When Gail Anderson moved from an apartment to a nearby home four decades ago, she didn’t know what type of plants would thrive in her new abode.
So, she called the Calgary Zoo, told them about her large indoor atrium and sought advice from the organization’s botanical garden experts.
Today, the mature greenery in Anderson’s tropical garden serves as an urban sanctuary and provides an unusual juxtaposition during Calgary’s dark winter months.
The atrium is just one of several innovative features of Anderson’s unusual abode, which sits on a steep hilltop property in Upper Mount Royal.
It’s only 41 years old, but Anderson has applied to have her home designated a municipal historic resource — a title that would protect the building in perpetuity so future owners can’t demolish the structure or complete dramatic renovations.
Gail Anderson, the owner of a 1975 “West Coast Modern-Style” home, is applying to have her residence named as a historic resource.
“We need to preserve more of our architecture in Calgary,” Anderson said. “We’ve had a history of just knocking down what’s there and it’s still happening.”
The residence is already listed as having “citywide” significance on Calgary’s Inventory of Evaluated Historic Resources.
While friends have cautioned Anderson a historic designation could deter future buyers and lessen the home’s value, the 77-year-old is adamant the property should be protected.
The Anderson Residence made the cover of Alberta’s Western Living in October 1977.
“(The designation) is one way of respecting the architects who’ve done creative and original work in Calgary,” she said.
Anderson’s home, officially called the Anderson Residence in city documents, is a one-storey wood-framed house with a full-height walkout basement that was completed in 1975 and designed by architect Bill Boucock. The structure has won awards and was featured on the cover of a 1977 issue of Alberta’s Western Living.
After discovering the empty property on a walk in the neighbourhood, Anderson and her husband bought the land in 1974 for about $9,000 from a seller who had struggled to get rid of the narrow, steep lot.
Anderson was familiar with Boucock’s work and asked him to design a house that incorporated a tropical atrium and maximized sunlight and stunning downtown views.
Boucock came back with a concept that was way over budget, Anderson recalled, then he started over and introduced features like the large roofline and supporting rustic trusses to cut costs.
Anderson loved the result, and as the home was being constructed, she walked by daily and watched her future residence take shape.
The structure’s design is heavy on wood and said to highlight the interrelationship between building and nature. The home is considered a significant example of the late West Coast Modern architectural-style in Calgary.
The design is focused around the central interior garden, and the structure’s features include a dramatic sky-lit roof, exaggerated exposed beams, a wraparound balcony and a plethora of natural sunlight.
Gail Anderson is applying to have her residence named as a historic resource.
Anderson, a prominent figure in Alberta’s arts and cultural scene, who served on Calgary’s Public Art Board and worked as a librarian and educator, said she’s not the only person who loves her unusual home.
“The amazing thing is the range of people who like it. If I have an electrician or a plumber come, even the police, they just stop and say, ‘Oh, wow. Is this ever a cool house,’” she said. “It has an appeal to a very wide range of people.”
City council’s planning and urban development committee is scheduled to discuss the historic designation on Wednesday.
The request comes after council unanimously passed a bylaw early last year to formally designate an Elboya home built in 1954 as a municipal historic resource.
The request came from homeowners Michael Kurtz and Jennifer McColl, who believed their house was worth protecting because it was one of only 11 built across the country as part of the Trend House Program in the 1950s.
The couple’s home, nicknamed the chicken coop by neighbours but officially known as the Calgary Trend House, is considered a nationally significant example of Modernist-style architecture.
