Key Number:	HS 54255
Site Name:	Administration Building (1931)
Other Names:	Bowker Building Provincial Government Administration Building
Site Type:	1301 - Governmental: Office or Administration Building

Location

ATS Legal Description:

			Twp	Rge	Mer
			52	24	4

Address:	9833-35 - 109 Street
Number:	33-35
Street:	109
Avenue:	98
Other:
Town:	Edmonton
Near Town:

Media

Type	Number	Date	View	Source

Architectural

Style:	Beaux Arts
Plan Shape:	Rectangular
Storeys:	Storeys: 4 or more
Foundation:	Basement/Foundation Wall Material: Concrete
Superstructure:
Superstructure Cover:
Roof Structure:
Roof Cover:
Exterior Codes:	Massing of Units: Single Detached Wings: None Wall Design and Detail: None Plain Eaves Roof Trim Material - Eaves: Unknown Roof Trim - Verges: Not Applicable Roof Trim Material - Verges: Unknown Towers, Steeples and Domes: None Dormer Type: None Chimney Location - Side to Side: None Roof Trim - Special Features: None Window - Structural Opening Shape: Flat Window - Trim Outside Structural Opening - Head: Plain Flat Window - Trim Outside Structural Opening - Sides: Plain Window - Trim Outside Structural Opening - Material: Wood Window - Sill Type: Plain Slip Sill Window - Sill Material: Wood Window - Trim Within Structural Opening - Head: Plain Window - Trim Within Structural Opening - Sides: Plain Window - Number of Sashes: One Window - Opening Mechanism: Single or Double Hung Window - Special Types: None Window - Pane Arrangements: 2 over 2 Main Entrance - Location: Not on Facade Main Porch - Type: Closed Porch Main Porch - Special Features: None Main Porch - Material: Concrete
Exterior:	Parapet with balustrades wreaths; cornice with dentils; quoined corner piers; giant order columns; bay windows and paired windows at corners; arched windows on main floor; projecting entry with paired corinthian columns. Arched entry with keystone; recessed oak doors with bronze door pulls with Alberta crest; 'A' in stained glass above entry; carved buffalo heads at entry; Indian head in keystone. Edmontonians are familiar with the exterior of the building with its light green Manitoba Tyndall limestone and the classical corinthian columns and frieze. Although built twenty-odd years later than the Legislature, this building is a similar eclectic Beaux-Arts style, utilizing the classic massing of centre pedimented pavilion flanked by simpler end pavilions.
Interior:	Oak doors, stained glass windows; marble flooring; east portico added with circular stairs, connects with Legislature's underground pedway mall; 5th floor mahogany finished conference room; corinthian ionic columns pillars, frieze work along ceiling. The main entrance leads to a large rotunda. Over the stair leading to the second storey is an heraldic stained glass window with the arms of the Province surmounted by the crown. Alberta's emblem, the wild rose, is used as the motif of the border.
Environment:	Neighbourhood: Downtown Legislative precinct. Although this building has always been a landmark at the top of the hill on 109 Street, its importance has been diminished by the parking lots adjacent and the lack of treatment to the grounds on its east side. The new landscaping of the Legislature Grounds should correct the latter and place the building in a better situation. Placement of the building close to the pavement of 109 Street has never enabled the building to develop the long views afforded to the Legislature by its setting.
Condition:	Good
Alterations:	Extra floor added; one storey addition at rear. The interior was carefully renovated in 1981 for the Solicitor General Department, and an additional storey-plus-mezzanine was unobtrusively added to the roof.

Historical

Construction:	Construction Date:
Construction Started	1931/01/01
Usage:	Usage Date:
Administration Office	1931/01/01
Owner:	Owner Date:
Provincial Government

