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The Bow is undeniably the preeminent modern hallmark of the Calgary skyline. But while the site at the northeast corner of Centre Street and 6th Avenue South has realized its full potential, the property just across the street has experienced a reversal of fortune. The southeast corner of this busy downtown intersection has had a tumultuous history and has lived many lives. In this edition of Throwback Thursday, we look at how the function and identity of the site has adapted to the evolving socioeconomic demands of the city.
With a population of only 4,000 people as potential patrons, entrepreneur, rancher, and philanthropist William Roper Hull commissioned architects Child and Wilson in 1889 to design a $10,000 sandstone and brick opera house. Four years later, the 1,000-seat venue welcomed its first guests. Not long after that, Hull's Opera House underwent renovations and reopened in 1905 under manager William B. Sherman.
But just one year later, the music hall bellowed its final overtures. In its relatively brief history, it hosted opera, theatre, school concerts, auction sales, the firemen's ball, the New Year's Eve ball, and the Irishmen's dance on St. Patrick's Day. The building was again renovated, but this time entirely repurposed as the Albion Block, complete with retail greeting the street and upper-floor apartments. With the gambrel roof gone, the building took on a more rectilinear form, consistent with nearby commercial buildings.
The 1930 opening of the York Hotel on the abutting lot was a harbinger for the ultimate demise of the 19th century structure. Boasting 180 rooms on a site formerly occupied by the Knox Presbyterian Church and Calgary's first oil stock exchange, the hotel had an increasing number of clientele arriving by car which meant that the footprint of the hotel would need to expand. Around 1962, owner George Crystal purchased the Albion Block and promptly demolished it to provide parking for hotel customers.
The York Hotel was acquired by Calhome Properties in 1993 and they retrofitted the upper space for use as low-income housing. In 2006, Encana Corporation settled on the northeast corner for its landmark skyscraper The Bow, a massive development that also included a second seven-storey building for the southeast plot of land. Plans called for the dismantling, refurbishing, and application of the hotel's facade on a new complex of offices, retail, and cultural space. When the building came down, its impressive frieze was carefully preserved in anticipation of this.
As below-grade work on the parking garage progressed, a softening market and climbing office vacancy rates put the brakes on the project. Though some semblance of a new mixed-use development is certainly possible once the economic climate is deemed more favourable, H&R Real Estate Investment Trust, Encana, and Cenovus opted to build a public plaza on the property in the meantime. The finished space is fashioned with a wood deck, multiple seating areas, plenty of trees and planters, and access to the underground garage. The open space, while a refreshing public gesture in a booming city, is quite the departure from the multi-functional use of the site in day's past.
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