Worries over future of Olympic Plaza bricks resurface as major makeover looms - Action News
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Calgary

Worries over future of Olympic Plaza bricks resurface as major makeover looms

When the project wasannounced this month, questions concerning the preservation of the plaza's physical legacy were raised, including the future of the decades-old donor bricks.

City councillors say new project a chance to recognize city's forgotten past and growing diversity

A drone shot of Calgary's skyline.
The Calgary Municipal Land Corporation is spearheading a project to redevelop Olympic Plaza. Some, however, are worried the plaza will lose its significance within the redesign. (Submitted by CMLC)

Beyond the eastern end of Stephen Avenue, across from City Hall, tens of thousands of brown bricks marked with the names of Calgariansline the surface of Olympic Plaza.

Etched with clever messages and at leastone wedding proposal, the bricks were part of a city promotion in1986.

For thesuitable cost of $19.88, people could buy one and put a message on it leaving their personal imprint on both the city and on the plaza.

"It was around '88, 1988, probably," said Brian Hwang, recalling the day he learned of his personalized brick.

"I remember, as a kid, we went to Olympic Plaza and [my father] said, 'You know, somewhere around here, you and your brother's name are on one of the bricks.'"

More than 35 years later, the plaza and its engraved surface seemingly cemented their place in Calgary's history as a site of celebration and a symbol of sporting heritage.

Olympic Plaza is showing its age, however.The original stage and its infrastructure don't work well with the technology needed for modern concerts.

As a whole, the plaza can no longer serve its intended purpose, says one city councillor.

A digitized black and white photo showing people walking through an urban park
Tourists walk through the Olympic Plaza with its three flag poles in Calgary on Sept. 1, 1987, ahead of the 1988 Winter Games. (Dave Buston/The Canadian Press)

"When we talk about being a centre and a hub of culture and activity and celebration, it doesn't function as that. It's costly to program, it's labour-intensive to program," said Ward 11 Coun. Kourtney Penner.

"We have a much more diverse population and we have diverse needs, particularly when it comes to technology. When you look at how that space is activated, everything has to be brought in pretty much from the outside."

After more than a decade of dialogue, the plaza which has been slated for a structural upgrade since 2007 is going to be redeveloped.

It's part of a broader revitalization of the area that includes a $480-million upgrade and eventual expansion to Arts Commons and is an effort involving the City of Calgary, Arts Commons and the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation (CMLC), which is spearheading the project.

What remains unclear, however, is how Olympic Plaza'sphysical and symboliclegacy, and its significance to Calgary's history, will be preserved and maintained.

"If they are going to take it all apart, I was hoping there'd be an opportunity for people to get their bricks my father, he passed away quite early, in his 50s," Hwang said.

"So I almost wanted to just keep it as a memento of him. I think that would be nice to at least have it, if they're not going to use them."

Reshaping the history

When the transformation project wasannounced in early June, a number of questions concerning the preservation of the plaza's physical legacy were raised, resurfacinga debate aboutthe future of the bricks that has been going on for years.

Emma Stevens, the director of communications for the CMLC, said the project team will consider the historic legacy of the plaza, including the bricks, during the design phase to determine how best to reflect its history in the future of the space.

The bricks, however, are said to be unsalvageable. In areportfrom 2016, parks officials said the bricks cannot be retrieved whole, as given their age, they are crumbling in place. The same report also states the city told participants in the program that the bricks would remain in place for three years.

"This [the condition of the bricks] makes incorporating the existing bricks in a future design impossible," reads the report.

"Designers of the new space should think creatively about how to integrate the idea of these bricks into a new design."

A year later, the commentaryseemed to shift when the cityprovided an updateto its website saying there were no immediate plans to remove the bricks.

But with the plaza's redesign imminent and its reconstruction expected to start in 2024, questions loom large about the bricks, whichhold so much history for many Calgarians.

"We're still in the very early stages of the project. We don't yet have definitive next steps on the bricks," Stevens said.

A black and white image of a recreational facility
Construction workers prepare the Olympic medal platforms in Calgary on Jan. 29, 1988, ahead of the start of the Winter Games. Calgarys City Hall, with Olympic rings, is seen in the background. (Dave Buston/The Canadian Press)

Will its significance be lost?

Ron McMahon never got the opportunity to buy one of those bricks. He moved to the city in 1987 when, in his words, Calgary was abuzz with all the excitement of the Games.

Construction was in full swing and the plaza's form was nearing completion.

Thirty years later, he contributed to the story in a different way.

McMahon, a software developer, finished developing an app in 2017 that mapped out the nearly 31,000 bricks in the plaza. It was a passion project, a way for him to bring about the excitement that people felt during the games in 1988 and a way of keeping that spirit alive.

WATCH | Ron McMahon explained in 2017 how he made the brick-tracking app:

Olympic Plaza brick app

8 years ago
Duration 1:38
Use your smartphone to find your Calgary 88 legacy

"I figured this is something that needs to be, this is a part of Calgary's history," McMahon said.

"Olympic Plaza was always full of people with their heads cocked down looking for a brick."

From as far away as the U.K. and Germany, people have been in contact with McMahon, asking him about their bricks.

In Calgary, he's helped people, including Hwang, trace their personal history through the app he made. But he worries those people, as well as the city, will lose a crucial part of the past.

A man holding a phone
One man developed an app so people didn't have to shuffle along Olympic Plaza with their heads craned down in search of their engraved brick. (Danielle Nerman/CBC)

"My point is Olympic Plaza is a historic monument to Calgary history," he said. "To go and destroy it or modify it, to take away what it is, is to betray the trust of a previous generation."

An opportunity for a new legacy

Over recentdecades, the plaza hasbeen a site of celebration for sporting achievements, including Grey Cup wins and the 2004 Stanley Cup run when the Flames were a goal away from a secondNHLchampionship.

A large group of hockey fans are pictured. Two of them are holding signs.
Two hopeful Calgary Flames fans propose to Miikka Kiprusoff and Chris Clark during a rally at Calgary's Olympic Plaza on June 9, 2004. More than 30,000 fans turned up to show their support for the team, after it nearly won the Stanley Cup. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press)

But more than a century before the start of the '88 Winter Games, Calgary's first Chinatown started to take shape around where Olympic Plaza and City Hall stand today.

By 1888, residents were concentrated between Seventhand NinthAvenues mainly along EightAvenuebetween Secondand FourthStreets S.E. where there were restaurants, a grocer and tailor as well as a number of laundries.

Ward 7 Coun. Terry Wong says there's a good opportunity through the redevelopment project to mark that part of the city'shistory in some way.

A map shows the site of Chinatowns throughout Calgary's history
The site around where Olympic Plaza is today was Calgary's first Chinatown. (City of Calgary archives)

"Now we have an opportunity to re-imagine Olympic Plaza and Arts Commons," Wong said. "I have been in conversation about how we can acknowledge that."

A digitized image showing a group of people smiling and waving.
Members of the Canadian contingent file onto the field at McMahon Stadium during the closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics on Feb. 28, 1988. (Dave Buston/The Canadian Press)

Calgary, both culturally and demographically, is also a vastly different city than it was in the late 1980s.

In Penner's view, the redevelopment project is an opportunity to reflect what Calgary is today while honouring the spirit of the Games.

"That's what those '80s Olympics were about, and what they did for Calgary was really catalyzed by community spirit."

"Maybe through the design, there's an opportunity for new Calgarians to put their name in there, too, and to create a new legacy or continuing legacy."