Description of Historic Place

The Lougheed Block consists of two structures: a pre-First World War, mixed-use commercial building (the Lougheed Building) built in an L-shape around the adjoining Sherman Grand Theatre. The designation applies only to the Lougheed Building, a six-storey steel and concrete example of the Chicago Style clad with brick and sandstone. It occupies portions of nine lots on the northerly edge of the historic commercial centre of downtown Calgary.

Heritage Value

The heritage value of the Lougheed Building lies in its representation of Calgary's tremendous commercial growth prior to World War One. An excellent example of the Chicago Style of commercial architecture, the building served as a major centre of commercial activity for most of the twentieth century, and was home to some of Alberta's most important political organizations and business empires.

Completed in 1912, the building is significant for its design and construction. The choice of the imposing Chicago Style asserted a confidence about Calgary's urban growth and ability to compete with the metropolitan centres of the East. The Lougheed Building was one of the first buildings in Alberta to use reinforced concrete and one of the first designed for multiple uses: retail space on the first floor, office space and residential floors above. Renovations in the 1940s, including a marquee and a larger lobby, provided an appropriately glamorous entrance to the Grand Theatre in the heyday of movie-going. One of the few remaining examples of this style of architecture in Calgary, it is a familiar landmark in downtown Calgary.

Heritage value also resides with the direct association with the original owner, Senator James A. Lougheed, a prominent lawyer, landowner, and member of Calgary's business elite who was later knighted. The building has housed such influential tenants as the United Farmers of Alberta, United Grain Growers, and Calgary Petroleum Products.

Source: Alberta Culture and Community Spirit, Historic Resources Management Branch (File: Des. 2035)

Character-Defining Elements

The heritage value of the Lougheed Building lies in such character-defining elements as:
- L-shaped form and massing;
- brick and sandstone cladding;
- prominent corner location;
- glazed light wells between the Lougheed Building and former Grand Theatre.

Key elements of the exterior such as:
- Chicago Style with the elevation divided into three distinct vertical zones;
- ground level large display windows; recessed store entrances; pilaster patterns defining ground floor storefront bays;
- theatre entrance on the west elevation and theatre exit on the north elevation;
- intermediate floors with grid-like fenestration pattern consisting of paired one-over-one, single-hung windows with sills and lintels; giant order brick pilasters with inserted fixed windows on top two floors;
- external steel exit stairs;
- small windows on top floor reflective of residential use and different coloured "graining" on window trim;
- attic section;
- penthouse.

Key elements of the interior such as:
- theatre entrance foyer and exit corridor spaces;
- remnants of ceiling and wall ornamental plaster and marble for the entrance foyer;
- marble walls, tile flooring, and wood doors with clerestory glazing in the second floor office halls and elevator lobby;
- historic hardware, transoms and sidelights, and terrazzo flooring;
- central staircase with original ornamental metal railings;
-connections between the two units, i.e. Lougheed Building and Grand Theatre.