Adaptive Reuse as Placemaking: The Shops at Avenue Thirty Four
April 24, 2025
Gardenia Flower shop – once a modest Edwardian cottage-style bungalow.
If you have visited 34th avenue in Marda Loop between 18 and 19 ST SW recently, you will have noticed changes to many of the modest Edwardian bungalows that line this part of the street. Over the past seven years, this one block area has been transformed into a mini urban village with boutique shops, restaurants, and services. The houses here were built along this road when it was a sparsely populated suburb of Calgary located along a streetcar line. Had they been located along 33 Avenue SW, they would have been replaced by larger scale, multi-unit redevelopment, but a local visionary developer found another viable solution for these properties.
In 2018, Rod Leonard of Leonard Developments purchased and converted a small Edwardian cottage-style house into a live/work florist studio for his mother. After it opened, Gardenia Flower Boutique became a destination shop, and the idea of adaptive re-use led Leonard to consider more larger-scale adaptive re-use projects on the adjacent properties.
34 AV SW between 19 ST and 18 ST SW. The image above is an aerial photo from 1924, and the one below dates from 2023. The Henry Block is located at the intersection of 19 ST SW and 34 AV SW; the Elizabeth Block is sited at the corner of 34 AV SW and 18 ST Sw. Many of the century-old properties have been converted into shops, restaurants and services.
His next project was to add the house directly east of the flower shop to his portfolio. A cozy patio with a wood-burning fireplace was added to the front of the house and is now home to Le Comptoir, by François, a popular European-style coffee shop. An alley was created between the two houses and lined with small bays for additional retail and service outlets.
Google Street view from 2012 looking south to 1934 34 AV SW showing the four-plex and the Edwardian Bungalow prior to conversion.
The same streetscape post-conversion: the Henry Block is on the left and Gardenia Flower shop is situated centre-right. At the far right is Le Comptoir, by Francois; a cozy French-style café that features a large front patio with a wood burning fireplace.
After acquiring the properties to the west of the Flower shop, the next project was a more ambitious one: The Henry Block. Named for Leonard’s son, the Henry block includes conversion of a nondescript multiplex residential building into a mini mall. Although an unorthodox idea, using the existing building was done in the spirit of adaptive reuse and restoration. The four-plex was lifted to create space at ground level, and an additional storey was added to the top to create a third level. It now hosts 20 businesses including a tattoo parlour, cosmetic services, and art gallery.
Snickets lined with shops have been created in the spaces between the existing buildings.
The transformation of this part of the 34 Avenue streetscape continued. After launching the Henry Block, Leonard purchased two more Edwardian cottage-style houses a block east on the south side of the Avenue. Behind them he built ‘Elizabeth Square’ - named for his daughter this time – and he has subsequently converted one of the houses into a trendy Italian restaurant and wine bar. Leonard Developments’ trademark “snicket” (a narrow passageway or alley between walls or fences) between the original houses creates a passageway with liner shops from the street to the covered patio in the back, and the houses have been connected underground to make the basement level more functional.
The small shops created in the between and back places of the existing buildings also serve as places for micro-business, and retail incubators. Some lessees are moving into larger spaces and other have opened second shops in other cities.
Although the extent of the conversion disqualifies the original buildings from designation as Municipal Heritage Resources due to the updates and changes, they nevertheless demonstrate that creatively reusing and renovating modest buildings can lead to new and interesting placemaking that demolition and replacement can never match.
Naturally the project team encountered challenges through the process of adapting these residences to commercial use, including permitting changes. Updating heritage properties is always an adventure, and surprises lurk behind every wall, and foundation. However, this technique has paid off, since by re-using existing structures, maintaining and improving the look of the buildings, providing time and cost savings, and reducing the environmental impact of new construction. Today, building demolition accounts for about 20% of landfill waste in Calgary, and the embodied carbon stored in these buildings is lost forever when they are demolished. Replacement structures don’t always respect the character and history of a given street or neighbourhood, and often detract from the existing streetscape, resulting in the loss of charm and attraction for both neighbourhoods and main streets.
Through Leonard’s visionary approach of adapting existing buildings and creatively reconstructing them he has created an inner-city destination, and an incubator for a mix of new businesses, making it a great place to shop, access services, and just hang out.
A three story mural finishes the south façade of the Elizabeth Block. The bricks on this new building’s first two floors were salvaged from the chimney of one of the houses that anchors this project.
Visitors to the area often thank Rod for his creative and mindful approach to preserving and enhancing the historic feeling of this part of 34 Avenue SW. As the neighbourhood undergoes a major transformation and sees the loss of many of the single family residences along 33 Avenue, the intimate, European-inspired feeling of Leonard’s properties is a welcome respite, and its human-scale buildings and shops make it a Calgary destination.
The Shops at Avenue Thirty Four continue to expand with another new retail block currently under construction on the north side of the avenue, and future plans for an 8-room boutique hotel. Once these projects are completed, Leonard will have added 100 shops to this one block area.
As part of the main street development, several historic sidewalk stamps from 1929 were salvaged and integrated into the new pavement. These two examples can be found at the south-west corner of 34th AV SW and 18 ST SW. Note the spelling of “NINTEENTH ST S.W.” and “EIGHTEENTH ST S.W.”