First Street Railway Underpass Improvements

The First Street SW underpass has undergone significant improvements, which were completed in 2003. The dedication ceremony took place on Canada Day 2003, a perfectly appropriate date to celebrate the Canadian Pacific Railway's contribution to Calgary's history. Speaking at the ceremony were representatives from the Canadian Pacific Railway, Calgary Downtown Association, and Victoria Crossing BRZ, as well as Mayor Dave Bronconnier.

The project began in 2000, when Victoria Crossing joined forces with Canadian Pacific Railways (CPR), the City of Calgary and the Calgary Downtown Association to bring some long-awaited aesthetic improvements to the First Street SW railway underpass.

Local artists Luke Lukasewich and Bob Stowell (shown top right) created metal relief sculptures depicting the role of Canadian Pacific Railways in Calgary's history (shown middle right). The sculpture was mounted on the underpass walls, to compliment the CPR Pavillion existing above (shown bottom right). Lighting designer Paul Mercier contributed his expertise to augment the sculpture with state of the art LED lighting effects.

Infrastructure improvements to overhead lighting and railings were made in 2002, to improve pedestrian safety in the underpass. The project was completed in June 2003 with the installation of the sculptures.