Architect:	F.H. MacDonald
Builder:	H.G. Macdonald & Co.
Craftsman:	N/A
History:	1931 - Cost $940,000 to build 1980 - major interior renovations costing $ 7 Million took 42 months to complete. Administrator: L.A. under Shultz 427-3872. Manager: G.O. Morgan 427-3792. Building Superintendent: P. Beebe 427-7548 EJ May 4, 1949 new Admin. Bld. to be erected 8 storeys (completed 1951). Alberta's new Administration Building opened in March of 1931. A new provicial building was needed to relieve overcrowding in the Legislature and to consolidate various Government departments located downtown. The structure would also provide working quarters for the new Natural Resources Department which resulted from the transfer of natural resources from Federal Government jurisdiction to Provincial in 1931. The design of this classically-inspired structure was prepared by F.H. MacDonald of Provicial Public Works with Prof. Cecil Burgess as consulting architect. The building was erected by H.G. MacDonald and Co. of Edmonton for a cost of $900,000. Edmontonians are familiar with exterior of the building with its light green Manitoba Tyndall limestone and the classical corinthian columns and frieze. The interior is equally impressive. The main entrance leads to a large rotunda. Over the stair leading to the second storey is a heraldic stained glass window with the arms of the Province surmounted by the crown. Alberta's emblem, the wild rose, is used as the motif of the border. *** EB March 25, 1931 - terrazzo and marble tile by Empire Marble Tile. Tyndall limestone from Manitoba, granite base, steel reinforced concrete, corinthian motifs on column and frieze; 87,700 sq.ft. area. - erected to relieve overcrowding in Legislature and consolidate government departments located downtown. EJ May 4, 1949 - new Admin. Bldg. to be erected 8 storeys (completed 1951). Annual Report, p. 23 - plans prepared with Prof. C.B. Burgess as consulting architect, (p.18, 1930), tenders called in December 1929 and contract awarded in January 1930 to H.G. MacDonald. * * * BOWKER BUILDING (1931) Example of Beaux-Arts Style Cecil Burgess and Brian Woolfenden have something in common - a love of traditional architecture. Their mutual interest joined - albeit half a century apart - at the provincially-owned edifice now called the Bowker Building. Burgess, a professor of architecture at the University of Alberta, was the original consulting architect when the Bowker was erected for the princely sum of $940,00 in 1931. Woolfenden was the consulting architect when the Bowker's interior was overhauled for $7 million in 1980. Woolfenden judges the only other building of this calibre in Edmonton is the Legislature. Formerly known as the Administration Building, and also the Natural Resources Building, it is one of the few remaining examples in Edmonton of the Beaux-Arts architectural style, and one of the last to be built here. Beaux-Arts Style was derived from the academic teachings of one of the most influential of 19th century architectural institutions, the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. Features of the building include its U-shaped symmetrical plan, and the focus of design on the central pavilion. Rectangular and round-arched windows, coupled columns supporting the pediment and the ornate roof balustrade all contribute to this classical style. The Bowker is more than a last hurrah marking the end of an architectural era. Its erection symbolized the transfer of Alberta's natural resource wealth from federal to provincial jurisdiction in 1931. Much of its original price tag was applied to the exterior finish of limestone. Fifty years after it was erected, the province was able to give it an improved interior. Woolfenden was asked to renovate to modern standards, and to preserve those parts which warranted it. Only the front vestibule with its oak doors, stained glass windows, marble flooring and the washrooms remain the same. The remainder was gutted and re-built in the style of another era. Renovation highlights include a 900-square-foot east portico addition with circular staircase and centre decorative column with a fountain-burst effect achieved with jute covered with pre-cast plaster. The portico connects the building to the Legislature's underground pedestrian mall. The redesigned front foyer or rotunda incorporates a groin vault ceiling. The fifth floor features the mahogany-finished conference room with elaborate corinthian and Ionic columns and pilasters. Dentil and frieze work grace the ceiling. Woodwork throughout is mahogany. Three copies were made of the original stained glass coat of arms in the front foyer - two of which were also installed there, and the third in the fifth floor conference room. Woolfenden's appreciation of the original craftsmanship was incorporated in a myriad of interior details. All of the bronze door plates incorporate a 75 per cent reduction of the original coat of arms found on the front door escutcheons. BOWKER BUILDING (1931) Though it matches the Legislature Building in style, the Bowker Building was actually constructed in 1931, almost twenty years later, and just one year after the Art Deco Federal Public Building was designed. For Cecil Burgess, the University of Alberta architecture professor who drew up the plans for this dignified and sophisticated Beaux-Arts Style office block, historical allusions and not modernity were the main concern. Manitoba limestone, which is harder and can be more finely sculpted than sandstone, was chosen for the exterior of the Bowker Building. Especially fine are the corintian columns which circle the building, and the Alberta coat of arms and carved head of a Native man located in the open-bed pediment above the main entry. Originally costing almost $1 million to build, the Bowker Building underwent renovations and refitting in 1980 which totalled seven times that sum. A sixth floor was added to the top of the structure; clad in a copper mansard roof, this expansion is almost undetectable from the ground level.

Internal

Designation Status:	Designation Date:
Municipal A List

Register:	A51

Links

Internet:
Alberta Register of Historic Places: