During the early 20th century, the Hudson’s Bay Company traded clapboard outlets for stately modern edifices.
by Scott Messenger
From Victoria to Toronto, empty lots sprouted multi-level department stores – architectural and economic anchors for Canada’s burgeoning downtown cores. Calgary’s Bay Building, on Stephen Avenue, opened as the city’s largest building in August 1913, in time to prosper from the nearby Turner Valley oil boom. But it wasn’t until an expansion completed in 1930 that it opened the partially enclosed promenade that stretches a football field in length along 8th Avenue SE. Like the above-ground Plus 15 network of enclosed walkways, that addition was meant as protection from the elements. Today, it goes one further. With its arches, columns and polished granite floors, the promenade offers (besides the chance to window shop), space vital to the street-level social activity needed to keep downtowns vibrant and welcoming – something many critics now argue the modern pedestrian conduits, however convenient, fail to provide.
Curb Appeal Gallery
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