With no meaningful heritage protection, the future of Calgary’s first skyscraper and its storied theatre hangs in the balance as a series of property owners duke it out in court.
When Calgary lawyer and theatre impresario Jacob Bell (J.B.) Barron set about building the city’s tallest office tower in 1949, he deliberately put a movie theatre at its heart. The Uptown would require two storeys, with a spacious lobby containing a large staircase. The theatre would have a steep rake, allowing all patrons an unobstructed view. It would have comfortable seats. It would use the finest equipment. In short, the Uptown would be the best.
Such an establishment needed a worthy edifice. To this end, Barron’s architect, Jack Cawston, layered office space atop the theatre, designing an Art Deco-style tower unlike anything Calgary had seen. From the Uptown marquee, limestone stretched skyward. Metal-framed ribbon windows and yellow brick extended horizontally from this centre. The building stepped back on the eighth floor, and almost as an afterthought, Barron added an 11th and final floor: a sunny penthouse apartment, complete with rooftop garden. He would live up there.
The $1.25-million Barron Building, completed in 1951, towered over nearby offices on 8th Avenue S.W. Petroleum companies such as Socony Vacuum (which later became Mobil Oil), Sun Oil and Halliburton bought up leases, securing some of the most prestigious office space in Calgary, which then had a population of 127,057. At street level, the Uptown sparkled with shiny black granite.
That was then. Time has eroded Barron’s vision. Today the building is caught up in numerous lawsuits; recent buyers and sellers are fighting over who owes what on the property. The current owner, a numbered company associated with private landlord Strategic Group (the firms have the same address and Strategic CEO Riaz Mamdani is the numbered company’s president), shut off the water in the building in November, citing concerns over freezing pipes. The Uptown Stage and Screen subsequently shut its doors — temporarily, it hopes — and is suing its landlord, trying to get an injunction to restore utilities. In documents filed in court, the numbered company that operates as the Uptown argues that it can’t properly heat the theatre unless the landlord heats and insulates the rest of the building. The landlord counters that it’s necessary for the Uptown to install a new heating system before the building can be redeveloped.
As the two sides duke it out in court, the storied building languishes, occupied only by the Uptown and the offices of its parent development company, which owned the tower before selling in 2007. With no meaningful heritage protection, the Barron Building’s future hangs in the balance, looking nothing so promising as what J.B. Barron envisioned for his city.
To view EVDS emeriti Dr. Michael McMordie's comments and the full article in Swerve magazine, click here.
Article by Jeremy Klaszus and photo by Todd Korol.