TRIAD BUILDING

Firm: Rule Wynn and Rule

Address: 535 7 Avenue SW

Date of final plans: 1955

Status: standing as built

The Triad Oil Company Limited was founded in November 1951 as a merger of Triad Leases Limited, Lease 64 Limited, and Quadra Leases Limited. The merged companies were each founded in 1949, and E. H. Tanner (of the Tanner Building) was president of all three. When it began operating, it had 16 producing wells in the Redwater area.

In 1953 British Petroleum purchased a minority stake in Triad, and in the subsequent years continued to increase its holdings. On 8 May 1970, Triad shareholders voted to rename the company BP Oil and Gas Limited. The change took effect 1 July 1970.

The Triad Building was announced in September 1955. The plans called for a three-storey building that could be expanded to eight storeys. However, the addition was never built. In 1971 BP moved into the new Royal Bank Building. The Triad Building was then taken over by Westburne Industries and became known as the Westburne Building.

The building looks mostly original today.