City starting to preserve its landmarks - Nov 18 editorial

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City starting to preserve its landmarks - Nov 18 editorial

Postby newsposter » Sun Nov 18, 2007 11:12 am

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/new ... eb8eb69846

Preserving our past
Saving historic Fire Hall No. 1 shows city is walking the talk

Calgary Herald

Sunday, November 18, 2007

With so few heritage buildings left to protect, council should have classified all of its 52 city-owned historic sites long ago.

It has taken a while, but the city is finally moving in that direction. Historic Fire Hall No. 1 will lead the march into the history books Wednesday, when the land-use committee is expected to pass a recommendation declaring it a Municipal Historic Resource. Once approved by council -- which requested the designation -- the century-old building will be protected from the wrecking ball forever.

Calgary's second fire hall not only will never be destroyed, it can't be altered in any way that doesn't meet federal standards for historic sites. The status also means any changes must be approved by the city's senior heritage planner, Darryl Cariou, an expert in historical preservation. He becomes the approving authority, taking it out of the hands of planners and the development permit process.

This is exactly the sort of symbolic message Calgary needs to send, signalling it values its heritage buildings enough to enshrine them with the proper legislative protection.

"You'll see more of this," says Cariou. "The time has come."

Excellent. The catalyst arrived a year ago when aldermen officially made heritage preservation a council priority.

They're now walking the talk by giving the marching orders for four more city buildings in the East Village to be designated as soon as possible, followed by another five properties that are being transferred to the Calgary Stampede.

The East Village properties to be preserved include two grand hotels, the King Edward and the St. Louis. The Stampede historic designations count the Rundle Ruins (the old remnants of the original Calgary General Hospital) and the Westbourne Baptist Church.

This marks a happy ending to the King Eddie, built in 1906 but allowed to become so run down that in 2004 it was deemed unfit for human habitation. The old blues and jazz haunt sat empty, filled with mould and threatened by an uncertain future.

There's no disputing the heritage value of the fire hall. The 1911 red brick and sandstone served as the city's main station for 62 years, and is one of the most important early civic buildings in our history.

The sandstone detail around the windows and five archways reflects the use of a local material that once defined early Calgary architecture. The five arches once accommodated the fire engines. A 50-foot high hose tower was once used to dry the hoses.

Calgary has lost so many of its beautiful brick and sandstone buildings, to make way for the rise of the concrete jungle of steel and glass high rises.

The city could have saved a few of its early treasures had it been more forceful in declaring them historic buildings, telling private owners they had no choice but to meet federal regulations. Instead, the city prefers to negotiate with them by offering enough incentives so that property owners voluntarily agree to have their historically significant buildings designated as heritage resources.

But by walking the talk, finally, the city has put itself in a much stronger position to negotiate.

© The Calgary Herald 2007
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