MEDICAL CENTRE BUILDING

Firm: J. Stevenson and Associates

Address: 906 8 Avenue SW

Date of final plans: August 1957

Status: altered byond recognition

The Medical Centre Building was the second large clinic built downtown after Jack Cawston's Medical Arts Building. It was one of three buildings Stevenson designed using a near identical concept of an office block with an offset and setback core to the left side. The other members of this trio were the Royal Trust Building and the unbuilt Tankoos Yarmon Building. When constructed, the building was four storeys with provision for an additional two. The fifth and sixth floors were completed around 1966, and at this time a brutalist cornice was added. The model below shows the full six floors, albeit without the cornice, which was incongruous with the original design. Around 1970 the building was expanded by 250 feet to the west.

In 2010, the University of Calgary purchased the building, stripped it back to its skeleton, and gave it a new cladding. There is no trace of the original design left and the new building is quite an eyesore.