The over 30,000 bricks are inscribed with names of citizens who purchased them in 1987 for $19.88 each, ahead of the 1988 Olympics
With Olympic Plaza set to be renewed, a parliamentary petition has been launched to preserve its inscribed bricks — a legacy of the 1988 Winter Games.
Officials from the Calgary Municipal Land Corp. (CMLC), City of Calgary and Arts Commons confirmed earlier this year that the personalized bricks would not be kept as part of the $70-million Olympic Plaza transformation project.
On Monday, Kusie said the reasoning sounds like an excuse.
“We can build and preserve anything. Like, if we can preserve dinosaur bones, we can preserve these bricks,” she said.
Having been raised in Calgary, Kusie remembers attending the 1988 Olympics and the opening ceremonies, calling it “such a special time”.
“When you travel anywhere in the world, Calgary is identified by two things. (The) first one is the Stampede, and the second one is the 88′ Olympics . . . It really put us on the map.”
“I certainly see the vision of a new venue, and expanding that within our city, because I believe it’s part of a vibrant city,” said Kusie. “But I just wish that we could do a better job of preserving the past, the Olympic Plaza.”
She called the plaza “so special and so historic for Calgary”, and when she first heard the bricks were not being kept said it was devastating for her.
“How can this be happening without in some way preserving (these) bricks?”
Olympic Plaza is set to close at the end of December according to CMLC, with construction to begin in 2025 and expected to last through 2028. The design for the plaza is set to be revealed in early 2025.
‘Destruction of a historic resource’
Ron McMahon, who moved to Calgary in 1987, recalls the following year’s games fondly.
“The whole city was just hopping with excitement, planning and transformation for the Olympics,” he said. “Olympic Plaza was really kind of the central focus (for) everybody in terms of the place that people would go.”
McMahon pointed out that medal ceremonies were held in the plaza, and being a public space, it was a sort of way for non-Olympians to participate.
“The bricks were kind of the keystone, if you will, to making that a reality for most people,” McMahon said.
Purchasing a brick gave people a sense of ownership in the plaza, he says.
He thinks any redesign of the plaza is a bad idea, and would prefer it was refurbished.
“We’re chasing a redesign and a destruction of a historic resource, a historic part of our city,” said McMahon.
“We need to be protecting it and restoring it and sustaining it as it was built,”
“It worked as it was designed and worked well, but if you don’t invest in it, if you don’t keep it up, of course, it’s going to wear down. That’s the unfortunate story of Olympic Plaza.”
“Take the time restore it to its glory and to celebrate our history, rather than to throw it in the trash,” McMahon said.
‘Really upset about it’
Jillian Easthope spent part of her Sunday afternoon at Olympic Plaza, copying her family’s brick with crayon rubbings.
She says Sunday’s trip was about capturing one of the last moments seeing the brick before the plaza is closed, its bricks potentially being lost forever.
“It’s always been a very nostalgic thing to be able to share with people to say, hey, my family has this item It’s from the 1988 Olympics,” Easthope said.
“There’s so many families that contributed to our 1988 Olympics, and it would be nice to preserve that history for Calgarians.”
In terms of the bricks being set for demolition she said, “I’m really upset about it actually. It feels like it should be something that is permanent.”
Easthope was happy to hear that a petition had been started to preserve the bricks, but acknowledged that relocating them doesn’t seem that feasible.
“It would be very hard to keep the integrity of the bricks and things like that and relocate them, but at the same time, if it’s possible to salvage at least a handful of them, that’d be nice to to keep that history.”
Her father purchased a brick for the family, and her aunt also has one in the plaza.
Their bricks are among the estimated 33,000 inscribed with the names of citizens who purchased them in 1987 for $19.88 each as a way to support Calgary hosting the 1988 Winter Olympics.
Although many her family members are living elsewhere now, Easthope referred to Calgary as “home base” and their bricks as a “marker” in the ever-changing city .
“It’s a very special piece of history for our family,” she said.
McMahon said, “These bricks don’t belong to the city, they don’t belong to CMLC, they belong to the 35,000-plus people who plunked down $19.88.”
— With files from Scott Strasser, Darren Makowichuk and Postmedia