Who We Are
HERITAGE CALGARY IS A CHARITABLE CIVIC PARTNER OF THE CITY OF CALGARY FOCUSED ON THE RESEARCH, EDUCATION, AND PRESERVATION OF OUR SHARED HERITAGE IN CALGARY.
Our Mission
To embrace and keep space for the stories of this place.
Responsibility:
Our Vision
A city that understands and values its diverse heritage.
Our Values
• We are pragmatic stewards and trusted advisors. We find creative and practical ways to appreciate, protect and promote Calgary’s heritage resources.
Collaboration:
• We work together with the community to honour and share our heritage resources. We build lasting relationships for long-term impact.
Inclusion:
• Our heritage is a richly woven fabric of the sites, structures, landscapes, and stories of all people who call Calgary home. We work for the good of all Calgarians: past, present, and future.
Pride of Place:
• We believe our heritage resources connect us to our rich history and improve our quality of life. Our heritage creates a sense of belonging to a place with deep community roots.
Priorities
1. Impactful Programs
• Our programs play a vital role in promoting Calgary’s heritage and creating a sense of pride and belonging among Calgarians.
• We will develop and offer innovative programs that showcase Calgary’s heritage resources and contribute to the city’s economic, social, and climate resilience.
2. Capacity Building
• Building strong capacity to design and deliver heritage programs is essential for our success.
• We will develop and leverage the necessary expertise, resources, and infrastructure to deeply understand and demonstrate the value of Calgary’s heritage.
3. Community Engagement
• Building a strong sense of community and enhancing the quality of life for all Calgarians is a fundamental objective of Heritage Calgary.
• We will foster community involvement and participation in heritage conservation and appreciation efforts.
The Inventory of Evaluated Historic Resources
The Inventory of Evaluated Historic Resources is the cornerstone of Heritage Calgary’s mission to embrace and keep space for the stories of this place. It is a list of sites that have been identified as possessing significant heritage value, and whose preservation is considered to be to the greater benefit of Calgarians.
Inclusion on the Inventory is a formal acknowledgement of heritage value, and in most cases does not extend legal protection to the property, nor does it regulate the property. It is, however, the first step toward obtaining legal designation if a property owner wishes to pursue that.
Municipal legal designation falls under the purview of the City of Calgary and is managed through municipal bylaw. Legal designation includes the character defining elements of a particular site that are considered to be of heritage value. It prevents the demolition of a building and guides the property owner as to how to make sympathetic alteration. In exchange for agreeing to protect character
defining elements, property owners may be eligible to receive incentives, and/or grant funding to assist in the restoration, rehabilitation, or preservation of the property.
To be listed on the Inventory a resource must meet one or more of the following value criteria:
Activity
Event
Institution
Person/people
Construction
Landmark
Symbolic
To qualify for the Inventory, resources must also have integrity with respect to location, design, environment, materials, workmanship, and association, and must not have had major changes that have destroyed or compromised their essential character.
IDENTIFY
Potential Inventory resources are nominated by property owners, Heritage Calgary (HC), the City, Communities, and heritage advocates.
Inventory candidates are presented to the Board for final approval.
Potential Inventory Resources are assessed by HC and the City of Calgary Heritage Planners to determine eligibility for listing on the Inventory.
HC and City of Calgary Heritage Planners review researcher’s work to make edits and recommend revisions to ensure alignment with Provincial and National Standards and Guidelines.
The approved resource is added to the on-line Inventory of Evaluated Historic Resources, including public information about the resource.
LEGEND MANAGEMENT
INVENTORY OF HISTORIC RESOURCES
RESOURCE ON THE INVENTORY no legal protections eligible for formal designation approximately 900 resources
Municipal Historic Resource (MHR) formally designated
demolition prohibited, heritage elements regulated approximately 105 resources
THE INVENTORY
CONTRACT & RESEARCH
A professional researcher is contracted to research and evaluate the resource through site visits, photo documentation, owner interviews, and archival research.
DESIGNATION AS MHR
The City Registers the Bylaw on the Land Title in question, as per the Historic Resources Act.
COUNCIL
VOTES
Council either passes or rejects the Bylaw to designate the Property as an MHR
INVENTORY OF HISTORIC RESOURCESHERITAGE CALGARY
MHR DESIGNATIONCITY OF CALGARY
PROPOSED BYLAW
The City Prepares the required paperwork, including the proposed Bylaw, and confirms the Bylaw content with the property owner.
