is completed. However, the City plans to pave the lane behind the Parkview Green townhouses this summer.

New St. Mary School and Columbian Place

It has been a while since I last posted an update to this blog.
However, progress continues on the Pleasant Hill Village project.

Two of the largest developments have now risen out of the ground.

Below are shots of the new St. Mary School structure.

despite the cold and snowy winter, workers have made progress.

The size of the new school is quite impressive.

'Columbian Place' is also visible now as the underground parking and foundation are in progress.

City Council has renamed the small portion of Avenue O South as 'Columbian Place', which reflects the name of the new 75 unit seniors project.