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Edmontonians know it as Hawrelak Park, home of the Edmonton Heritage Festival, Silver Skate Festival and western Canada's largest outdoor amphitheatre. But before its 1975 renaming after former mayor William Hawrelak, and even before its creation in celebration of Canada's centennial in 1967, the site had a complex history.
The river valley property, known as Mayfair, was originally owned by the Strathcona Land Syndicate. Initial development plans envisioned a sprawling housing project, but the real estate crash of 1913 permanently grounded the scheme. The City gained possession of the site in 1922, though it wasn't immediately transformed for public use. For three decades, the land was earmarked for industrial purposes — first a garbage dump and then a gravel extraction and crushing facility. It wasn't until 1954 that a more holistic and inclusive use for the property was proposed, when the City pitched the idea of a public park. The adjoining 73 hectares were leased to the Mayfair Golf and Country Club.
Five years later, construction began, producing a manmade lake and a landmark pavilion structure. The Organic Modernist style buildings were heavily influenced by West Coast post and beam construction, utilizing curtain wall glazing to optimize views through the non-orthogonal edifice. Bittorf Wensley Architects designed the pavilion, which mimics the natural park setting through the organically shaped set of concrete columns, glue-laminated wood beams, and wood-shingled roof.
Their pitched roofs echoing the trees that dot the park, the pavilions are a defining feature of the popular green space, and continue to serve as a protective civic landmark 50 years after its inception.
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