The First Interactive Music History Venue in Canada

Cantos Music Foundation held an exciting design competition to find an architect to deliver this iconic facility. After an extensive worldwide search and impressive presentations from five international architects, Allied Works was selected to design the National Music Centre, a facility like no other in Canada.

In 2010, the concept for the Centre was named a finalist for Cultural Future Projects at the World Architecture Festival. Subsequently GEC Architecture was selected to work with Allied Works and to provide local support for the project.

The Centre is located in Calgary’s East Village, an area that was once at the bustling centre of the city in early part of the 20th century. The design for the Centre includes the integration of the oldest hotel in Calgary and Canada’s oldest blues bar, the King Edward. The National Music Centre will be dedicated to Canadian music. It will integrate Cantos Music Collection, the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame, education and public programming, artist in residence pprograms, a performance hall, recording studio and broadcast centre. In addition to being a cultural hub, it will also serve as a catalyst for the revitalization of East Village.

This project presents a number of exciting structural challenges including the re-purposing and integration of the original King Eddy structure into the new building. Also, the structure will be required not only to perform adequately for strength but also to consider the functional needs related to acoustics and interior climate control for preservation of the museum collections. Most significantly, close collaboration with the design team and construction manager will be required to ensure that the structure performs efficiently and elegantly to support the unique geometry of this building while remaining as constructible and cost effective as possible.