New plans for historic Royal Alberta Museum site

The Royal Alberta Museum is leaving a mammoth-sized vacancy at its old Glenoralot.

Alberta Infrastructureis nowasking for ideas on howto turn the site into a public green space once the museum finishes its move to thenew Edmonton site in 2019.

"We're going to do something with it," said spokesperson Tracy Larsen. "We're still looking at all thosepossibilities, for sure, and again keeping in mind that there's a lot of time to look and make the right decisions."

Larsen says the property will remain public and itshistorical buildings, namely Government House, won't be affected. Current options range from re-purposing or restructuring the old museum building, to demolishing it.

"There's a lot of time to look at the options that are available and make the right decision," Larsensaid.

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The province is accepting design proposals for green spaces until March 15 to decide whether it's a workable option.

"A green space doesn't necessarily mean just grass and trees," said Bill Chomik, a senior principal with Kasian, a Canadianarchitecture and design company.

Chomik has worked on projects such as the Federal Building and the EPCORtower in Edmonton. Hesaidhis company will consider making abid for acontract if the province chooses to turn the old RAM site into a public green space.

"The Royal Alberta Museum site has almost got a rural quality to it," he said."You know it's hemmed in by all those trees, it has a beautiful view of the river valley."

The site does present some design challenges, but Chomik saidthesecan be solved in creative ways.

If the old museum is demolished,the building's multi-tiered basement would leave behind a gaping hole.

Chomiksaidit would be easy to fill, but more interesting to work with. For instance, the hole could be turned into a small man-made lake.

"The conditions that will prevail once the building is removed can open up all kinds of opportunities,"Chomiksaid.

He saidmaterial from the old building can also be incorporated into a new green space design. Stonecanbe ground into gravel for walking paths, or find a second life as a park bench.

Weather-resistant artifacts left in the museum, such as signs and plaques, can be reused asoutdoor decorations.

"Maybe that can be put into the park as a memory of what the building used to be," Chomik said.

Even if the site isn't turned into a green space, Chomik saidit's important to ask the publichow its history and natural beauty should be preserved.

"I can only hope that the government intends to do that as part of the design process rather than imposing something on the site that is surrounded by people," he said.

"The successful team that's going to do this project is going to have to think out of the box ...and do something spectacular with that site because it's a spectacular site to begin with."

Alberta Infrastructure saidthere aren't any concrete plans yet. For now, the provinceneeds to wait until the museum is completely vacant in 2019 before it can start building a future for the historic site.