Live in University District
The university's west campus lands rebuilt as a walkable district. A retail main street, mid-rise homes, and a leasehold twist.
University District is the University of Calgary Properties Group's redevelopment of the west campus lands. The province transferred them to the university in 1995, the West Campus Development Trust was set up in 2011, master planning began in 2012, City Council approved the outline plan and named the community in 2014, construction started in 2015 and the first residents moved in during 2018. At the 2021 census it held 960 residents in 485 private households, 72% of them renting, with 77% of the occupied dwellings built between 2016 and 2021. One structural difference from everywhere else on this site: homeowners hold subleasehold titles under 99-year leases, because the university must retain the fee simple.
The campus lands, urbanized
On the west campus lands, west of the University of Calgary campus and beside the Alberta Children's Hospital at 28 Oki Drive NW. Ward 7, in the City's Northwest sector. The City's boundary polygon computes to 1.14 km².
University District is the city's most deliberate new-urbanist experiment: the university's west campus lands, transferred from the province in 1995, master-planned from 2012 by the university's own development arm, approved and named by City Council in 2014, and occupied from 2018. The retail came first. The developer counts more than fifty shops and services and 40 acres of greenspace.
The structural twist matters: homes are subleasehold under 99-year leases, because the university must keep the fee simple. Financing, resale and estate questions all read differently; get advice that has actually handled leasehold. The developer publishes a page on how to transfer a lease when you sell, which tells you how routine the question is here.
What you get for it: mid-rise walkability between two hospitals, the campus and Market Mall. It shows in the census. 20% of employed residents walked to work in 2021 against 4% across Calgary, and only 57% drove against 77%. It is also young and rented: 72% of households rent, 23% of residents are non-permanent residents, and 77% of the occupied dwellings were built between 2016 and 2021.
- 99-year subleasehold, not fee simple: lenders, insurers and buyers all treat it differently
- 59% of occupied dwellings are apartments and 21% are row houses: documents and reserve funds are the real diligence
- Alberta Children's Hospital and Foothills Medical Centre both sit on the district's doorstep, with the traffic that implies
- Still building: the developer's own updates run block by block, so construction is part of the near-term deal
How University District got here
- 1995The Province of Alberta transfers the west campus lands to the University of Calgary.
- 2011The West Campus Development Trust, now the University of Calgary Properties Group, is established.
- 2012Master planning begins on the lands.
- 2014City Council approves the outline plan and land-use redesignation, and the community is named University District.
- 2015Construction starts.
- 2016The first residential leases are signed.
- 2018The first residents move in.
- 2021Federal census records 960 residents in 485 private households, 72% of them renting, with 77% of the occupied dwellings built since 2016.
Programmed park, borrowed valley
Central Commons Park anchors the district and carries its events, inside the 40 acres of greenspace the developer counts, which also holds North Pond, an urban dog park and Northwest Commons Park. The ridge drops toward the Bow's pathway connections south.
What the map does not show: the district borrows its big nature (the Bow, Edworthy, the campus grounds) and owns its programming. Different model, works well.
Elsewhere in Calgary, not University District
10 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 1–10 of 10 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. Nearly everything is inside a fifteen-minute walk. The car numbers are for the exceptions.
Every gym within reach
The campus next door and the main street's studios. Confirm access rules before you count on anything.
- Active Living sells memberships to the public, with discounts for staff, faculty and alumni
- Fitness centres include a six-lane 200 m running track; climbing and bouldering run through the Outdoor Centre
- The racquet centre covers squash, racquetball, handball and pickleball
- The Commons and the district's 40 acres of greenspace are the free option
| Facility | What it is | Drive |
|---|---|---|
| University of Calgary Active Living open | Aquatic centre, three gymnasiums, fitness centres with a six-lane 200 m track, a racquet centre, climbing and bouldering through the Outdoor Centre, and public skating at the Olympic Oval. Public memberships are sold. | 3–5 min |
| District fitness studios open | Gyms are among the fifty-odd shops and services the district counts. It names none of them, so check what is actually open. | 1–2 min |
| Central Commons Park open | Free option: one of the district's parks, in 40 acres of greenspace that also holds North Pond, an urban dog park and Northwest Commons Park. | 3–4 min |
The campus facilities are the district's real gym, and the university sells public memberships rather than restricting them to students.
Borrowed schools, anchor institution
University School, a CBE kindergarten to grade 9 in neighbouring University Heights, is the nearest public school. Its site publishes no attendance area, so which addresses it takes is not something we can show you.
| School | Board | Note |
|---|---|---|
| University School | Calgary Board of Education | Kindergarten to grade 9 in University Heights, the nearest CBE school. Its site publishes no attendance area. |
| Designated schools | Both boards | The CBE assigns a designated school by home address and program and publishes it only through the address search on its Find a School page. The Calgary Catholic School District's site refuses automated clients. |
| The university itself | Post-secondary | The district is built on the university's own west campus lands and the university retains the fee simple under every home here. |
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: the CBE assigns a designated school by home address and program and publishes it only through the address search on its Find a School page. The Calgary Catholic School District's site refuses automated clients, so nothing on the Catholic side here was read from the district itself.
Month by month, what living here looks like
Not a highlights reel: the actual annual rhythm, including the dates residents have to remember.
- The main street stays walkable all winter: that is the design brief
- 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
- Central Commons Park carries the district's summer events
- 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
Every photograph in this guide's library is above
This library holds one photograph and the page has already printed it. The credits are in the footer.
About these photographs. Openly licensed images geotagged in or near University District, 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.