Proposal to fill in the 'little canyon' in the town's core illustrates the challenges of building in a resort town
In downtown Banff, a little building at 204 Wolf St. harkens back to the earlier days of the popular Alberta resort, before a redevelopment boom in the 1990s changed the look of the town’s downtown from humble one-storey frame buildings to upscale mountain resort architecture.
Shown here in February, 2000, this small piece of land and its existing building have remained in a time warp. While the rest of Wolf Street was redeveloped, a disagreement between the land owner and developers of the Cascade Plaza left it literally out in the cold. The plaza was built around it – surrounding the parcel on all but the street side with concrete walls.
Currently, the site is occupied by the Timbers Restaurant. Recently, Banff city council gave conditional approval for a new commercial redevelopment plan for the property. ‘If everything goes well, we may see construction in early 2013,’ says Josephine Tsu, of SDR Management of Calgary.
The proposal from SDR Management, which purchased the lot in 2004, is a new building that will result in a more harmonious streetscape while meeting Banff’s strict commercial property redevelopment rules.
In its proposed design for the property, NORR Architects reflects a mountain style while attempting to harmonize with adjacent buildings. With only 954.5 square metres of gross floor area to work – and no more – architect Ron Poon likens designing the space to “playing with a jigsaw puzzle inside a bag.”