GOING UNDER COVER
The crumbling City Hall is undergoing a four-year, $34-million rehabilitation. A scaffolding system that has been growing as the work proceeds will quite literally disappear when a heavy-duty, non-transparent enclosure is placed around it. Postmedia’s civ
Calgary’s historic city hall will undergo a massive, four-year $34-million facelift with the entire exterior soon to be wrapped in a protective enclosure. But Calgarians will still be able to see the image of the old city hall on the temporary cover.
IN EARLY APRIL, HISTORIC CITY HALL WILL NO LONGER BE VISIBLE
Henderson said the project is moving forward on schedule and scaffolding that surrounds the perimeter of the building, and will go over its roof, is set to be in place by the second week of March. Then, it will take two to three weeks to wrap an approximately 45-metrelong protective enclosure around the building. The enclosure will protect both the sandstone and construction workers from cold winter weather and extreme heat in the summer over the next three years. “Sometime in early April, you won’t see historic city hall again until early 2020, when it has been completely rehabilitated for the next 100 years,” Henderson said.
INSTEAD OF SEEING OLD CITY HALL, YOU’LL SEE AN IMAGE OF THE BUILDING
While historic city hall and construction crews will soon be hidden behind the heavy-duty enclosure, visitors will be able to see an image of the building on the wrap that will surround it. “We’re going to use imagery that replicates the appearance of historic city hall on the exterior of the wrap,” said Henderson, noting that’s standard practice in historic rehabilitation. “People who come by will see the image of historic city hall, they just won’t be able to see the actual building,” she said.
RESTORING HERITAGE PROPERTIES IS NO EASY TASK
At 110 years old, Calgary’s historic city hall is the only surviving city hall of its period in Western Canada. “It’s a unique and important building for us to preserve,” Henderson said. But, the building’s age makes the work different than a typical construction project. “The building itself is actually a national, provincial and municipal heritage resource, so as a result, it means we have to follow different standards while we’re doing the rehabilitation and pull in different heritage experts,” Henderson said. That means consulting with experts and checking with the province to ensure the rehabilitation work is preserving the historical aspects of the building.
A LOT OF WORK LIES AHEAD FOR CONSTRUCTION CREWS
“The building itself, it has 15,522 pieces of sandstone and, during the rehabilitation, 15,142 pieces of sandstone are going to receive some type of restoration treatment,” Henderson said. “Some of them will have to be completely replaced, some of them will just have some work done on the surface.” In addition to treating almost every piece of sandstone on the building, crews have a long list of work ahead including restoring the building’s foundation, roof and verandas. They’ll also put in new windows that replicate the originals, rehabilitate the original window frames and install new structural steel inside the 100-foot clock tower from the third floor up.
SOME TASKS HAVE ALREADY BEEN CHECKED OFF THE LONG TO- DO LIST
After council voted in favour of the extensive restoration in 2015, work began in the summer of 2016 once city staff and elected officials working out of old city hall had moved to new locations. Last year, the building’s foundation was repaired and restored and new drainage was installed on the site. “That was one of the main issues that was causing some of the deterioration of sandstone, was water actually getting into the stone,” Henderson said.