| Architect: William Dodd of Calgary firm Dodd
and Hopkins. Dismissed December 1909 and replaced by
Gilbert Hodgson and Ernest Butler.
Contractor: Alberta Building Company.
Original
cost: $300,000
(double the original estimate - taxes were raised to pay
for the cost over-run)
Construction materials:
Paskapoo formation
Sandstone from Bone and Oliver Quarry on 17th Avenue.
Architectural style:
Richardsonian
Romanesque. Round arches, gable dormers crowned with
raised lanterns on corners. Steeply pitched tile roof.
Original interior
details:
Centre lightwell,
ornamental wrought iron balustrades featuring the Scotch
thistle motif. Cruciform floor plan. Many of the interior
details such as the proposed tile floor with compass
design were never completed because of the cost. 1997
renovation has restored some of these features.
Historical highlights:
- Calgary's second
city hall. The first, a wooden structure built on
the same site in 1885, was demolished in 1911.
- Officially opened
with a gold key by federal leader of the
opposition Conservatives R.L.Borden on June 26,
1911 amid the splendour of 210 imported palm
trees. By 1913 the building was already too
small.
- Tower clock, made
by Seth Thomas Clock Co. purchased by City
Council through D.E.Black Jewellers in 1911 for
$3,657.
- In 1962 a $2.5
million administration building addition and a
$457,000 interior renovation.
- Exterior
restoration of decorative sandstone in the 1980s
following the completion of the new civic
complex.
- 1995-1997 complete
interior restoration costing $9.3 million funded
by the Alberta-Canada Infrastructure Program and
private sector donations. Restoration architect -
Carruthers and Associates.
- Officially re-opens
May 10, 1997 as home to Mayor, Alderman and City
Clerk.
- Calgary is one of
seven Canadian cities to retain original city
hall. It is the only surviving example of the
monumental civic halls of the 1900-1930 period,
west of the Lakehead.
- Three Heritage
Designations; Provincial Historic Resource 1978,
National Historic Resource 1984 and the first
Calgary building to be designated a Municipal
Historic Resource in 1990.
|
Calgary City Hall