REQUEST DESIGNATION
The property owner submits a written request to designation their property.
TEMPORARY DESIGNATION
The City issues a “Notice of Intention to Designate” to the property owner and notifies Council. At this point the historic resource is temporarily designated for 120 days. Council is required to wait 60 days to pass the designation Bylaw, as outlined in the Historical Resources Act.
HERITAGE REVIEWS REQUEST
The City reviews the property and its Stations of Significance to determine if sufficient historical elements exist. This includes a site visit and updated photo documentation.
Our Programs
Historian in Residence
The Historian in Residence program is a six-month community engagement residency that supports historians and researchers working in any genre related to Calgary’s (Moh’kins’tsis’) social, cultural and built history.
The 2024 Historian in Residence was Tess McNaughton. Tess specialized in queer and women’s history, and aims to create a dedicated queer history archive, commemorating overlooked stories of these marginalized communities. Through previous research, Tess found women have faced systemic barriers and been excluded in history.
The Historian in Residence is presented in partnership with the Calgary Public Library.
Self-Guided Walking Tours
Heritage Calgary has created a series of walking tours for those who wants to get out and explore their communities.
The tours are self-directed and can be explored from any point on the map. These tours include:
• Inglewood Walking Tour
• Cliff Bungalow-Mission Walking Tour
• Scarboro & Sunalta Walking Tour
• Chinatown Walking Tour
Heritage Calgary has several walking tours available for public and private events. If you are interested and looking for more information visit our website at heritagecalgary.ca
Plaque Program
Since 1992, Heritage Calgary (formerly the CHA) and previous City heritage organizations have been placing plaques to recognize important heritage sites and allow Calgarians to learn about our heritage resources.
The plaque program is open to sites and properties that are listed on the Inventory of Evaluated Historic Resources. To date, Heritage Calgary’s plaque program has recognized over 100 inventory sites.
Heritage Conservation in Calgary - Progress Snapshot 2024
Strategic Vision
Through the 2008 Calgary Heritage Strategy, Council established a municipal vision “as a Canadian leader in historic preservation”, with identified stakeholders, goals, and actions to achieve this vision. The following is a snapshot of The City of Calgary’s progress on the Strategy’s identified action items, including the following major accomplishments:
• Establishment of the Historic Resource Conservation Grant Program in 2012—systematizing funding for heritage resources.
• Approval of the City-Owned Historic Building Management Strategy in 2011 (RE&DS) and Cultural Landscape Strategic Plan in 2012 (Calgary Parks).
• Launch of the online Inventory of Evaluated Historic Resources —among the best of its kind in North America. Updated to a GIS platform in 2021
Approval of the Calgary Heritage Strategy introduced a set of three principles: Identify, Protect, and Manage. A successful overall approach to heritage conservation requires attention to all three of these principles. The below information provides a high-level ‘snapshot’ of current progress towards Calgary’s heritage conservation vision.
How is Calgary doing?
Identify
• The Inventory of Evaluated Historic Resources has over 970 listings, including built structures, public boulevards, parks, bridges, and commemorative listings for demolished or decommissioned sites.
• In 2024 Heritage Calgary received over 50 nominations for Inventory consideration. Our evaluation budget typically allows approx. 35 annual evaluations.
• Using the Council-approved framework in the Tools and Incentives report, concentrations of heritage assets have been reviewed as part of the Riley, Westbrook and West Elbow Communities Local Area Plans. Heritage Guideline Areas were previously approved in the North Hill Communities Local Area Plan.
Protect
• Designations are owner driven, and Heritage Planning works with owners of qualifying heritage resources to create Council-approved designation (protection) bylaws that will safeguard Calgary’s heritage resources for future generations.
• As of year-end 2024, there were 163 sites legally protected as Municipal Historic Resources including 26 public boulevards.
• An additional 12 heritage resources have been protected by legal agreements with The City of Calgary, negotiated as part of comprehensive development projects.
Manage
• The City will be working to implement a 2-year pilot program for property tax relief to designated Municipal Historic Resources in 2025 and 2026.
• After adjustment to accommodate the Councildirected Rezoning for Housing, implementation of the proposed Heritage Incentive Area is continuing as part of the new Zoning Bylaw
• The first Direct Control Heritage Area was approved in Bankview
• As of year-end 2024, the Conservation Grant Program has issued $5.7 million to-date in matching grant funds, generating a total local investment of $11.5 million conserving Calgary’s heritage resources— engaging local consultants and trades who specialize in this field.
