Project Summary

The City of Calgary initiated a major rehabilitation of the exterior heritage fabric of its Royal Calgary Historic City Hall. The goal of the lighting portion of the project was to celebrate the importance of this landmark and help it stand out in a busy downtown streetscape. The lighting had to authentically render the sandstone facade, with an opportunity to use curated coloured light for events and holidays. The original heritage lighting design had no façade lighting prior to the rehabilitation – only newel posts at the stairs and post mounted general lighting. A new detailed lighting design raises the visibility of the Historic City Hall to befit its position in the nightscape of the city and reveals its celebrated architecture.

A layered lighting design reveals and enhances the heritage characteristics of the sandstone structure. Given small setbacks on an urban site and a highly textured stone façade, care was taken to bring light from multiple angles, to prevent harsh shadowing and a haunted house effect. A full portfolio of fixture distributions from asymmetrical wallwash to narrow spot are used for grazing, washing, and floodlighting surfaces and details. In the baseline condition, a warm white colour temperature highlights the richness of the stonework while distinguishing the building from the modern surrounding architecture.

The integration of many layers of modern infrastructure into the building’s heritage fabric was a major project challenge. Custom mounting details were carefully coordinated to minimize penetrations to historic materials. Light is used to highlight character defining elements from in-grade, bollard, post mounted, and building mounted locations.

Completed with the talented teams at EVOQ and Lemay+Toker, the project has achieved awards for urban design and heritage conservation, helping to reinvigorate a key landmark in the centre of the city of Calgary.

 

Responding to the Complexity of the Project: 
  • A challenging urban site beside the LRT heightened project complexity, demanding inventive mounting strategies to fully showcase and protect the heritage architecture.
  • To preserve the building for future generations, lighting was carefully integrated with gutter and cornice details, and mounted to grout lines, preventing damage to masonry.
Lighting Concept:
  • The central clocktower anchors the lighting hierarchy, while cornices, cupolas, and parapets receive a secondary highlight. Surrounding walls are softly washed revealing texture and scale.
  • The baseline white colour temperature was chosen carefully to complement the warm tone of the stone, responding to the Calgary Urban Design Guidelines.
Controls Concept:
  • Lighting system is dynamic colour changing, addressed in 1’ increments to participate in festive city events. Default setting is a warm white state.
Integration:
  • Custom colour matched carrier hardware and modified brackets were integrated into each mounting location, to facilitate grout line mounting, preserving heritage stonework.
  • Custom bollards protect luminaires and maintain aiming in a busy urban site and a snowy climate, reducing maintenance burden on the building owner.
Visual Comfort:
  • Contrast ratios were carefully controlled to direct attention to architectural features, with a soft wash on surrounding surfaces to prevent harsh contrast.
Energy & Environmental Design:
  • Night sky preservation was essential, achieved with careful fixture placement, shielding, beam selection and aiming.
Impact:
  • This work restores an iconic civic national, provincial and municipal heritage landmark, “to a condition intended to serve Calgary for another 100 years.”
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