adamyyc
Active Member
Is this the fire station where the Budget car rental is/was (it’s been a while since I rented a car from there so I have no idea if it still exists)?
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- Thread starter Surrealplaces
- Start date
UrbanWarrior
Senior Member
Yes, the Fire Station next to The Bow and Northwest Travellers Building.
It has been vacant for a year or more.
It has been vacant for a year or more.
Roaring Flames
Senior Member
Disraeli
Active Member
great, turn a character mid-century building into a turd. Not what i had in mind
1875
Senior Member
have the arsonists put out the fire, what could go wrong.
The Familia
Active Member
Yup that’s a major downgrade for sure. Would almost rather it remain empty than bastardized.
Mountain Man
Senior Member
If they don't want to trigger a new DP, then yes. These guys don't get a free pass from the development department for their new dream DQ since the first was destroyed by fire. They can rebuild exactly the same way without issue, or go through the same process everyone else in the city does if they want a new development. Rules are rules, despite Corbella's fake outrage.
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BKha
Active Member
The Sierra project is a downgrade aesthetics wise but this is a good compromise. What’s the point of having a building that looks good but sits empty. The new design isn’t great but it’s passable.
ActiveTruth
Active Member
Agreed, Better than an empty building.
haltcatchfire
Senior Member
This building doesn't even look like the left anymore I correct?
ByeByeBaby
Active Member
We've discussed this a little in the Office Space Conversion thread. Basically, Sierra Place (originally the Dome building) was built as shown on the left in that tweet in 1958 as a four story building, the same year as the landmark Elveden Centre across the street (and in a similar style). In 1980, six more stories were added, but they are fairly consistent in look with the bottom four rather than a Biscuit Block (etc) totally different style.
This link has more history of the building. There are a handful of good ca. 1958 International style buildings in the area; in addition to Dome/Sierra Place and Elveden Centre, there's the Britannia Building across the alley from Dome/Sierra and the Petro-Fina building across the alley from Elveden. This area was really Calgary's first downtown of the post-war/post-Leduc oil boom era.
To me it's a pity to lose the heritage facade of the building, but I suppose push come to shove I'll take more housing units than an empty heritage building, if both are not possible.
CT (Chinese_T)
Active Member
It's not like we can't have both though. The Barron building is an excellent example of this.
zagox
Active Member
Barron project is half-finished and stalled so unclear if it's an excellent example yet.
HomeSpace is building affordable housing so they don't want to spend the $$$ to do preservation.
Given the building is already mostly a 1980 fake of a 1950s style, I am in favour of giving HomeSpace the benefit of the doubt on this one.
haltcatchfire
Senior Member
We've discussed this a little in the Office Space Conversion thread. Basically, Sierra Place (originally the Dome building) was built as shown on the left in that tweet in 1958 as a four story building, the same year as the landmark Elveden Centre across the street (and in a similar style). In 1980, six more stories were added, but they are fairly consistent in look with the bottom four rather than a Biscuit Block (etc) totally different style.
This link has more history of the building. There are a handful of good ca. 1958 International style buildings in the area; in addition to Dome/Sierra Place and Elveden Centre, there's the Britannia Building across the alley from Dome/Sierra and the Petro-Fina building across the alley from Elveden. This area was really Calgary's first downtown of the post-war/post-Leduc oil boom era.
To me it's a pity to lose the heritage facade of the building, but I suppose push come to shove I'll take more housing units than an empty heritage building, if both are not possible.
Thanks for the history on it.
Surprised I never noticed the different portions any time I’ve been past it. Usually I pick that stuff out from a distance. Addition definitely blends in if you don’t know to look for it, so was a solid success in those days.
Mountain Man
Senior Member
If they can create residential units with retail at the ground floor, that's a win. My biggest hope out of all this talk of revitalizing downtown is for more people to activate the area outside business hours. I read somewhere that there is no Community Association downtown, is that true?