(locked) Chinatown - Chinese United Church redevelopment

Status of new or continuing risks to heritage sites

Moderator: newsposter

(locked) Chinatown - Chinese United Church redevelopment

Postby newsposter » Thu Jan 29, 2009 12:55 pm

This topic locked and merged with other topic here:
http://www.calgaryheritage.org/CHIForum/vi ... =1553#1553

Fears grow over vanishing culture
Jason Markusoff, Calgary Herald, Published: Saturday, January 24, 2009

As another Chinese seniors apartment tower is set to rise to meet soaring demand, the Chinatown Home-work Club attracts only seven children...

One of the first community hubs, around 1912, was the Chinese Mission. After anti-immigration policies were relaxed following the Second World War, the bigger Chinese United Church went up next door, in 1954. It had pews for 180 worshippers, but the main feature was its upstairs gymnasium which doubled as a language classroom, wedding hall and, for a while, a movie theatre.

The Calgary Mission building was torn down in 1970 for the Oi Kwan Place senior's apartments, and construction will likely begin this spring to turn the church site into a 16-storey Oi Kwan Place II.

But in a nod to the church's legacy, its old, brick facade, five-storey bell tower will stay in place, the assisted-living facility rising behind it.

The result will be one of Chinatown's most striking blends of tradition and modernity, although the complex's manager says preserving the elders' lifestyle matters far more than the semi-pointed arch windows or belfry brickwork...


Full story: http://www.ourfutureourpast.ca/loc_hist ... px?id=2272
Here is a link to a report on the future of Chinatown done in 1969:
http://www.ourfutureourpast.ca/loc_hist ... px?id=2272

Image from www.unitedchurch.calgary.ab.ca/congrega ... hinese.htm
Image
newsposter
 
Posts: 1964
Joined: Sun Nov 06, 2005 11:13 am

Return to Heritage Watch

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 39 guests