Expanded BMO Centre pockets trio of architecture awards, trove of other honours

Its builders said they knew they’d constructed an engineering and esthetic marvel that’s also a crowd-pleasing destination.

But they didn’t expect the BMO Centre expansion to garner three prestigious architecture awards.

Its sweeping metal panel facade, engineering innovations and a multitude of touches that hew closely yet tastefully to the Stampede zeitgeist won the hearts of a four-member panel to win both the American and International Architecture Award from the Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design in the civic and exposition hall categories for 2024.

Along with those, it was also honoured by the European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies, whose award ceremony took place at the Acropolis in Athens, Greece last September.

“The awards represent the recognition of an amazing team and product that is second-to-none, but the team is also second-to-none,” said Kate Thompson, CEO of the Calgary Municipal Land Corp., which quarterbacked the project.

“None of the team members does this for any awards but it’s recognition for them and our city.”

Along with CMLC and the Calgary Stampede, that team was made up of Populous Stantec, S2 Architecture, O2 Planning and Design, PCL Construction, and M3 Development, which poured their efforts over several years into the 580,000 sq.-ft. expansion.

In the words of the Chicago Athenaeum, the institution is “dedicated to the recognition of excellence in architecture and urbanism from a global point-of-view … (and) pays tribute to new developments in design and underscores the directions and understanding of current cutting-edge processes consistent with today’s design thinking.”

The BMO Centre was awarded for admirably blending contemporary architecture with “textures and materials rooted in the city’s history and surrounding landscape, reflecting the bold, collaborative vision that shaped this transformational project.”

The $500-million expansion’s sleek and swooping contours are an obvious stunning external focal point, but the choices made to keep faith with the city and Stampede’s western ethos are every bit as vital, said Thompson and Stampede executive vice-president Jim Laurendeau.

“If you picked it up and moved it to another city, it wouldn’t be right,” said Laurendeau on a recent tour of the expansion, which opened its doors in June 2024.

“You see the blackened steel, the copper that give a kind of barnyard feel. This belongs in Calgary.”

Cavernous spaces like the 50,000 sq.-ft. Champions Ball have no supporting columns, leaving fully visible a lofty, horse blanket-cloaked ceiling.

On one end of the room, floor-to-ceiling windows gaze out over the city while providing copious natural lighting.

Massive doors leading into the 3,000 sq.-ft. Brand Room celebrating the Stampede’s big four founders are clad in black leather supplied by the Alberta Boot Co.

Wood, carefully charred, lines some of the room’s walls and is among the “really special touches.”

“It’s important that we use these opportunities to give these spaces their own intent,” said Laurendeau.

Said the CMLC’s Thompson: “The wood is a human scale product where people feel warm … there’s a lot of detail built into a large facility.”

“It’s about how multiple rooms relate to each other — it’s really experience-focused.”

A centrepiece is the expansive Exchange common space, anchored by what’s dubbed the country’s largest indoor fireplace aflame with a water-vapour-driven system flame topped with a copper and black steel facade that ascends more than 21 metres toward a glass ceiling.

“This room is what sells conventions in Calgary. We want it to be western but modern,” said Laurendeau.

“A huge part of the convention experience actually isn’t the sessions, it’s the spaces in between.”

Interior design elements like sound-proofing from food service activity and sensitive acoustics, to ensuring secure, private access and egress routes for VIPs were painstakingly curated, said the CMLC’s Thompson.

“It’s a beautiful building but none of that will work if it’s not functional,” she said of the new structure built on the ribs of 90,000 metric tonnes of steel.

Sprinkled throughout all of it and immediately outside are 85 pieces of locally produced art, including the teal splash of Spirit of Water crafted from 211 sections of pipe.

The two recalled the expansion’s origins — remotely held meetings necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Everything was locked down so this was designed virtually — that informed the spaces of the building, actually,” said Laurendeau.

Thompson said more than 20 people took part in virtual gatherings to plot the project’s course, one that took some considerable turns.

“It was never conceived as a three-storey building with an outdoor space (that now exists), it was to be a two-storey taking up all that space,” she said, noting the outdoor plaza beneath the building’s sweeping arm.

That was preceded by viewing other cities’ facilities, including some in Texas that pushed the cowboy theme further than the BMO expansion designers wanted, they said.

The expansion has also won awards or been highly cited in 18 other instances by construction, architecture or manufacturing institutions for categories ranging from lighting design to public accessibility to cultural excellence.

In the end, the multiple honours won by the building and its creators serve as another reason to come to Calgary to meet, work and play, said Laurendeau.

He recalled a visit from officials with the Canadian Association of Fairs and Exhibitions who were floored by the expanded BMO Centre, which now exceeds 1 million sq. ft.

“(The awards) put the word out for people around the world to use this facility,” said Laurendeau.

BKaufmann@postmedia.com

X: @BillKaufmannjrn

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