The idea submitted to The Edmonton Project by Amber and Gary Poliquin was inspired by what the couple had seen on their travels.
“We’ve had the opportunity to travel to many different places around North America and Europe and lots of cities in different countries have gondolas, and they use them for transport,” Amber said.
The idea would be to have the gondola start east of the Shaw Conference Centre, down into the Rossdale flats, and back up by the Old Strathcona Farmer’s Market.
“Our vision is: ‘cool commute’,” Amber said.
“Someone driving up Gateway boulevard from Calgary, for example, and they’ve passed the farmer’s market, they see the downtown skyline and whoosh there goes a gondola from down below, and initially their mind will be blown,” Gary said.
He estimates the gondola would cost between $20 million and $60 million, and Amber said the project could also be completed within a year.
“It can be built fairly quickly, we are kind of used to in our city where construction projects take a very long time sometimes and a gondola in ideal conditions can be built in 6 to 12 months,” Amber said.
The gondola idea was one of hundreds submitted to The Edmonton Project, and one of ten selected for the shortlist. On March 6, the Poliquins will join the people behind the nine other proposals to pitch their idea to a panel of judges.
While the couple is thrilled their idea is in the running, they’re also excited about the other proposals as well.
“There are some really neat projects: the treehouse, the saunas, the pavilions, you name it,” Gary said.
With files from Dez Melenka
