Live in St. Andrews Heights
A small 1953 community on the bluff: the Foothills campus in its corner, the river below, McMahon across the trail.
St. Andrews Heights was established in 1953 on the bluff above the Bow: 1,345 residents in 585 private households at the 2021 census, with the Foothills Medical Centre on its northwest corner and McMahon Stadium across Crowchild. Thirty-eight per cent of households rent, and a third of working residents walk to work.
The hospital's home streets
Bounded north by the Trans-Canada Highway, east by Crowchild Trail, south by Toronto Crescent and the bluff, and west by 29 Street. Ward 7.
The land was annexed to Calgary in 1910 and St. Andrews Heights was established in 1953 on the bluff above the Bow. Its fortunes are welded to its corner tenant: the Foothills Medical Centre, which opened in June 1966 with 766 beds at 1403 29 Street NW and is the largest hospital in Alberta.
Housing and population. The 2021 census counted 1,345 residents in 585 private households, down from 1,795 at the City's last civic census in 2019. 38% of households rent, above the city's 31%, and renters here feel it: 53% of them spend 30% or more of income on shelter. Median household income was $117,000 in 2020, against $98,000 across Calgary. Two thirds of the occupied stock is single-detached and a fifth is row housing, with 35% of it built in 1960 or before and 8% since 2016.
Getting around. Half of employed residents drive to work and 33% walk, against 4% across Calgary, which is what a hospital and a university on two sides will do. 47% are at work in under fifteen minutes, against 21% city-wide. McMahon Stadium across Crowchild, open since 1960 and seating 35,400, brings Stampeders and Dinos crowds to the same roads, and the coulee paths drop from the bluff to the river pathway below.
- The hospital is not nearby, it is the corner: Alberta's largest, and its traffic is the community's baseline
- 35% of the occupied stock was built in 1960 or before. Original roofs, windows, furnaces and panels are well past design life
- 8% was built between 2016 and 2021, so infill is real but has not remade the streets
- Renters are 38% of households, and 53% of them spend 30% or more of income on shelter
- The count fell, not rose: 1,795 at the 2019 civic census, 1,345 at the 2021 federal one
- McMahon seats 35,400 across Crowchild. Game days fill the same roads
How St. Andrews Heights got here
- 1910The land is annexed to the City of Calgary, forty-three years before the community is laid out on it.
- 1953St. Andrews Heights is established on the bluff above the Bow.
- 1960McMahon Stadium opens at 1817 Crowchild Trail NW, across the trail from the community's northeast edge, seating 35,400 for football.
- 1966The Foothills Medical Centre opens in June at 1403 29 Street NW, on the community's northwest corner, with 766 beds and 765,000 square feet of floor space.
- 2019The City's last civic census counts 1,795 residents in 648 dwellings, 601 of them occupied and 328 owner-occupied.
- 2021The federal census counts 1,345 residents in 585 private households, 38 per cent of them renting, with a median household income of $117,000 in 2020 against $98,000 across Calgary.
Coulee paths to the pathway
The coulee paths drop from the bluff to the river pathway, and the campus's open ground and Riley Park beyond fill the rest.
What the map does not show: Toronto Crescent is the community's south boundary and its bluff edge, and the streets along it hold the views. What no publisher will tell you is what living beside a lead trauma centre sounds like, so listen for yourself before you commit.
Elsewhere in Calgary, not St. Andrews Heights
11 places, with real drive times
Road-adjusted distance and drive time from the centre of the community to each destination, nearest first. Filter by category.
Showing 1–11 of 11 places, nearest first.
Method: distances and drive times are estimated from the centre of the community to each destination using Calgary's road grid, and are rounded to honest ranges rather than presented as precise figures. Everything medical is a walk; everything else is minutes.
Every gym within reach
The campus next door covers it, and says so: Active Living's facilities are open to the general public.
