Guest Post: Calgary Modern Churches
Written by Dr. Graham Livesey, Professor in the Master of Architecture Program (School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape) at the University of Calgary.
Within the many communities developed in Calgary during the 1950s and 1960s were shopping plazas, schools, and churches. Schools and churches in these communities were typically designed as works of modern architecture by local firms, and often provide very distinctive examples of the period.
St. Andrew’s United Church, 924 Heritage Drive SW, Calgary.
In many cases the modern churches in Calgary are simple and inexpensive interpretations of traditional church models. In other cases, the architects created more unique expressions for religious worship and community gathering. Heritage Calgary has done an exemplary job of adding many of the city’s most notable modern churches to the Inventory of Evaluated Historic Resources (the Inventory). These include:
St. Andrew’s United Church, 924 Heritage Drive SW (Bill Boucock Associates), 1961-69
St. James Catholic Church, 5504 – 20 Street SW, 1966
Canadian Martyrs Catholic Church, 835 Northmount Drive NW (Stevenson Raines Barrett Hutton Seton & Partners), 1967
St. Luke’s Catholic Church, 1566 Northmount Drive NW (Cohos, Delesalle & Evamy), 1964-68
Our Lady Queen of Peace Roman Catholic Church, 2111 Uxbridge Drive NW (John Hondema), 1968
Canadian Martyrs Catholic Church, 835 Northmount Drive NW, Calgary.
Of these, the Canadian Martyrs Catholic Church and Our Lady Queen of Peace Roman Catholic church are particularly excellent examples. The first is by one of Calgary’s most prolific post-WWII architecture firms and features striking forms in brick. The second is by John Hondema, a relatively unknown architect whose central plan design supports a landmark roof shape. Hondema also designed the remarkable Kalbfleisch Residence (1967) in St. Andrews Heights, which is also on the Inventory.
Detail from Our Lady Queen of Peace Roman Catholic Church steeple, 2111 Uxbridge Drive NW, Calgary.
Another unusual religious project on the Inventory features a dramatic roof, designed by the Calgary-born architect Joseph Keily English (1923-2010):
St. Joseph’s Parish Centre (Scandinavian Centre), 20 Avenue NW (J.K. English), 1960
After training in Winnipeg, English returned to Alberta where he practiced in Edmonton and Calgary. During the 1950s and 1960s he designed many churches throughout the province, often experimenting with glulam structures and unusual roof shapes. In Calgary, his designs include Faith Lutheran Church (1955) and Holy Name Catholic Church (1959). English also designed schools and other building types. Eventually he settled in Nanton; a more detailed history of his career can be found at www.jkenglish-architecture-project.com.
St. Luke’s Catholic Church, 1566 Northmount Drive NW, Calgary.
There are a number of excellent examples of modern churches in Calgary that are not currently on the Inventory. These include:
St. Pius X Roman Catholic Church, 2424 - 24 Avenue NW, 1963
Glenmore Temple, Salvation Army, 921 – 68 Avenue SW
St. Thomas More Catholic Church, 15 Templebow Road NE
A very distinctive, somewhat later church is:
St. Stephen’s Protomartyr Ukrainian Catholic Church, 4903 – 45 Street SW (Radoslav Zuk and Hugh McMillan), 1979-82
St. Stephen’s Protomartyr Ukrainian Catholic Church, 4903 – 45 Street SW, Calgary. Image from the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Edmonton.
This is one of a series of Ukrainian Catholic churches designed across the country by McGill University architecture professor Radoslav Zuk. Born in the Ukraine and educated at McGill (graduating in 1956), Zuk worked in Montreal and London before completing a Master’s degree at MIT. He taught at the University of Manitoba in the early 1960s, before returning to McGill, where he is now an emeritus professor. As an architecture student at McGill during Prof. Zuk’s tenure, I fondly remember his ascerbic and rigourous teaching methods. His church designs include three surviving Ukrainian Catholic churches in Winnipeg (1963-1965) and the Holy Eucharist Ukrainian Catholic Church (1967) in Toronto. Each of the designs is a modern interpretation of a traditional Ukrainian Catholic church and the use of multiple domes. Zuk’s design for St. Stephen’s segments a dome into four to create three clustered towers over the east end, and a tower signaling the entrance. Zuk (and the local Hugh McMillan firm) won a 1986 Governor General’s Award for St. Stephen’s church, the highest design award for architecture in Canada.
Because of the relative freedom that a modern church design provides to an architect, there is an opportunity to explore unusual building forms. This is the case with Calgary’s best modern church designs.
Graham Livesey is a Professor in the Master of Architecture Program (School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape) at the University of Calgary. He has written and edited extensively on modern architecture and urbanism, with two books of essays (including the recently published Ecologies of the Early Garden City) and two large architectural anthologies for Routledge. He is also the co-editor (with Elsa Lam) of the book Canadian Modern Architecture, 1967 to the Present published by Princeton Architectural Press in 2019. Livesey is a regional correspondent for Canadian Architect magazine. In 2019 he was elected to the College of Fellows of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. Graham has served as a board member of Heritage Calgary since 2019.