Contemporary Calgary took a big step forward on Feb. 28 in a multi-year-long process to redevelop the former the former Centennial Planetarium.

Minister of Arts, Culture, and Status of Women Tanya Fir announced that the Government of Alberta would put $40 million towards the $150 million arts transformation project, as part of Budget 2025.

The redevelopment will, when complete, see the addition of a new entrance wing, a new state-of-the-art education and gallery wing, and a renovation of the original 1967 planetarium to become Canada’s first flat-floor LED dome experience.

“It’s an incredibly transformational gift, because it gives us the confidence that we know that we’ve had about this project and its vision,” said David Leinster, CEO of Contemporary Calgary.

“It’s also transformational when I think about the context of contemporary Calgary in the downtown West Community. When you consider downtown revitalization strategies, the investments that the city is making to build a community, downtown west is very much in the focus and vision of our leadership in the municipality.”

He said they hoped to raise the remaining $50 million by March of 2026, with construction completed by Q1 of 2029.

“We won’t close through that time. Throughout that time, we will keep various spaces open, which is important to not take away from this community, or the community of artists spaces for them to share their incredible work.”

The redevelopment process will also see the transformation of the existing parking lot next to Contemporary Calgary along 6 Avenue SW to become a public outdoor area that will feature ample green space along with opportunities to show public artwork.

Leinster said that was the newest addition to the design work that has been ongoing for the past half-decade, and reflected a renewed importance put on developing a connection between the Bow River and the west end of downtown.

“With respect to the park space, it’s going to be for festivals and events, for outdoor activations, for all sorts of different things. A project cannot just be the walls we build up. We need to appreciate that people come on trains, in their cars, on their bikes, walk, run, et cetera,” he said.

He said that the park space, along with a newly designed plaza on the east side of the building, would be natural focus points to draw visitors inside to Contemporary Calgary.

They tore up a parking lot, and put up paradise

Respecting the architectural work that had been done in 1967, and has since been much beloved by Calgarians, has also been a focus for the project.

Bruce Kuwabara, Founding Partner of KPMB Architects, described the concrete brutalist design as being “frisky,” and something unique worldwide.

He said that the goal was to create a new vision of what is relevant to modern visitors, while still respecting the village of buildings’ design.

“When you’re in that building, you always have the presence of the original building. The original cluster is an assemblage, a composition. The village is itself art, and beautiful to me,” he said.

“This is not a shoe box. It’s very unusual, like that’s what we’ve got here. Here’s the thing. It’s a renewal of architectural resources, not knocking things down, OK, not doing that, but actually celebrating them and bringing them to life again.”

Minister Fir said that despite Budget 2025 being a difficult deficit budget for the province, the decision to fund Contemporary Calgary was an important one because of the impact it would have on provincial priorities and ministries.

“It was a lot of conversations with my colleagues, with Treasury Board members. I don’t envy Treasury Board. They had a lot of tough decisions to make this year. But it’s about talking about not only what projects like this do for building community and bringing us together, and what it does for tourism, what it does for jobs, what it does for the economy, and what it does for diversification,” she said.

She said that in Budget 2024, she had secured funding for Arts Commons in Calgary, the Winspear Centre in Edmonton, and for the Alberta Foundations of the Arts as major pillars of arts in the province.

“What’s great about Contemporary Calgary is it kind of bookends these investments in the City of Calgary. From Arts Commons on one side to Contemporary Calgary on the west end. It really just brings it together with so many amazing opportunities,” Minister Fir said.