A pair of Calgary historic buildings are set to be given new purpose, as the iconic Historic Firehall No. 1 and the North-West Travellers Buildings begin their transformation into new venues for artists.
The City of Calgary announced on April 2 that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with cSPACE to undertake a design and feasibility study on the two locations.
As an arts incubator and space lessor, cSPACE has previously transformed the historic King Edward School in Marda Loop into an arts venue and has worked to lease spaces throughout the downtown core to arts organizations through their Space Pilot program.
“Similar to our space as cSPACE Marda Loop in the old King Edward school, what we’re imagining is a multi-tenant art, creativity, and creative industry hub that basically supports artists with studio space, and non-profits with programming and office and creation space,” said Deeter Schurig, CEO of cSPACE.
“Also critical to making it come alive is to have spaces where the community can gather and engage and take in programming.”
Although he said that it was still early days for the process to define what those spaces would eventually become, one concept idea included artist housing for live-work studios, and a commercial component to draw in visitors.
That concept in particular was attractive to the city, said Franca Gualtieri, Manager of Arts and Culture for The City of Calgary.
“I think it would be a great venue to do that. I think it’s important for our artists to make sure that they can have that living space. They say creativity comes at all hours of the day, but to have that space and to be right there—really when you think about it, we’d all like to walk outside of our front door and be in our work door and be in our work space,” she said.
“When we look at what cSpace has done in the past, that’s exactly to foster those spaces in community.”
cSPACE also previously operated an arts venue out of the historic Eau Claire and Bow River Lumber building.
The Historic Firehall No. 1 courtyard was previously activated by Volley, and the storefront next to the North-West Travellers Building by Good Neighbour—both spearheaded by prominent local community builder Alice Lam.
Creating something new, without erasing that which is old
Schurig said preservation of the historic city buildings would be a critical component of the design that cSPACE delivers to the City of Calgary.
“Ultimately, what needs to happen is we need to start with that preservation, but then ultimately, figure out how they work as a new arts and culture campus. They have to work together. And that’s that’s where the exciting cSPACE magic will happen,” he said.
“As they currently exist, there’s limitations. They’re heritage assets that need to be preserved, but ultimately we need them to work for the next 100 years as flexible, adaptable, creative workspaces to support Calgary’s talent. So, it could very well be that there’s new additions, there’s new mechanical systems that need to be incorporated, and so those kind of nuances and design ideas will play out in the near future.”
That preservation aspect was a part of the competitive expression of interest that the City of Calgary issued on the building, including any costs to upkeep the buildings as part of the Standards and Guidelines for the Conservation of Historic Places in Canada.
That dedication to preserving both buildings was praised by Josh Traptow, CEO of Heritage Calgary, who said that cSPACE would be a great partner for the historic buildings.
“I know that cSpace will work within those those designations, similar to how they have done with the King Eddie school, but it’ll be a great use. It’ll be nice to have cSPACE downtown, and see how they’re able to program and turn that into a viable community space moving forward,” Traptow said.
“It’s great for the city as well, where they have a viable partner that wants to make those capital improvements and upgrades for Firehall No. 1.”
He said that with historic buildings like the firehall, brick needs to be repointed, mortar needs to be touched up, and that the murals that are in the basement of that building would also need to preserved.
Schurig said that while there was no definitive timeline towards redevelopment, the presentation to the City of Calgary for their plan would come later in 2025.
For what Calgarians can expect in terms of activation however, he said that on April 5, cSpace along with Indigenous activist artist group Article 11 would be holding a multimedia light installation at the Historic Firehall No. 1 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
“We’re excited to have a launch of fireWORKS coming up this weekend, which will start to imprint our Calgary creative challenge onto the building and hopefully set the stage for whats to come,” he said.
