Teams of stoneworkers are still busy restoring Calgary’s Old City Hall to its former glory, meticulously going over every one of the over 15,000 stone blocks that make up the 107-year-old building.

The work was started back in 2015 but Darrel Bell, acting director of facility management, says there was much, much more planning that went into the process before anyone ever picked up a tool.

That way, Bell and his team knew exactly what to expect when they started.

“There are 15,522 individual pieces of stone in the building. We will only be replacing 11.6 percent of that number. However, we will be touching over 15,000 of them. Virtually, we are touching every single stone, but it could just be a cleaning, a repair, it could be a reface or a replacement.”

There have been no unforeseen issues with the work but Bell says there were a few unexpected problems they had to manage including the clock tower.

“What we found out was that the clock tower was starting to open up with weight and gravity and time. It was peeling like a banana. So what we’ve done is bring it back together and use those steel members to reinforce it so it stops leaning apart.”

The newly renovated building could also include features that will help it survive the years to come including a rainwater management system. Bell says the system hooks up with the city’s storm water system to help protect the building from the elements that were the main cause of deterioration in the first place.

“We’ve installed a gutter system like you have on your home. Previously we had water running down the building, eroding the sandstone itself and we had freeze-thaw cycles, which Calgary is very famous for.”

Bell adds that there is also a weeping tile system, a feature in many modern buildings and homes.

“When you combine the weeping tile system with the gutter system, we are able to take the water away from the building and off the sandstone. “ He says that the final design of that system still needs to be approved but he’s confident that the province won’t have any issue with it.

Bell says it’s rewarding to work on a building with such historical value. “I have never done anything as complex or as prolonged as this in my career. This is my first opportunity to get up close and personal to a building of this age and this construction methodology.”

Crews are about halfway through the job, expected to make it last another 100 years, and work is expected to be wrapped up in 2020.