Project celebrates century homes

Calgary’s first building boom, in the years leading up to the start of the First World War, was led by land speculation, says a historian.
“The boundaries of the city had extended way in excess of settlement,” says Max Foran, a historian and professor at the University of Calgary.
“I read where a plot in present-day Cambrian Heights was bought in 1912 and the guy hung onto it for 40 years. When Cambrian Heights was opened up in the 1950s, the price (of the land) was exactly the same. That’s how much the price was inflated.”
People were coming to Calgary in droves and some of those homes are still standing today.
Century Homes Calgary is a project to celebrate the homes from the city’s first building boom.
“We’re trying to preserve the traditional streetscapes,” says celebration co-ordinator Marilyn Williams. “This is one way of engaging people and creating awareness.”
There were 13,011 building permits issued during the pre-First World War boom. Permits signal the intention to begin construction, not whether it was actually carried out.
Williams expects most of the homes were built, but there is no inventory of century homes in Calgary, so it’s hard to say how many are still standing.
At the very least, about 360 houses are now registered for the centennial celebration (visit centuryhomes.org).
Today, Calgary is experiencing its second-biggest population boom in 20 years, with almost 30,000 people moving here between April 2011 and the same month this year.
Curiously, the Romans grappled with some of the same building headaches 2,000 years ago that Calgary is facing today.
Land in Rome was becoming a premium, just like it is in Calgary today, forcing buildings to expand up instead of out.
Rome contained about a million people in 100 BC and Calgary hit 1.1 million people in 2011.
“From 100 BC to 200 AD was the heyday of Roman apartment buildings,” says Lea Stirling, a classics professor at the University of Manitoba.
Apartment buildings in Roman times were built to a height of about 16 floors, with the lower floors made of brick, stone and concrete, changing to stick frame at the higher elevations, presumably to save on weight.
Today, the view from the top floor of an apartment complex commands a premium price.
The penthouse apartment in The River, a luxury tower and townhouse condo complex being built in Mission, sold in May for a Calgary condo sales record of $8.99 million.
Technology has turned the value of the penthouse on its head. Without elevators, the rents in Roman times provided diminishing returns the higher the floor.
The more expensive rooms were on the lower floors. The truly wealthy, of course, lived in single family homes with slave dwellings, says Stirling.
The density increase in Rome led to problems.
“In the great fire of Rome in AD 64, more than half of the city was destroyed and probably what helped the fire be so devastating was how crowded all the construction was,” says Stirling. “This is where (Roman Emperor) Nero fiddled while Rome burned.”
Crowded tenement housing was probably a factor, she says.
“Interestingly, Nero, for all that he was crazy and vicious, brought in a whole bunch of sensible fire and construction legislation after that — things like minimum distances between houses, stronger party walls, and having a bucket and ladder at the ready in case of fire,” says Stirling.
These days, the Canadian Home Builders’ Association advocates for changes to regulations to improve housing safety — especially because densification is a fundamental plank of policies such as Calgary’s Plan It, which is the city’s blueprint for growth.
Although city densities are becoming greater, changes are made to building codes to help prevent destruction from fire — including changes to windows on walls facing neighbouring homes, to the material used under vinyl siding, says Jim Rivait, CEO of the Canadian Home Builders’ Association — Alberta.
“From a planning standpoint, the cities are forcing higher density,” says Rivait. “You can’t have higher density with houses further apart.”
Yet houses today are safer, he says. “A house less than 12 years old receives an insurance premium discount.”
JOIN THE CELEBRATION
If your home is 100 years old (or almost 100, say, built in 1915 or earlier), join the celebration of its place in Calgary’s history.
Century Homes Calgary is a citywide celebration of homes built during the city’s first building boom.
Owners and residents are invited to share details and stories about their home through an informative yard sign. Participants in Century Homes Calgary’s project will receive a free kit to help create a Century Homes sign, and a free Century Homes banner to hang on the home during Historic Calgary Week, which runs July 27 to Aug. 6.
Visit centuryhomes.org
 
By Claire Young, Calgary Herald July 13, 2012