No guarantees as Calgary tries to salvage some cherished Olympic Plaza bricks

Valerie and Laird Salkeld are shown in a Sept. 14, 2024 handout photo with their Olympic brick commemorating their 1990 engagement in Calgary. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Cosmo Photo Booths

Valerie Salkeld remembers her then-boyfriend picking her up after work one cold day in January 1990 and heading over to Olympic Plaza in downtown Calgary to watch people skating.

“All of a sudden he just handed me an envelope with my name on it,” she says.

“Look down” was written on the paper inside.

And there was her boyfriend, Laird, on one knee with a ring box beside a brick embedded into the ground with a misprinted engraving: "Will you mary me Val." The proposal took two years of planning.

For their 25th anniversary, Laird Salkeld had a new brick made — this time with "marry" spelled correctly.

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Valerie Salkeld says she was disappointed when she heard this summer that the original brick was one of some 33,000 slated for destruction as the aging plaza and adjacent performing arts complex undergo a $660-million overhaul.

As part of a fundraiser ahead of the 1988 Olympics, people could purchase and personalize a brick to line the ground of the plaza for $19.88. Over the decades, some have become so eroded the writing is barely visible, while many others are cracked and gouged.

The Calgary Municipal Land Corp. had said it would not be possible to retrieve the bricks and return them to their owners.

Three hundred people attended events where they could be photographed with their bricks or take rubbings of them. Others pried out bricks themselves, with gaps visible in the plaza since refilled with mismatched replacements or asphalt.

In an 11th-hour reversal last week, ahead of construction beginning in the new year, the corporation and city said they would try to return some bricks to their owners — with no guarantee of success.

People had until Wednesday to sign up online. Any salvaged bricks can be picked up in person on Jan. 3 and 4.

Thom Mahler, the city’s director of downtown strategy, said he’s optimistic, but said salvaging bricks intact is no easy feat.

“They're a fairly low-quality brick. They weren't really designed for what they're doing,” he said.

They were also set in mortar, which gets harder over time while the bricks get weaker. Using a saw with a masonry blade seems to work best, and the city is also looking at trying to cut out two at once if they’re side-by-side, Mahler said.

Mahler made the comments to reporters last week after an official sod-turning for the revamp of the neighbouring Arts Commons, billed as the biggest arts infrastructure investment underway in Canada.

A design for the $70-million plaza overhaul is to be revealed early next year and Kate Thompson, CEO of the Calgary Municipal Land Corp., said it's expected to incorporate elements of the city's Olympic legacy. The corporation says it's to be an "inclusive, accessible arts-focused gathering space."

Last week, a smattering of bricks could be seen outlined in bright yellow crayon and a city spokesperson said it was part of the retrieval work.

Ron McMahon, a software developer who launched a website and app in 2017 to help people locate their bricks in the plaza, said his email inbox has been inundated with people anxious to retrieve theirs.

He’s been trying his best to help, even though he has no official connection.

Calgary Olympic Brick Finder was a 2 1/2-year labour of love that saw McMahon spending many evenings validating each entry taken from the more than 500 pages of paper records the city provided.

“Some guys fix up a ’64 Mustang,” he says. “This is kind of what I do.”

McMahon says he moved to Calgary in 1987 and Olympic Plaza was “electric.” It’s become a cherished place for him.

"Olympic Plaza is where people like me who never had a hope of ever being an Olympian could still be part of the Olympics.”

McMahon was aghast when he heard the bricks would be discarded. He wasn’t impressed by the salvaging plans, calling the efforts “tight-fisted,” “ungenerous” and “half-hearted.”

He said the time constraints might not be workable for a lot of people.

“You gotta be lucky to hear about it. You gotta be fortunate enough to be around. And boy goodness, you better be here one of those two days when you can go and collect your brick."

Calgary Conservative MP Stephanie Kusie got an earful when constituents learned of the bricks’ planned demise. She heard many heartfelt stories, including of a brick that had been dedicated to a stillborn baby girl.

Kusie launched a parliamentary petition in October, signed by almost 1,400 people, calling for the significance of the bricks to be recognized and their preservation to be ensured.

It remains open for signing until Saturday and she expects to table it in the House of Commons early next year.

In a late November interview, Kusie seemed to have accepted the bricks' fate, saying: "I really tried with all my heart."

In a statement last week, she credited Calgarians’ pressure for the turnaround.

“Although Calgarians were originally told this was not possible, it was clear to me all along that there had to be a solution or a compromise,” she wrote.

“As it turns out, there was.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 19, 2024.