STAMPEDE INTO THE FUTURE: The new $360 million BMO Centre opened in June with the Global Energy Show. (Courtesy venue)
Convention Center is Western Canada’s Largest
What does $500 million (CAD) get you? In the case of the new BMO Centre, which opened this month in Stampede Park in Calgary, Alberta, it’s a one-million-square-foot convention and exposition facility that can handle 33,000 people at a time — the largest of its kind in Western Canada.
The facility, designed by Populous with local partners Stantec and S2, opened in June with the Global Energy Show, attended by 30,000, before segueing into the famous Calgary Stampede July 5-14, which broke its annual attendance record with 1.47 million coming through the turnstiles.
Greg Newton, Calgary Stampede’s executive vice president of conventions and events and general manager of the BMO Centre, said he has been involved in bringing the new convention facility to fruition for 11 years, beginning with community engagement even before the design phase.
PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE: The new BMO Cenrtre’s exterior exudes the Calgary Stampede’s history and the city’s bright future, say those involved with the project. (Courtesy CMLC)
“It’s a stunning building,” he said, explaining that the main floor was open to the public during the Stampede. “People have been blown away not just by the scale, but by the finish.”
The U-shaped building hides the loading docks and when retail is fully built out there will be no view of the back of house, Newton said.
Some neighbors of Stampede Park now have postcard views of the facility, often with the tall buildings of downtown Calgary as a backdrop, he said.
But the real benefit is something Calgary has been lacking, a full-fledged convention and expo facility that can bring in global business and compete for events with the likes of Vancouver to the west and Toronto to the east, Newton said.
The facility was funded by the city, province of Alberta and federal government of Canada, said Kelly Coles, Calgary Municipal Land Corporation vice president of building and infrastructure, the agency tasked witgh developing the project.
“We had to make sure it addressed the stampede program, Coles said. “They wanted a Tier 1 facility, larger than vancouver’s,” she said. “There was just a gap in terms of the existing BMO Centre and being able to compete for bigger meetings and bigger events on the world stage. The facilities that they had didn’t meet requirements to host a number of events. There needed to be contiguous space for trade shows. We have two new halls with 65,000 square feet and 35,000 square feet, but you can open up those spaces to be contiguous. From a design perspective, it had to reflect Calgary and be for Calgary. So, the design is inspired by local geography and sculpted riverbanks, river valleys, foothills, all those things. Also, Calgary Stampede has a very long, deep, rich history and so it had to be reflective of the brand and the history in a contemporary way.”
One of the signature features of the facility is a giant fireplace, billed as the world’s largest.
“We just kind of layered into the central gathering place idea, the idea of Stampede and gathering around the hearth fire. Tthat emerged to this idea of a fireplace to really anchor the gathering space in the middle,” she said.
Michael Lockwood, senior principal with Populous, said the pandemic brought some unexpected good fortune.
“PCL was the builder, and they did a really great job getting in front of the market during the pandemic, so they were able to buy out certain aspects of the project at the right time, which allowed us to afford more than we would have,” he said. “Especially now, prices have gone up so much in the last four years that the project really was, I like to say we’re lucky, because, you know, sometimes everybody’s just lucky.”
He said that two things were paramount during the design process.
“We didn’t want to start actual architectural design until our team visited the Stampede event in July,” he said. “We started in early 2019 and our Populous design team, we had never been to the Stampede. This building is literally right in the center of the of the park and we wanted to understand the pressures of people, how many people they have. It’s over a million people in 10 days. So, those first few months were really great because we were able to just look at numbers. We were looking at the program. There was a master plan that preceded us, and a program that was more than they could afford. We worked diligently with them, just on their wish list. A lot of it was circulation, back of house space, to afford the features that are front of house customer-focused elements, things that are really the trends in the industry.”
The building faces a large plaza area and also features an outdoor space within its confines.
“The Calgary Stampede wanted this to be an international icon, but be rooted in their community, their brand. That’s incredibly tricky,” Lockwood said. “So, it was great for our team to go there in 2019. I’m so glad we were able to do that before the pandemic, because we were able to experience the high energy. The whole city comes alive when you’re on park. There are so many things going on. There’s rides spinning around, there’s the rodeo, there’s the chuck wagons, there’s just movement all the time, and so the overall expression of the building is all about capturing that energy and movement of Stampede.”
