Calgary’s Ship and Anchor Pub doesn’t have to sing the potential closure blues with a proposed residential development around it, according to a local acoustics expert with experience in similar projects.
A Calgary city councillor also wants to help both arts venues and residential redevelopment co-exist with a proposed agent of change to help deal with these issues.
There’s a six-storey building proposed to go next to the iconic Calgary watering hole, with an additional two storeys cantilevered over top of the four-storey Ship building.
Longtime majority Ship and Anchor shareholder James Ballantyne told councillors during the January 2026 land-use public hearing that it could spell the end of live music for the venue.
“What we are greatly concerned about is the viability of a busy live music venue operating directly beneath and in the same structure as residential housing, notwithstanding the fact that acoustic shielding can be added, which will lessen the transfer of the higher pitch sounds through the floor of the apartments above,” he said at the time.
Taylor Smyth, an acoustics expert with Merlin Noise Control, said there’s a solution here in how the building is developed – and one that’s used in locations all over the world, including projects he’s worked on.
He told LWC they’d done a similar project in Surrey, BC, where the local Legion purchased a building that had residential below a live music venue on the main floor, plus a bar and restaurant.
“It can be done. It just takes the developer to invest a little bit more into the project,” Smyth said.
Smyth said the process might include interior room acoustics, or architectural acoustics – like noise control building materials.
“What that does is you basically create a room within a room, or a space within a space, so you completely separate the rigid connection between the ceiling of the live music venue and the apartment spaces above it,” he said.
When asked about a potential increase in development cost for this, Smyth said that it varied from project to project, but would be substantially less than 10 per cent of the total value.
Agents of change
Ward 9 Coun. Harrison Clark hopes his idea to bridge the gap between redevelopment and the potential impact to locations like the Ship and Anchor.
He’d like to see an ‘Agent of Change’ framework put together that could examine planning and policy tools that can better support both new and longstanding music, arts and cultural venues.
That could include building design, site planning and potential mitigation measures.
“It’s interesting that this aligns with blanket rezoning and all the shifts that we’re seeing in the inner city, our music venues, our arts and culture spaces, these are classic third spaces,” he said.
“If the recent situation with the Ship and Anchor tells us anything, is that we don’t have a clear, defined line as to who’s responsible for managing this shift.”
His Notice of Motion on the matter comes to the April 14 Executive Committee meeting.
Ward 7 Coun. Myke Atkinson said he supports finding creative solutions to these problems – whether that’s through policy or practical application, such as Smyth is suggesting.
He said that often times arts and music venues exist in places where it’s cheaper to rent, where live entertainment can be made more affordable. There’s often an impact when gentrification rolls through a neighbourhood.
“Making sure that there is a path for those to continue to stay open, to be providing the vibrancy that they provide is, I think, a pretty critical piece of the puzzle,” Atkinson said.
Smyth said in the end, it may be out of the City of Calgary’s hands, as more attention to sound is needed in the building code.
“Acoustics can be looked at as a bit of a nuisance in a sense, and it’s something that maybe gets thrown out quickly when things are over budget,” he said.
“It’s something that needs to be more and more at the forefront, especially when you’re increasing densification in our city. These kinds of things need to be looked at from very early on in the design stage.”
Supporters of the 17th Avenue SW pub have launched an awareness campaign called #savetheship to help preserve the venue.
