The previous summer, Alberta’s provincial government announced its plan to demolish the old Royal Alberta Museum building.
Since then, there’s been a groundswell of protest, and a proposal on the table from Beljan Development and the team at Reimagine Architects to repurpose the building.
While this all may seem new, it isn’t. In fact, Beljan and Reimagine have been talking with the province about their RAM-revitalization plan since Jason Kenney was premier. If the building is going to be saved, it’s not a case of a white knight rolling in at the last second, but the culmination of a long negotiation.
“I’m optimistic,” says Reimagine’s founding principal, Vivian Manasc. “I’m pretty confident that, if we keep the conversations going, the province will see the value of saving $50 million.”
(That’s the estimated demolition cost of the building, which opened in 1967).
“They’re saving themselves the risk of demolition, and I am confident that if we keep working at it and keep talking to people, someone is going to see that this is a better alternative.”
The province stated in summer 2024 that the cost in deferred maintenance on the building was $75 million, and it would cost a minimum of $150 million to revitalize the building. That was just too rich for taxpayers.
But Manasc says those numbers are misleading, because, she presumes, they’re based on the premise that the RAM building would still be used as a museum. Under the Beljan/Reimagine plan, it would accommodate a variety of spaces — a commercial hub with a grocery store and cafe; an arts hub that would preserve the existing theatre; and a recreation hub that could house a combination of pickleball courts and indoor soccer fields.
In 2020, the province issued a call to basically anyone to come to it with expressions of interest on the old RAM site. Reimagine/Beljan responded to that.
“The negotiations went really well,” says Vedran Škopac, an architect at Reimagine who is working on the project. “They said, ‘Yes, we agree’ — and then the government changed.”
Kenney resigned, and Danielle Smith became the new premier. And what looked to be a deal that was awaiting a single final approval… stalled.
Manasc believes that one of the sticking points was that their original proposal had a residential portion. Knowing that the Glenora community has traditionally opposed high-density residential in the neighbourhood, and that more than 400 landowners have the power to veto these sorts of developments through the caveats on their properties, the group decided to go strictly commercial/arts and recreation hub with the updated pitch.
“We want to make it super-clear we have no intention to put housing there,” said Manasc “It was on the table, but it is no longer on the table.”
The Edmonton Heritage Council released a statement in 2024 asking what happened to the expressions of interest.
“We are concerned by the lack of clarity from the Infrastructure Alberta office regarding why proposals for adaptive reuse of the RAM were not pursued. The decision to demolish rather than repurpose this historic structure not only disregards its economical, historical and architectural value but also overlooks the environmental benefits of reuse. Tearing down the building has a far greater ecological footprint compared to adapting it for new use, making the preservation of the RAM a critical issue both for our heritage and for environmental sustainability.”
Paul Collins, the chairman of Collins Industries, has written to the province in support of the redevelopment plan. As a former Wildrose Party president, he says the Conservative grassroots could use an easy political win in Edmonton, a place where it’s had a hard time finding votes.
“It would bring a lot of goodwill to the UCP government in Edmonton,” Collins wrote in his letter to the province. “Every person that I have spoken to in the last two weeks wants this iconic structure to remain in place. I have spent thousands of hours as a community-minded citizen supporting conservative community causes and gave 18 months of my life as resident of the Wildrose Party, and I have the best for this city and province in my intentions.”
He called saving the museum structure “a win for us all.”
Škopac says the new proposal is the “starter of the conversation.”
The vision: A high-end grocery store, restaurant, a sport and recreation centre, plus an arts area. Edmonton Opera has already expressed interest in moving in, for some of its smaller scale productions that the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium is just too big to host.
Joel Ivany, the artistic director for the Edmonton Opera, says that when he first moved to this city to take the reins of that artistic organization, he looked immediately at the old RAM site and thought it was an ideal spot.
“Edmonton Opera, an arts institution in the City of Edmonton for over 60 years, has been looking for a space to innovate, welcome patrons and honour the deep legacy of community arts within the city,” Ivany says.
“We feel that this is something that the neighbourhood needs and wants,” says Škopac. “The rec centre, the pickleball, the racquet sports, squash, as well as the cultural part. We see the opportunity for Indigenous partners to come in and co-create.”
But a profit driver might be the area the public won’t see — the basement.
“We can see data centres being there,” says Manasc. “The province has a whole initiative around attracting data centres. And, even though some of the data centres are going to be ginormous, billion-dollar things, there is a need for small and medium data centres, for artificial intelligence, for a lot of the research being done here in Edmonton.”
Škopac likens the basement to a cold, concrete bunker — perfect for storing the machinery.
And, how fast can it be done? Škopac says a year and a half to two years will be enough to get the conversion of the building done.
“It wouldn’t take a ton,” says Manasc. “We’ve even done some of the test fits. It certainly will not cost what the government has said, to fit this building out. It’s nowhere near the kind of money they are talking about.
“The bones are good. There are some challenges with the existing building, and we know about that. We’ve read all the technical reports. We’re architects and engineers. Ivan Beljan is an engineer, as well. We’re all technical people, so we have a good understanding.”
“So, the roof is leaking,” says Škopac. “So what? After 30, 40 years, every roof leaks, especially if it’s not maintained. It’s pretty common. Guess what? You fix the roof. Move on. It’s a distraction from the big picture. The big picture is that we know the value of the property, and the potential for the future is big. For not that many resources, this building can have a better life than it ever had.”
This article appears in the Jan/Feb 2025 issue of Edify
