You can save a piece of history

You may not realize that we have a proud history of tearing down architecturally interesting and/or historic buildings.

In 1961, there were a number of historic buildings facing Winston Churchill Square. But in short order we managed to rid ourselves of the Market Building, the post office, the courthouse and the Civic Block. If we had kept just the post office and the courthouse we would have a really interesting centre to our city as opposed to the arid wasteland we have now. If you want to know what we lost, take a look at the picture of the post office on the clock outside the Westin.

There’s nothing we can do to change the past, but if you want to keep the city from making another such mistake, you can. The former Bank of Montreal at Jasper and 101 Street is slated for demolition. Given the fact that it has been vacant for a few years, the image of this building may not come immediately to mind.

However, even a picture of it shows a building worth saving. When it was built in 1963, at 10 storeys, it was the tallest building in Edmonton. And as was worthy of a bank, the exterior was both grand and expensive. Instead of the curtain wall that is part of most modern buildings, it was clad in pink and black Morton Gneiss stone and glazed, teal brick. Even the brick back of the building is worth looking at.

Its current owner, GE Capital Real Estate, plans to tear the building down and replace it with a low-rise structure and a parkade. This flies in the face of the city’s Jasper Avenue Main Street Commercial Zone, which is supposed to be about the retrofitting and preservation of historical and older buildings. Yet another parkade would also encourage more cars in the downtown, which is hardly what we need.

You might not consider a 48-year-old building historic, but we are a young city and if we save this building, future generations will be able to look at a piece of architecture that speaks to a moment in Edmonton’s history.

If you want to know what makes this building special, go to Save BMO’63 on Facebook. If you agree with what it says there, you can make your voice heard by sending an email to your city councillor.

The sooner the better.