Iron Works Building

[Daveography]

The city is aggressively working to spare an historic property downtown from a date with the wrecking ball.
Councillors voted in favour of a notice to designate the former Edmonton Iron Works building on 96 Street near 104 Avenue as a historic property last week, even though the owner wants to tear the building down.

Typically, the city has only placed historic designations on properties with the owner’s co-operation, but Edmonton's chief planner, Peter Ohm, said that stance is changing.

“Some members of council have expressed frustration on the ability of us to retain historic properties,” Ohm said. “We’re in this situation where they have asked us to explore more ways.”

Full Story (Metro Edmonton)

 

[Daveography]

City of Edmonton takes rare step to save historic Iron Works building
It’s been part of the Boyle Street community for more than 100 years and now, the City of Edmonton is taking steps to try and prevent the Edmonton Iron Works building from being torn down.

The building dates back to 1909 and is credited with producing parts for some of Edmonton’s major structures.

“It’s one of our last remaining examples of industrial architecture,” Peter Ohm, chief planner with the City of Edmonton, said.

But last month, the owners of the building applied for a permit to have it torn down. In hopes of avoiding the wrecking ball, city council has gone against the owner’s wishes and applied to have the site designated a historic property.

The decision to seek historic designation comes after negotiations with the owner to expropriate the property broke down.

Full Story (Global Edmonton)

 

[Daveography]

Edmonton gets scrappy in its fight to preserve the Iron Works as a heritage building
For the first time in living memory, Edmonton is fighting to save a heritage building against the owners’ consent and it has some wondering if the city finally found a backbone.

“I hope so. We’ve been pushing them to get scrappy,” said Coun. Ben Henderson, after council recently voted unanimously to issue a formal notice of intent to designate the Iron Works at 10415 96 St.

“The number of really important buildings we’ve lost in the last three or four years has been really frustrating.”

Full Story (Edmonton Journal)

 

[archited]

I love this building and it should be saved and repurposed (even if part of a larger development). I like these scaled-up developments that (at least) include historical contextual structures as a component of there overall designs.

 

[MCXavierL]

Permit Type
Major Development Permit
Permit Class
Class A
Permit Date
May 17, 2021
Status
Approved
Description of Development
To construct exterior alterations to an existing Professional, Financial and Office Support Services Use building (rehabilitation of the Edmonton Ironworks building).
Address
10419 - 96 STREET NW

 

[Edmcowboy11]

Hmmmm, curious what is planned?

 

[IanO]

Did that site transact or is this COE driven?

Either way very positive!

 

[CaptainBL]

Would be cool to see that turned into a brewery or something. Cold Garden in Calgary comes to mind as something similar but I recognize the area itself isnt necessarily a draw. That said everything has to start somewhere.

 

[IanO]

Totally. Hey Alley Kat... fine a more interesting location!

 

[Avenuer]

Permit Type
Major Development Permit
Permit Class
Class A
Permit Date
May 17, 2021
Status
Approved
Description of Development
To construct exterior alterations to an existing Professional, Financial and Office Support Services Use building (rehabilitation of the Edmonton Ironworks building).
Address
10419 - 96 STREET NW

The City has submitted their DP to begin rehabilitation of the building (repointing bricks, removing redundant fixtures, etc.). GEC Architecture is leading the design work.

 

[_Citizen_Dane_]

Clark Builders has their signs up all around the building, so I guess they're the ones working on it. Here's some pictures from late last week:

 

[Guy 1]

I remember going on a site walk of this probably 4 years ago. It was very nasty in there at the time - a lot of hazardous/unknown stuff to be cleaned up. Glad they're doing it though!

 

[MCXavierL]

About $6 million was approved by Council for this project back in June.

Description from the Capital Profile Report:

The Iron Works Building Rehabilitation is an adaptive re-use project that renovates the 1909 Iron Works Foundry and the north and south annexes into a facility that can be leased to tenants. As a cornerstone of the overall Boyle Renaissance revitalization effort, the building architecture will be maintained and infrastructure and services reestablished to suit a number of potential uses and includes the historical designation of the original Foundry building. Phase 1 of the project includes design and construction of repairs to the building envelope. Phase 2 includes design for full building rehabilitation and other work as necessary to facilitate future Phases

 

[IanO]

It could become our coolest leasable space in the city.

 

[Avenuer]

The Edmonton Arts Council is likely to be the tenant for the renovated building from what I hear.