The +15: A City That Moved Indoors

Best Time to Visit

Weekdays between about ten in the morning and three in the afternoon, when the +15 is unlocked, busy, and doing its job. The contrast the tour is built on is loudest on a cold or grey day, when the street thins out and the bridges fill up. Most +15 links close in the evening and stay quieter on weekends, so a Tuesday through Thursday visit shows you the reversal at full strength.

Pro Tips

• •The +15 is free and open to the public during business hours, but individual bridges and building lobbies keep their own hours. If a door is locked, drop back to street level and rejoin the network at the next building. The route is designed to work from the ground as well.
• •Devonian Gardens sits on the top floor of The Core Shopping Centre and is reached through the mall or the +15, not from the street. Ride up and give yourself ten minutes inside; it is the climax of the walk and the fullest proof of the thesis.
• •For the view that makes the whole reversal visible at once, buy a ticket up the Calgary Tower observation deck. From there you can see the open streets and the enclosed bridges in the same glance.
• •Stephen Avenue is busiest and most alive at weekday lunch, roughly eleven thirty to one thirty, when the street briefly wins back its crowd. Time Stop 1 for then if you want to feel both cities full.
• •Olympic Plaza is under redevelopment through the late 2020s, so expect hoarding or changed access. The winter skating rink and medal-ceremony history are the point of the stop even if the surface is fenced.