Corey Hart urges city to save historic gas station

[trumpethead]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

Now to find the sewing sweatshop in Calgary with the hot windswept brunettes! Beside the Regent Gas? Where is that?

I think that sweatshop is Rosedale Cleaners

[Bertuzzied]

Originally Posted by trumpethead

I think that sweatshop is Rosedale Cleaners

yup. I always thought it was in never surrender.... hahaha. shows how big of a cory hart fan i was. I've never heard of this song before.

[Hack&Lube]

Wow, did 16th Ave really use to look like that? I can barely remember now.

[Lt.Spears]

No one would see Cory cry if it got torn down because he always wears sunglasses.

[Puppet Guy]

Originally Posted by Lt.Spears

No one would see Cory cry if it got torn down because he always wears sunglasses.

I though he only wears his sunglasses at night.

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Originally Posted by Ironhorse

As someone who has travelled portions of historic Route 66, it saddens me that this city once again shows very little interest in preserving our past. Perhaps I'm just a nostalgic old fart, but I wish we as a society would preserve a few more of these unique structures. Just grabbing the sign and sticking it on an LRT station doesn't do much for me, and the history of where it came from will be lost on most people within 10 years.

I think the city does a pretty good job of preserving our past, at least the important parts.

Look at Stephen Ave, the incorporation of the King Eddy into the East Village, and all the work that's being done on the second block of the Bow to preserve...the name of the hotel escapes me right now.

Honestly, I like that the city is incorporating the Eamond's Camp sign into the C-Train station, and I think that's good enough. It's a cool old piece of vinatage signage, with that unmistakable 50's look that I think is really cool, but I wouldn't say that automaticlly qualifies it as a historic piece that absolutely needs to be preserved.

Maybe there's more to it, and that place is significan't somehow, but seeing as how I live in that neighborhood and all I know is that it's a cool old gas station, it either isn't that important, or no one is doing much of a job letting anyone know why it would be.

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by Puppet Guy

I though he only wears his sunglasses at night.

The city should do the ribbon-cutting after sun-down.

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by valo403

If they go through with the plan as shown above I think they're doing a phenomenal job of preserving the past. Keeping the entire structure is simply impractical, utilizing the most redeeming portion of it in a functional manner is an incredibly smart and progressive way to both preserve the past and make needed progress.

I'm not sure what else you would have them do, put yellow tape around it and let the structure continue to decay?

How do you know if it's impractical? The City doesn't even know the answer to that question yet.

The building itself is actually of far greater heritage significance than the sign. It's one of only a very few of this kind of roadside architecture in Canada or even North America. The builing can likely be pretty easily be restored - I recently met with one of the previous owners of the building (who at the time he owned it used it as a residence). He long had thoughts of converting it into a diner. People picking up coffee on the way to the train and a diner with ample parking on weekends when no one else is in the park and ride could do just fine in that location.

The City is now doing further due dillgence to determine if the building is structurally sound enough to move, if it can be restored, asbestos assessment, and how it might be placed back on site (and at what cost).

As a similar example, the City is moving and restoring the old Enoch Sales house (yellow currently delapitated house) that sits at 12th Avenue and 2nd Street SE in the Beltline just north of Stampede. It'll be permanently situated in a new small park fronting 2nd Street - and will have an adaptable reuse (perhaps a restaurant). These kinds of things happen fairly frequently and aren't necessarily all that difficult.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgar...-preserve.html

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by hulkrogan

That would be a pretty useless name. I'm big on transit stops giving people at least half a clue of where they are.

Although when you stop at a station named "Tuscany" you may be confused as to why you're not in Italy.

God, that's a stupid name for a community.

[jammies]

Where are the super-villains of yesteryear who would turn such a place into the top of an underground megacomplex of evil?

[trumpethead]

I thought the Eamon's Bungalow Camp sign had been demolished by the Mormons.

[trumpethead]

Originally Posted by Bunk

Although when you stop at a station named "Tuscany" you may be confused as to why you're not in Italy.

God, that's a stupid name for a community.

Italy should sue the City of Calgary for libel. How a community of 2500 cookie cutter homes built on the bald ass prairie could ever conjure up a vision of Tuscany, Italy is beyond me.

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

We don't need to preserve every piece of crap building out there just because they're older than 50 years.

Tear it down.

[Fire]

It's an old gas station. Who cares....

[Table 5]

I care....it's a funky piece of architecture and history. It's not like this city has a lot of stellar history to protect, so we might as well save what we have. We've already torn down some amazing things in this city in the name of "progress". At some point it would be nice to have more than just one street downtown that has some historic value.

[Clarkey]

The fact that it's been surrounded by an amoeba of nondescript suburbia and excess vehicle inventory only furthers to highlight this building as an architectural oasis. I understand that it has to go away but I'll be thankful every time I drive buy until that day comes. At on point I imagine it was an important stop half way between Calgary and Cochrane.

[Clarkey]

[Bertuzzied]

Originally Posted by Clarkey

Are those Psycho motel suites on the left?

[Jimmy Stang]

I'd like to see the building saved in one form or another. Just because something is "only" 60 or so years old, that doesn't mean that it is void of historical significance. It is architecturally unique and is a part of the local history.

There may be reasons that make saving it impractical, and I understand that. But at the very least, the city should be a little more creative than just defaulting to bulldoze mode. If it is able to be restored and incorporated into the plan for the area, there's no reason that it can't become a little cafe (as already suggested) that can even sell some snacks, drinks, newspapers and other commuter-targeted items.

And, one of the previous owners is quoted as saying that he'd even be interested in restoring it himself.

I just can't see any good reason, aside from a lack of creative thinking, that this building can't be part of the area once the LRT arrived. Pending, of course, the asbestos and structural assessment.

Speaking of asbestos, it surely must be an option to clean the asbestos from it, if present. If the whole thing needs to be restored a bit anyway, why couldn't that fall within the scope of the restoration?

[Lt.Spears]

Originally Posted by Handsome B. Wonderful

We don't need to preserve every piece of crap building out there just because they're older than 50 years.

Tear it down.

Don't you mean "Blow it up"