Explore Your City, Your Way

Jane’s Walk is a global festival of free, community-led walking tours held each May in cities around the world. Inspired by Jane Jacobs, the movement celebrates a simple but powerful idea: cities are best understood on foot, through the stories of the people who live in them.

Jane Jacobs (1916-2006) was an urbanist and activist who introduced ground-breaking writings that championed a community-based approach to city building. Jane’s Walk Calgary will be held between May 1st and 3rd in 2026, organized by The Federation of Calgary Communities.

Jane’s Walk Calgary continues to grow each year, bringing together over a thousand participants through dozens of unique walks organized by passionate local guides.

Walk Anytime: Try Our Self-Guided Experience

Can’t make a scheduled walk? You can still take part—anytime.

The Urban Explorer hosts several self-guides that include mapped routes, key points of interest, and original photography. Walk or ride at your own pace. Start when you want. Pause when something catches your eye. It’s Jane’s Walk—on your schedule.

Prefer a Guided Experience? Join a Walk Each May

While self-guided walks offer flexibility, there’s something special about exploring alongside others.

Each year during Jane’s Walk, local hosts lead in-person tours across Calgary—sharing personal insights, hidden histories, and community perspectives. Whether you’re new to the city or a lifelong Calgarian, these walks offer a deeper connection to place.

We encourage you to:

• Join a hosted walk during the festival
• Meet local storytellers and community leaders
• Experience neighbourhoods through fresh perspectives

Our Walk Through Marda Loop & Currie Barracks

Our local Jane’s Walk explored the evolving communities of Marda Loop and Currie— where history, culture, and urban renewal intersect.

At cSPACE Marda Loop—formerly the historic King Edward School—we explored how adaptive reuse can transform heritage buildings into vibrant cultural spaces.

We started the morning with Nicole Zylstra and Kate Ware from cSPACE. Featured in our guide: Old School, King Edward is a prominent example of the successful ongoing use and adaptive reuse of historic schools.

These schools highlight Calgary’s sandstone construction boom, and you can click here to vote for which sandstone building you think is the best. Or visit our guide, Old School, to see some of the other 19 sandstone schools built between 1894 and 1914.

This site stands as a powerful example of Calgary’s sandstone-era architecture reimagined for modern community use. On our first walk, we discussed how placemaking and sustainability principles can inform urban development to support Calgary’s arts and culture sector.

Military History & Urban Transformation

Crossing into Currie, we stepped into our second walk of the day and the layered history of a former Canadian Armed Forces base.

We discussed the history of the Canadian Forces Base at Currie Barracks. The decision to bring a military base to Calgary in the 30s, the construction of Crowchild Trail just outside the gates in the 60s and the impact on the surrounding areas.

Once home to soldiers and their families, Currie Barracks has evolved into a dynamic urban neighbourhood.

We crossed Crowchild Trail on our way through the former PMQs (Permanent Married Quarters or Private Married Quarters). Along the way, we received historical information, anecdotes and stories about those who helped shape Marda Loop, Altadore and the development of Garrison Woods.

The walk highlighted how cities evolve—layer by layer—through policy, people, and time.

Thank you to local historian Harry Sanders, former CFB Pastor Lloyd Northcott, and volunteers from the Military Museum. Margaret Hope (Marda Loop BIA), Rita Shewchuk (Marda Loop Communities Association) and BIA History Project.

The walk concluded at Garrison Square Park.

Where to go from here

If you’re inspired to explore these communities, here are a few nearby places worth visiting:

The Military Museums

On the east side of Crowchild Trail is The Military Museums of Calgary, the largest tri-service museum in Western Canada and the second largest military museum in the country.

Currie Barracks

On the west side of CrowChild Trail, on the former Canadian Armed Forces Base, is the evolving community of Currie.

Here you can journey through pathways and green spaces designed with walkability, heritage, and community in mind. Garrison Square Park is a central gathering space that connects the past and present of the Currie community.

Take the Trasimene Heritage Walk and visit Alexandria or Valour Park in a community not bound by the constraints of an established neighbourhood. The master-planned community features an inclusive design that mixes form and density, utilizing landmarks and grand spaces to create significant place-making.

As The City of Calgary Council battles with citizens over a housing strategy at home and military conflicts persist overseas, it is an opportune time to explore an evolving urban space that incorporates elements of its heritage and honours its military origins as a Canadian Forces Base. 

My final thought from this experience is a quote from James Thurber.

“Let us not go back in anger or forward in fear, but around in awareness.“