Statement of Significance
Description of Historic Place
The Blum Residence is a one-storey with full-height basement Expressionist house set back from Shannon Road SW on a large property in the Shawnessy neighbourhood in Calgary's Southwest. The home is distinguished by its rambling massing with curved corners, flat thin-shell concrete roof and dramatic crescent-shaped full-height fieldstone supports, flanking each side of the front façade. A balcony with a low wooden balustrade lines the main storey of the house. A curved fieldstone wall and wooden flat roof garage fronts the south side and a gravel driveway lines the south end of the property. The house is situated within a context of newer 2000s houses on the west side of the cul-de-sac.
Heritage Value
The Blum Residence, built in 1963, has high style value as an exceptionally rare example of Expressionist style in a residential context in Calgary. Designed by owner Gerhard Blum, a German-born architect trained at the University of Manitoba, the Blum Residence features dynamic curvilinear sculptural massing, with four circular pods arranged in a shamrock-like composition. Originally built on a large acreage with unencumbered views of the Rocky Mountains, the organic form integrates with the rolling hills of the Foothills, in stark contrast to the angularity of the mountains. The Expressionist style, while highly varied, emerged with advances in building technology and integration of form with the natural landscape. In the Blum Residence, adaption to the rugged nature of the Rocky Mountain foothills is evident; curves and horizontality are emphasized down to the smallest details, with living spaces sandwiched between two thin shell curved concrete roofs and anchored to the land with massive crescent-shaped walls with rustic rounded fieldstone veneers. The rambling massing of the house echoes Suburban Ranch design in its low horizontality, with thoughtfully placed full-height and clerestory windows to diffuse the piercing prairie light to the interior spaces. A low-height wooden and steel pipe balustrade fronts the projecting concrete slab floor, connecting the four pods of the house into one cohesive and flowing unit. The totality of the design was well integrated into the former Foothills landscape, providing protection from the elements and framing views to the mountains through its fully glazed western elevation.
The Blum Residence is further valued for its design value, for its masterful use of thin shell concrete technology. Blum, (died 2006), who moved from Germany with his wife Irma to Calgary, Canada in 1952, was an accomplished mason, having trained as a Journeyman Mason from 1946 to 1949. He attended the University of Manitoba to become an architect, and upon graduation won the Thesis Prize for a sports complex he envisioned. After the Blums settled in Calgary, Gerhard worked for a short stint at Gilleland and Strutt from 1952 to 1953 before opening a private practice as G.A. Blum and Associates. He was responsible for designing the Kingsland Community Hall (1961) and the Summit Complex on Sulphur Mountain in Banff (1980), in addition to the Stampeder Hotel, many churches of different faiths, nursing homes and multiple modern homes. He also taught at SAIT and ZIT (Zambia Institute of Technology). The use of thin shell concrete in Modern design allowed the traditional roof forms to be manipulated into highly varied sculptural forms, as it allowed tensile forces to dissipate. As well, it permitted the architect to design large, open expanses of space, to allow for more open concept design in the interior. The expansive thin shell concrete roof and floor slab are stacked with recessed living spaces, and supported by inconspicuous round concrete columns around the building perimeter.
The Blum Residence has further symbolic value as a vestige of the area’s large lot estate parcels subdivided from the farming and ranching lands, first settled early in Calgary’s development in the 1880s. The residence is situated just west of the former hamlet of Midnapore, and along with this property, was annexed by the City of Calgary in 1961. The Blum family acquired 8.09 hectares from Nina Jeffery in 1960, in an area that was largely undeveloped, with the only access to downtown via 14 Street SW road allowance. The original quarter section was first homesteaded by Thomas Robinson, who had acquired the land in 1890. In the 1980s, the area began to be heavily redeveloped beginning with Genstar Development Company in 1981. In 1997, the Blum property was subdivided, with several thousand homes built in the area in the early 2000s. The property has retained many of its original mature conifers, and its rolling terrain, featured in the home’s design as it shifts from one storey to two storeys on the south side, to accommodate the change in elevation of the original landscape.
Character-Defining Elements
- form, scale, and massing as expressed by its: one storey massing with full-height walk-out basement; irregular plan consisting of four circular wings; main floor sandwiched and recessed between two flat concrete slabs with curved detailing supported by wooden beams and concrete columns; robust crescent-shaped walls with fieldstone veneer where the circular wings intersect; balcony with low balustrade lining front perimeter of concrete floor;
- construction materials including: concrete-frame structural system with thin shell concrete roof and floor supported by round concrete columns; rounded fieldstone veneer on curved corner walls and basement walls; concrete block foundation; wooden-frame system at each storey with narrow vertical wooden siding; wood detailing and trim; continuous balustrade with vertical wooden boards and round steel pipe sandwiched between horizontal wood top and bottom rails;
- elements of Modern Expressionist style including: design emphasizing horizontality and curves; curved sculptural form with four pods intersecting at the centre; recessed living space between lower and upper storeys; anchored to landscape with round columns; majority of windows on rear facade with few windows on public façade; entryway tucked under south façade at grade on lower storey;
- original fenestration including: large vertical and clerestory picture windows at main storey on front and sides of residence; single-assembly tall vertical windows at lower storey; full wooden-frame glazed wall on rear façade; plain wooden front door;
- additional features such as: brick and concrete block central interior chimney; flat roof garage with lapped wooden siding; enclosed former original BBQ pit round structure with fieldstone veneer with pyramidal glass roof on southwest side of house; and
- deep setbacks; associated landscaping elements including: groupings of mature coniferous and deciduous trees; curved retaining wall with rounded fieldstone veneer on southeast side of property.
Location