White: Why don’t we see more brick homes in Calgary?

Warmth and texture of brick is weighed against the construction challenges of Calgary’s weather and local production of product.

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One of the first observations visitors or newcomers to Calgary often make is that we don’t have many early 20th century brick buildings in our downtown — or stately brick homes in our older inner-city neighbourhoods.

I was reminded of this recently when Matthew Lorne Fillion posted on Facebook a history of Brickburn, a former hamlet on the Bow River near what is now Edworthy Park. Though I knew there was a brick plant there, I didn’t realize there was a hamlet also. If you wander to the west end of Edworthy Park along the railway tracks, there still exists a Brickburn sign where the former siding was located to load the bricks onto the trains, but nothing else.

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Backstory

In 1905, Edward Crandell purchased an established brickyard and quarry from John Watson (who established his factory in 1895) and formed Crandell’s Pressed Brick and Sandstone Co.

Crandell immediately expanded the operation to produce 45,000 bricks per day (from 15 kilns), as well as tiles, pipes and decorative brick. It was one of only four locations in North America that made glazed enamelled brick at the time.

The early 1900s was a boom period for Calgary — Mewata Armouries, Ranchmen’s Club and Lancaster Building were all constructed using Crandell’s bricks, as were the many of the warehouse buildings along 10th Avenue next to the Canadian Pacific tracks (now CPKC Railway).

Crandell also built his home out of brick on what is now called Broadcast Hill, overlooking his plant. It is now known as the Hart House.

At its peak, the plant produced 80,000 bricks per day that were shipped to cities across Western Canada via the Canadian Pacific Railway tracks that ran next to the plant. It closed in 1931 due to high railway tariffs and competition from more efficient natural gas-fired Medicine Hat’s brick factory.

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Modern Brick Buildings

Calgary today has several modern brick residential highrise buildings. Eau Claire 500 was built in the late 1970s and designed by the now world-famous architectural firm SOM (Skidmore, Owings and Merrill) who designed the iconic Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai and the Sears Tower, in Chicago. Both the Princeton and Prince’s Island Estates next to Eau Claire 500 are also brick as is the Eau Claire Y building (plans are in place to reopen it as the Eau Claire Athletic Club).

And Westmount Place in Downtown West constructed of brick in 1979, was the tallest downtown residential building for a long time but now sits in the shadows of the two West Village Towers (a third 42-storey residential tower is in the works). Over in the Beltline, the brown brick Estate condo tower, attached to the red brick Ranchmen’s Club, completed in 1980, is still one of Calgary’s premier residential addresses.

My favourite modern brick condo is Five West in Eau Claire at the southern end of the Louise Bridge. The architects have used both red brick and sandstone in the early 20th century tradition, with contemporary glass to create a highrise tower with character and charm.

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Glass versus Brick

Today, the preferred facade for most residential towers is glass. While glass gives a clean, bright and elegant look to a tower, it lacks the warmth, texture and timelessness of brick.

From a cost perspective, brick is more expensive as not only is the installation more labour intensive, but for buildings taller than 30 feet it requires significant structural support due to the weight of the brick and to mitigate any cracking of the brick and mortar.

Installations of brick is also temperature dependent, in cold weather months it requires heating and covering of all mortar preparation and installation areas during the curing process.

Brick and mortar (or any masonry product) are also subject to the unique challenges of Calgary’s “chinook freeze thaw” conditions. As mortar and brick absorb water, our constant freeze and thaw winters can result in deterioration or breaking of mortar joints. Our dry conditions can also result in mortar not hydrating fully, resulting in the lime leaking out causing the white staining you often see in brick facades in our city.

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Today, residents of glass towers love the floor to ceiling windows that give their highrise homes spectacular views of the city, the mountains, the prairies and our rivers. They create a spaciousness even to smaller spaces, which has become important as highrise homes have become smaller and smaller.

Last Word

Though there is a timeless quality to brick, which creates as sense of heritage even in newer brick buildings, it is not the same as the old brick buildings with their sandstone accents. Arts Commons doesn’t have the same attractiveness as Mewata Armories and the Estate doesn’t have the same charm as the Ranchmen’s Club. I also enjoy the new brick infill homes that are popping up these days in inner-city neighbourhoods, rather than the more common stucco facade homes. Perhaps Calgary will see a renaissance of the brick home in the future.

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