Winter City Design Competition

Calgary Winter City Design Competition

Have a Winter Dream for Calgary’s Downtown? We’d love to hear it.

As a winter city, Calgarians know the cold isn’t something to escape. It's something to embrace and celebrate, snowsuits and all! The Winter City Design Competition invites passionate and creative people to re-imagine winter. It encourages new ideas for public spaces during the cooler months.

Innovative winter design is needed for great public spaces to thrive in the colder months of the year. Winnipeg has its warming huts, Germany has its Christmas Markets. What interventions and activations could fit like a glove in Calgary’s climate and culture?

This year, The City is proud to partner with Chinook Blast to host the Winter City Design Competition. Chinook Blast is Calgary’s winter celebration. It features a mix of events in arts, culture, sports, and unique experiences. We invite you to create your own “winterrrrful” adventure in the heart of our city.

  • Please check back soon to complete our survey

2025 competition winners

We are proud to award two winners for the 2025 Winter City Design competition. Congratulations to Dot Spot and Serenity Passage for their bright and creative ideas.

Serenity Passage

Serenity Passage is a temporary art installation featuring over 200 blown glass rondels created in collaboration with glass artists from Calgary and surrounding areas. These rondels are arranged within an illuminated archway forming a 7-foot-tall, 5-foot-wide passage accessible to individuals of all mobility levels. Upon entering the Serenity Passage, visitors experience an immersive environment with a glowing glass dome overhead, encased in plexiglass. The design muffles city sounds offering a serene space for peace, joy or introspection and provides contemplation and refuge from the snow. You can experience the Passage in different conditions, with the city backdrop always visible, though the weather and people may change. Serenity Passage is an interactive installation. To learn more about the design process, please visit www.petrucciglass.com.

Dates: Jan. 15, 2025 – April 15, 2025

Location: Century Gardens, 826 8 Avenue SW

Project team:

  • Leah Petrucci
  • Alberta University of Arts Alumni and Students
  • Calgary Glass Community
  • F&D Scene Changes

Thank you to the private studios that supported this project: Fairbairn Glass, Fascapple Glass, Passion For Glass and Sparrow Glassworks.

A special thanks to:  Phillip Bandura, Anna Bilek, Alana Biffert, Chloe Brodeur, Lisa Cerny, Carli Castle, Barry Fairbairn, Leia Guo, James Lavoie, Taylor Knauff, Heidi Mayer, Dana Mclean, Hayden MacRae, Caelan Nowicki, Korina Opekar Ruiz, Mandy Patchin, Darren Petersen, Kenzie Roth, Natali Rodrigues, Portia Scabar, India Verre, Jesi Yager for their time and skills creating the beautiful blown glass rondels.

Dot Spot

The Dot Spot Pavilion is a vibrant, interactive public art installation designed to playfully animate Calgary’s downtown during the winter. The design draws inspiration from the simple snow sled or flying saucer, an iconic winter object familiar to generations of Calgarians. Rooted in childhood memories of tobogganing down snow-covered hills, the sled has been uniquely repurposed as an architectural material. Dot Spot is more than an art installation—it’s a piece of interactive infrastructure that adds colour, movement, and fun to the winter landscape.

Dates: Beginning of February 2025 – April 15, 2025

Location: Bow River Pathway, near 6 Street SW

Project team:

  • HEREBY
  • Michael Zabinski
  • Yves Poitras
  • Matt Stewart
  • Joshua Clark

All past winners

View previous winners and see how they transformed downtown.

See the past winner and submissions

This information has no legal status and cannot be used as an official interpretation of the various bylaws, codes and regulations currently in effect. The City of Calgary accepts no responsibility to persons relying solely on this information. Web pages are updated periodically. ​

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