Developer, community of one mind about preserving Garneau character
Todd Babiak
The Edmonton Journal
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
A newspaper advertisement, published 100 years ago last weekend, tantalized the house-buying citizens of Edmonton: "The High Level Bridge is now a Certainty. 'The Garneau' is the best buying in either City. We have several sound bargains to offer you."
Premier Rutherford bought a house. So did Henry Marshall Tory, first president of the University of Alberta. Early architecture in the area varied from post-Edwardian to Georgian colonial, craftsman to prairie. Ten years later, one of Canada's most important women, Emily Murphy, moved into the neighbourhood.
Since then, Garneau has been home to all that a frantically growing university brings: students and professors, frat houses and restaurants, a repertory theatre and the best coffee in the city. One of Garneau's finest features, apart from the trees, is one of the largest concentrations of independent businesses in Edmonton.
Two of those businesses will move out of the Garneau Theatre Block at the end of this month. Vivid Print will move into the current Southside Sound location, on Whyte Avenue, and The Gramophone will join Greenwoods' Bookshoppe and Planet Organic on 79th Avenue and Calgary Trail. Pharos Pizza will close for good.
Usually, these sorts of occasions call for a death-knell column. Yea verily, so doeth we smite ourselves when we forget!
More than a year ago, developer John Day came forward with plans to remake the Garneau Theatre Block that upset the famously organized community league and its historically minded offshoot, the Preserve Garneau society. It looked like a knockdown. Rumours, gossip and suspicion followed: what if the theatre disappeared, to make way for condos and an Olive Garden?
Then, something unprecedented happened.
"Oh we're very, very happy," Martin Kennedy, a volunteer with Preserve Garneau, said Monday. "I would like to congratulate and thank John for taking the better part of 11 to 13 months to meet with the community, and the city, to get through this process."
On June 24, Day's application to have the building designated as a historic resource will go to executive council. Robert Geldart, the city's principal heritage planner, is thrilled. Both Preserve Garneau and the community league will support his application.
"It'll ensure that he can do the development he wants to do in the commercial space, in a way that respects the historical integrity of the building and the values of our community," said Kennedy.
In short, Day worked with the community, and the city, to find a compromise that works for everyone. The retail portion of the building has lost its original design elements over the years, and Day plans to bring all of that 1940 style back in the reworked Garneau Theatre Block.
Mark Wilson, co-owner of Vivid Print, the finest and funkiest printing shop in Edmonton, is also a member of the community league. "John's redevelopments, in the past, have been very sensitive to their surroundings," he said in his store on Monday.
"He's pulled back on his original designs, and we're now certain this building will be restored to its original glory."
Like Vivid Print, The Gramophone is using this change as an opportunity to take a risk. Fine classical music will be on the new shelves south of Whyte, but even more high-end audio and video will be in the enlarged space.
"I'm really not a fan of this building," said Bryan Taylor, in the block on Monday. "If you do any travelling, you see that this really is a crappy building in many ways. It should undergo a massive makeover."
In The Gramophone, Taylor showed me his imported Italian harps and demonstrated the latest in luxury home theatre technology. High-definition space shuttle scenes were set to a big orchestral soundtrack, which was vertigo-inducing. Rosie, his border collie, pressed a large stuffed cow or pig to my leg -- hinting that I might be into some playing.
"I'm 55 and I just signed a 10-year lease," he said. "I'm going to have a staff meeting later today. My goal, now, is to have fun with the next phase of the store."
If everyone -- really, everyone -- is happy, what can go wrong?
"Well, part of what made Whyte Avenue so appealing, 20 years ago, was the mix of businesses in the area," said Wilson.
"Now the businesses are the same ones you see in any strip mall. I would hope the new tenants, in this building, suit the area."
Day, who grew up on the south side, was behind the courageous Jasper and 104th redevelopment. His reworking of the corner of Whyte and Calgary Trail, after the fire, was marvellous.
Unfortunately, few local businesses can afford the rents that marvellousness can draw. Not everyone is happy to see American chains like Starbucks, Chili's Texas Grill, Subway and Marble Slab on one of the city's iconic corners.
"Look at Pharos," said Wilson. "People have an emotional attachment to that place. Generations have eaten there, and you can't fake that. Who waxes poetic about eating at Subway? If a city loses its little quirks, it loses its appeal."
Day will officially announce his architectural renderings, and his tenants, soon.
It's difficult to imagine restaurant chains going head-to-head with High Level Diner, Sugarbowl, DaCapo and Leva, especially when it's so hard to find a parking spot (the sign of every good neighbourhood). But maybe people really like Olive Garden.
Either way, the new building will be appealing, and we'll always wax poetic about that great Mexican film we saw.
Felicitaciones to all the happy people of Garneau.
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© The Edmonton Journal 2009
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CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved.
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