The A.G.T. Tower

Written By Dane Ryksen

  • 9718 107th Street

  • Architects: Rule, Wynn & Rule

  • Constructed: 1950-53/62-63

  • Demolished: 2022

“It’s horrible… monstrous,” Co-operative Commonwealth Federation leader Elmer E. Roper passionately declared. “Surely, the government centre should be a thing of beauty? Perhaps a commission or a committee of some kind was needed. I am sure that had there been such a body, development in this area might have been different.” His comments came during a legislative session in mid-May, 1953. The topic of the day? A new government utilities tower under construction nearby.

Liberal leader James Harper Prowse Jr., head of Her Majesty’s Opposition, rose to chime in and support his C.C.F. compatriot. He eyed the artist’s rendering of the new structure. It depicted a “green concrete building with windows tinted blue. Pink clouds hovered overhead, and the sky was coloured maroon.” Rubbing his chin dumbfounded, the words tumbled out of Prowse's mouth: “I-is that the colour it is going to be?” Roper again rose and spit: “it’s an even more horrible monstrosity than I had imagined it!”

The Honourable Gordon Taylor, Social Credit Mister of Telephones, interjected to support his government’s decision. It was merely an “artist’s conception” he declared raising his hands placatory. When completed “I think the honourable member will change his mind about the ‘monstrosity.’” At least the views would be good. “I’m sure the people of this city, seeing the beauty of their city violated, will be happy to know the minister can look out his fifth-storey window and see beautiful nylons” Roper retorted, in reference to some nearby billboards.

When it opened in November 1953 some referred to the new Alberta Government Telephones Tower as the “little United Nations building.” Roper wasn’t swayed — he preferred to call it the “green monster.” Politics come and go, and eventually debates of the past get thrown into the dustbin of obscurity. So it’s funny that in its way this debate from seventy years ago is still relevant. Edmontonians are still either Elmer Ropers or Gordon Taylors, the staunch critics and defenders of a green glass building.

One thing’s for certain: it’s hard to argue that the building wasn’t revolutionary. As Martin Kennedy, then Vice-chair of the Edmonton Historical Board wrote, the tower “is one of only a handful of Alberta buildings that can legitimately be claimed to have national architectural significance.” He’s right. Nearly every high-rise built in Canada since owes its existence to the old building. It was a proof-of-concept for all post-war developments and was a genuine trendsetter. The tower was one of North America’s first tastes of glass curtain wall construction — New York City's identically designed and world-renowned Lever House was its direct contemporary.

Capital Modern states that the “Early Modern style of this building is typified by the use of the square tower composition, horizontal emphasis in the expression of the floor levels, the use of green Aklo spandrel glass and integral screens for sun control. The windows did not open which was a result of the development of central air handling and air-conditioning. A central core carried all utilities.” A feature that captured the attention of government officials, newspapers, and the public alike was the fact the building needed window washers. “Around the top of the building,” noted the Edmonton Journal, “runs a monorail, from which window washers will hang their scaffold, enabling them to move around the building, as well as up and down, without leaving the scaffold.” Over the entranceway lay a low-relief carving inspired by American Telephone & Telegraph’s Spirt of Communication, depicting a Romanesque god draped in telegraph and cable wires.

Within a decade of opening, the six storey, two level basement building had proven too small — continued growth of both the city, province, and A.G.T. was to blame. Another six were added over 1962. Despite this, again, continued growth saw available space hemorrhage and the company moved out in 1971. Subsequently sold to the Province, the building housed various government, M.L.A., and Official Opposition party offices.

By 2005, however, years of deliberately deferred maintenance inevitably caught up. “All you have to do is look at it. First of all, it’s not a very well constructed building,” Progressive Conservative Infrastructure Minister Lyle Oberg commented, equivocating his own government’s lack of upkeep. “The old annex is not functional,” Premier Ralph Klein continued. “I was just there getting my flu shot and it looks pretty ratty.” New Democratic Party member Shannon Phillips bemoaned its condition, saying “I am always cold in this place. I was wearing my tuque yesterday.”

In that time, the tower’s ever uglying condition turned many away from seeing its revolutionary beauty. A piece by Keith Gerein, while verbose and flippant, summed up many’s feelings: “I assume that it must have seemed sleek, sexy and fresh in the era that it opened. But these days, all I see is a structure that sticks out like a big, blue-green thumb next to the more graceful, classical government buildings surrounding it. Or if not a thumb, then think of it a 12-storey middle finger to the legislature, festooned in a troublesome turquoise that must top the list of colours bridesmaids hope they never have to wear.”

Various demolition proposals have come and gone, but each were put off by a lack of funds or economic downturn. That was until September 2020, when the United Conservative Party finally sounded its death knell. They confirmed the building was coming down, answering the prayers of four generations worth of Elmer Ropers. With most of its employees moved into the renovated Federal Public Building, it was declared surplus. “It’s not the looks of it — it’s the fitness of the building and the safety concerns and safety hazards for the occupants. It served us well, but now it’s past its time,” Minister of Infrastructure, Prasad Panda said. A feasibility study estimated that $30,000,000 would be needed to meet code, over half of its appraised value.

Demolition work is expected to begin in 2021. In many ways the province will be worse off for its loss. “Perhaps in 1951 we were a braver, more visionary city, one with a more optimistic view of our destiny,” Journal columnist Paula Simons once opined. “It was a building of its time and a building before its time. It looked more like something you would find in downtown Manhattan than in Edmonton’s river valley.” “Will time forget this building that was ahead of its time?” she asked — it seems so.

Image Gallery:

Sources:

  • “Billboard Wrangle Continues as Members Protest Ugliness,” Edmonton Journal, March 21, 1953.

  • “Staff Of 280 Occupies Glass-Walled AGT Building,” Edmonton Journal, November 17, 1953.

  • “Telephone Building Addition,” Edmonton Journal, January 5, 1962.

  • “Phones Building Illustrate ‘Man’s Urge to Improve the World,’” Edmonton Journal, July 15, 1971.

Dane Ryksen
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