Architect: Populous
Location: Calgary, Alberta
Completion Date: 2024
Each July, over one million people descend on Western Canada for the Calgary Stampede, one of the largest rodeos in the world. The event is hosted in Stampede park, a sprawling venue along the Elbow River home to the Scotiabank Saddledome, GMC Stadium, the Calgary Stampede Stadium, and a recently re-designed BMO Centre, the city’s premier convention center.
Designed by Populous, the new BMO Centre is clad in composite metal panels in a range of copper tones, evoking associations to barn siding and belt buckles. Likewise, the building’s sweeping form draws from a bevy of nature-inspired metaphors, referencing Alberta’s rolling hills and the Elbow and Bow Rivers that bisect Calgary.
The BMO Centre has undergone a series of additions since its original construction in the 1950s. From this sprawling complex of exhibition halls, lettered from A to F, it was determined Hall A would be demolished and a larger replacement would be designed in its place.
To head the massive project, the city tapped Populous’s Convention & Exhibition Center practice, which has extensive experience in the typology dating back to its founding in 1999. Alberta-based architecture and engineering firm Stantec also assumed a major role, serving as the prime consultant, architect of record, and MEP engineer for the project.
“For this new project, the ambition was to change the game and enter the market of big international conferences and conventions by creating tons of additional meeting room space and ballroom space that hadn’t existed in the building before,” said Léo Lejeune, vice president and education sector leader at Stantec.
Though partially commissioned to accommodate the growing attendance numbers of the Stampede, which this year boasted nearly 1.5 million attendees, the new building also serves to host events year-round, seeking to attract further conventions and events to Calgary.
Creating an architectural landmark was another objective of the redesign.
“When we were hired there was a perceived design [for the convention center]” said Adam Paulitsch, principal and design director of the Convention and Exhibition Center Practice at Populous. “The way it was presented to us was that the building would occupy all four corners of the site, built to the curb… Very quickly, we realized that this building is going to be living in the foreground of [Calgary’s] skyline for years. It can’t just be this nondescript box, it has to have some character,” he added.
To create a more distinctive shape for the structure the architects designed a top heavy volume that forfeits a large portion of its site for a public plaza. Supported from below by a 2-story plinth, the building achieves architectural distinction through its metal-clad third floor and roofline.
The facade panels’ copper color signifies numerous references to western life. According to Paulitsch, the material conjures many associations, including “the sheen of a belt buckle, the patina of a spur, a pressed penny at the State Fair.” Color variation was also introduced across horizontal segments of panels as an allusion to barn board siding.
Across its bottom floors the BMO Centre is clad in gray masonry and glass, establishing continuity with the convention center’s existing exhibition halls, many of which are faced in brick.
From above, the BMO Centre is topped by a standing seam metal roof painted the same color as the facade. Deep troughs and gutters were engineered along the edge of the roof to collect snow and rain run off.
A segment of the roofline, known at the Canopy, descends over the entrance to the building. Though it contains no actual programming on its interior, the Canopy is designed to shade and cover the entrance and can also serve as an outdoor performance venue.
From now on, the Calgary Stampede Show band, which typically performs at the entrance to the Saddledome, will play beneath the Canopy. Calgary’s Saddledome is slated for demolition pending the construction of a new stadium for the Calgary Flames, the city’s hockey team.
The $500 million project, funded in a joint effort by the municipal, provincial, and federal government, comes at a period of significant growth for Calgary. Fleeing rising rent and home prices in British Columbia and Ontario, Canadians have flocked to Calgary.
In response, the city has embarked on major revitalization efforts in its downtown, including office-to-residential conversions as well as new investments in civic and cultural infrastructure, such as the BMO Centre.
The new convention center opened in June of this year, just in time for the Stampede held earlier this month.
Project Specifications
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- Design Architect: Populous
- Architect of Record: Stantec
- Design Consultant: S2 Architecture
- Construction Management: PCL Construction
- Project Management: M3 Development Management
- Structural Engineer: RJC, MKA
- Mechanical and Electrical: Stantec
- Accessibility Consultant: Level Playing Field
- Landscape Architect: O2 Planning & Design
- Civil Engineer: Urban Systems
- Convention Venue Operations Specialist: HLT Advisory
- Curtain Wall: Ferguson
- Glazing: TVITEC
- Composite Metal Panels: Alucobond
- Composite Metal Panels Installer: Flynn Canada
- Standing Seam Roof: BEMO
- Standing Seam Roof Installer: Thermal Systems
- Precast Brick: Knelsen/Con-Steel
- Brick: Endicott
- Mason: Bear Stone Masonry
- Pavilion: Heavy
