The Carousel Hotel
The Carousel Hotel: Tales from the Cowboy Trail
Master of Architecture, Thesis, University of Toronto, 2016
Thesis Advisor: John Shnier
An examination of the City of Calgary and its culture requires that we do so through the lens of the double image – one half ‘cowboy’, one half ‘global citizen’. To explore this image further, this thesis proposes the development of a dude ranch called the Carousel Hotel, a resort that will encircle the recently approved Springbank Reservoir on the outskirts of the city, in a strip of land affectionately known as ‘The Cowboy Trail’. Here at the intersection of Highway 1 and Highway 22, old meets new. Drawing on architectural memory and the cinematic, this project circles the wagons as a means to question our understanding of nostalgia, whimsy, and the dusty trails in-between.
