Description of Historic Place

Heritage Hall – Southern Alberta Institute of Technology National Historic Site of Canada is a large, three-storey, early 20th-century college building prominently situated on the brow of the Bow River valley, which provides a panoramic view of downtown Calgary. Constructed in the Collegiate Gothic style in red brick with sandstone trim, it speaks to the growth of educational institutions in Canada in the early 20th century. The site is now part of a large institutional campus. Official recognition refers to the building on its footprint.

Heritage Value

Heritage Hall - Southern Alberta Institute of Technology was designated a national historic site of Canada in 1987 because of:
- its place in the development of vocational education in Western Canada.

Heritage Hall - Southern Alberta Institute of Technology is associated with the growing need for a larger skilled workforce, which had become a pressing challenge for Canadian educators and legislators during the early 20th century. Alberta addressed this need at the post-secondary level with the establishment of its Provincial Institute of Technology and Art in 1916. One of three original buildings at the Institute, Heritage Hall, was constructed between 1921 and 1922 to accommodate both the Institute and the Calgary Normal School. Equipped with specialized training facilities accommodated in an imposing Collegiate Gothic structure, the Institute heralded the inception of advanced technical education in this region of the country.

Source: Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, Minutes, June 1987.

Character-Defining Elements

The key elements that contribute to the heritage character of this site include:
- the prominent North Hill location on the brow of the Bow River valley overlooking downtown Calgary;
- the campus setting of the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology;
- its three-storey, rectangular massing under a flat roof;
- the use of the Collegiate Gothic style as symbolic of educational institutions of the day, with its typical rectangular massing with central frontispiece flanked by towers and lateral wings ending in pavilions, as well as the use of stylistic motifs including defensive and religious motifs of medieval origin including crenellation, battlements, towers, pinnacles, regular placement of the doors and windows, the large Tudor-arched central entrance, brick piers, stone banding, stone sills and lintels, carved decoration, most notably the Alberta provincial crest, and decorative hardware;
- the rich interior detailing common to major public spaces such as features and finishes including the oak doors, maple banisters, terrazzo floors and spiral staircases within the towers;
- the contemporary steel and concrete construction;
- evidence in the functional plan of its use as an educational building.