City Hall no stranger to controversy
Council will vote this month on whether to approve a $ 34- million renovation to the historic Calgary City Hall. Built in 1907, the building may be crumbling and leaking, but is still full of interesting stories, writes Erika Stark.
IT ALSO HAS A STORIED PAST.
The building’s been the subject of demolition debates for decades. Old City Hall was built in 1907, and almost instantly drew critics for being too far east of Calgary’s centre and for being a reckless use of public money. In the 1950s, there were calls to tear down the building, and the building saw its first major facelift in 1962 — a $ 2.5 million restoration to the interior and exterior. Old City Hall was again renovated in the late 1990s to the tune of $ 9.3 million.
OLD CITY HALL COST JUST $ 300,000 TO BUILD.
That number — a paltry sum by today’s standards — was almost double the original estimate for the building. The rising expenses ended up costing designer William Dodd his job. In an effort to finish the building on time, corners were cut and final touches were spared, leading to last minute design changes to public spaces to turn them into offices.
IT’S PAWSITIVELY HISTORIC.
On the fourth floor of the building near the elevator, there are two tiny paw prints in one of the bricks. When the bricks were drying back when the building was being constructed, a forward- looking feline walked through the still- wet clay, immortalizing its footprints in what would eventually make up a small part of City Hall.
IT ONCE HOUSED A TIME CAPSULE ...
Or so people thought. During one of City Hall’s renovations over the years, workers discovered a large concrete block sitting in the basement. Thinking that it might be a time capsule, they drilled it open. To their disappointment, the only thing inside the concrete block was more concrete. Another City Hall oddity is the original choice of plants to decorate the area around the building: palm trees. Needless to say, the tropical trees didn’t stand a chance.
HERALD REPORTER ONCE PLANTED A FAKE BOMB INSIDE THE CHAMBERS.
It was 1922, and Long Lance was bored. The compulsive liar had joined the Herald a few years earlier and, for the most part, was a reliable reporter. The city hall beat didn’t agree with him, and one day he planted a fake bomb in council chambers. The resulting report in the Herald was so detailed that it didn’t take much to determine that Lance had been behind the whole ruse. He was fired, and news of his termination made the front page.