- Open to the general public, not students only
- West Hillhurst's cardio and weights room and ice arena at 1940 6 Avenue NW
- The coulee-and-pathway loop is the free standard
- Kensington's studios are minutes east
| Facility | What it is | Drive |
|---|---|---|
| University of Calgary Active Living open | Fitness centres, gymnasiums, an aquatic centre, climbing and bouldering walls, a racquet centre and the Olympic Oval, open to the general public. | 5–7 min |
| West Hillhurst Community Fitness open | Community association cardio and weights room and ice arena, at 1940 6 Avenue NW. | 4–7 min |
| The bluff and coulee paths open | Free option: down to the river pathway and back: the resident physicians' standing workout. | 1–3 min |
A third of employed residents walk to work, against 4% across Calgary. The daily movement here is on foot before it is in any building.
Small community, borrowed schools
No school sits inside the community. Wikipedia names Branton Bilingual Junior High and Queen Elizabeth Junior and Senior High as the public schools for St. Andrews Heights, and places French immersion students at École Banff Trail and William Aberhart High School. University School, kindergarten to grade 9, is the nearest board elementary.
| School | Board | Note |
|---|---|---|
| University School | Calgary Board of Education | Kindergarten to grade 9 on the board's own site, north of the community. |
| Branton and Queen Elizabeth | Calgary Board of Education | The public junior and senior schools Wikipedia names for this community. Branton runs early and late French immersion. |
| École Banff Trail and William Aberhart | Calgary Board of Education | Where Wikipedia places French immersion students from this community. |
Alberta funds Catholic education the same way it funds public education, so there is no tuition for a resident student at either board. Confirm the designation for a specific address before you buy: the board assigns a designated school from the home address and publishes that only through the address search on its own site. Nothing published places a Catholic or independent campus in this community.
Month by month, what living here looks like
Not a highlights reel: the actual annual rhythm, including the dates residents have to remember.
- Shift-change and game-day are the community's two traffic seasons
- Priority snow routes keep the main roads clear
- Indoor recreation carries the season
- Long dark evenings, but rarely for weeks at a stretch
- Ski traffic west on the Trans-Canada peaks on Friday and Sunday
- Coldest snaps usually break with a chinook
- Noticeably longer light by month end
- Indoor pools at their busiest
- Melt and refreeze on the side streets: ice cleats weather
- Pathways reopen as the snow goes
- First patio afternoons on the warm chinook days
- Street sweeping begins late in the month
- Last hard frosts: planting waits for the May long weekend
- Pathway and park season opens properly
- Garden centres open across the quadrant
- Migratory birds return to the parks
- Long evenings: sunset past 9pm by month end
- Lilacs and crabapples through the older streets
- Field sport seasons start on the community greens
- First genuinely warm stretches
- Peak daylight at the solstice: over 16 hours
- School year ends and the parks fill
- Evening thunderstorms begin building over the foothills
- Farmers' markets open for the season
- Calgary Stampede: ten days across the city
- Hottest month, with cool nights at this elevation
- Evening thunderstorms roll off the foothills
- Canada Day events in the parks
- Folk Festival on Prince's Island mid-month
- Kananaskis and Banff at their best, straight west
- Quietest weeks before school returns
- Smoke from western wildfires is possible
- School year restarts and morning traffic thickens
- First frost typically arrives late in the month
- Poplar and aspen colour begins
- Evenings shorten fast
- Peak autumn colour through the older tree-lined streets
- First snow is normal, and normally melts
- Snow tires go on across the quadrant
- Nose Hill's grasses turn gold
- Ski season opens west on the Trans-Canada
- Dark by 5pm
- Freeze sets in for good
- Holiday retail season begins
- Chinook arches over the western skyline on clear days
- Holiday lights through the community streets
- Outdoor rinks open when the freeze holds
- Quiet, short days between the holidays
7 more photographs of the community and its surroundings
All freely licensed, via Wikimedia Commons. Filter by category.
Showing 1–7 of 7 photographs.
About these photographs. Openly licensed images geotagged in or near St. Andrews Heights, found on Wikimedia Commons and served from there with full attribution. Inline photos elsewhere on the page may still come from the site's shared Calgary library.