Garneau is the strip of Edmonton between the University of Alberta and the river, and it is where most students who do not want a commute end up. It is small enough that everything worth reaching is a walk, which is the whole reason it costs what it costs.
Here is the neighbourhood in the only unit that matters in a city with real winters: minutes on foot.
The two streets
112 Street is the campus boundary. University Tower sits on it, at 8515 112 St NW, which means campus starts across the road.
111 Street is one block east. Garneau Towers is there, at 8510 111 St NW — the bigger of the two buildings, with the fitness centre, the two laundry rooms, the lounge and the cheaper rooms.
Both are on 85 Avenue. A block apart, and the block is the whole difference in the walking figures below.
Everything, in minutes
From University Tower · 8515 112 St NW
| Where | On foot |
|---|---|
| University of Alberta Hospital | 4 min |
| H Mart | 4 min |
| Education building and Coutts Library | 5 min |
| University LRT station (Capital Line) | 7 min |
| Health Sciences/Jubilee LRT station | 7 min |
| Rutherford Library | 8 min |
| Garneau Park | 9 min |
| Whyte Avenue | 9 min |
| Safeway | 10 min |
| Cameron Library | 11 min |
| Main Quad | 12 min |
From Garneau Towers · 8510 111 St NW
| Where | On foot |
|---|---|
| University of Alberta Hospital | 6 min |
| H Mart | 6 min |
| Education building and Coutts Library | 7 min |
| Garneau Park | 7 min |
| University LRT station (Capital Line) | 8 min |
| Safeway | 8 min |
| Whyte Avenue | 8 min |
| Health Sciences/Jubilee LRT station | 9 min |
| Rutherford Library | 9 min |
| Cameron Library | 12 min |
| Main Quad | 14 min |
Those figures are measured along the street grid from each door, at eighty metres a minute, rounded up. Edmonton is a strict grid, so that is the route you would actually take — not a straight line drawn across a map.
What the numbers mean in practice
If you are on a health placement, the hospital number decides everything. Four minutes from University Tower, six from Garneau Towers. For nursing, medicine, pharmacy or rehabilitation, no other line on the list competes with that one.
Campus is a walk, not a commute. The Education building and Coutts Library are five minutes from University Tower and seven from Garneau Towers. You can go home between classes, and you can go back to the library after dinner without committing to a round trip. Main Quad, at the far side, is the longest campus walk at twelve to fourteen.
Groceries are closer than campus. H Mart is four minutes from University Tower and six from Garneau Towers, Safeway ten and eight. A grocery run is not an expedition, which matters more than it sounds when it is February.
Two LRT stations, both Capital Line. University and Health Sciences/Jubilee are each within nine minutes of either building. The line runs north under the river to downtown and south to Century Park, so getting out of Garneau needs neither a car nor a favour.
Whyte Avenue in eight or nine minutes. Old Strathcona — record shops, the Princess Theatre, more restaurants than a student budget survives, and the Fringe in August. Close enough to walk home from.
Choosing between the two buildings
It comes down to a block.
University Tower buys you two minutes on every campus and hospital walk, and it has the only rooms with a private balcony. Rooms run $700 to $880 every four weeks.
Garneau Towers is a block further from campus and closer to Whyte Avenue and Garneau Park, has the fitness centre and the laundry rooms, and has the cheapest rooms we let — from $560 every four weeks.
One caveat worth repeating: the gym, the laundry rooms and the lounge at Garneau Towers are for Garneau Towers residents. A room at University Tower does not include them, a hundred metres away or not.
The full walking table with both buildings side by side is on the neighbourhood page, and why those minutes are worth paying for in January is its own argument. The rooms and their prices are here.
