Mourning the old Col. Belcher

[newsposter]

March 26 Update - Demolition has begun on the landmark Colonel Belcher hospital in the Beltline, the location of the new Sheldon M. Chumir Health Centre. Here is a great photo by our friend 'entheos fog', who has a flickr site at http://www.flickr.com/photos/entheos_fog/





Here is a link to information about the Chumir Centre:
http://www.calgaryhealthregion.ca/capital/chumir.htm

Here is a link to information about the old Col. Belcher:
http://calgarypubliclibrary.com/calgary ... /pub51.htm

Here is a link to the Burns residence that was previously on the site:
http://calgarypubliclibrary.com/calgary ... er/pbm.htm

The following information from a Calgary Health Region newsletter (January 2006 - you can get to the newsletter from the Sheldon Chumir link at the top of this page) describes how the history of the site is being commemmorated:

Careful planning has been done to ensure significant historical elements of the site are incorporated into the new Sheldon M. Chumir Health Centre. Five major pieces were identified by the Region, the City and Gibbs Gage Architects as important parts of the site's history.

These include:
 The Lapointe Cornerstone
 The MacKenzie Cornerstone
 The Veteran's Burns Plaque
 The Veteran's Affairs Plaque
 The Burn's Family Stone

These valuable pieces will be the focal point of a walkway display along the corner of 13th Avenue and 4th Street and serve as a reminder of the former Colonel Belcher Hospital's importance to our veterans, employees and the surrounding community. The displays will be made from the tyndall stone (the light coloured stone in the front entrance) from the existing building, and the architects are looking at ways to build a bench on the walkway from pieces of the original Burns' family residence sandstone wall. In addition, "red pavers" will be embedded into the walkways on the site to remember the original red brick of the former Colonel Belcher Hospital. The Region and architects have also committed to preserving the Alberta Coat of Arms from the upper east wall and the white veterans dedication stone from the garden.

[newsposter]

Ugly is as ugly does

Letter to the editor Calgary Herald
http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/new ... 6b60762df9

Saturday, January 26, 2008


The Colonel Belcher Hospital's exterior is nearing completion. This building replaced one of Calgary's few remaining good examples of mid-20th century modernist architecture. It seems Calgarians still have little affinity with our historical roots or are too busy to notice. We rely on our decision-makers to exercise sound judgment when awarding design contracts and when budgeting for institutional landmarks such as this.

This building is utterly without architectural merit. A green glass podium, topped by an equally non-descript, clunky green glass tower, fills a site that had generous setbacks and landscaping and that complemented Central Park. The elevations treatment subscribes to a faceless and uninspired "architectural" style long since abandoned by all but the worst of the suburban developers and planning departments.

Sadly, the new Sheldon Chumir Health Centre will replace a well-designed piece of architecture with a throw-away box. I hope that the health services the facility will provide will outweigh the lack of creativity demonstrated in the faceless design of the building.

Another budget tradeoff in a wealthy city whose leaders do not understand that there is a relationship between the quality of our lives and the buildings we occupy. Is this the true cost of privately funded institutional buildings?

Jim W. Freeman, Calgary

© The Calgary Herald 2008

[newsposter]

Urbanists Bev Sandalack and Jim Dewald mourn the Colonel Belcher and the discuss the need for layers of history in the urban realm. Calgary Herald May 3 2008

http://www.househunting.ca/components/p ... f0f348bf8f