A beloved heritage building burns after a decade sitting empty
City | Paul Dechene
Hi Regina. I’ve been away for awhile. I’m back from two months in Slovenia. And I’m discovering upon my return that folks aren’t too keen to listen to me talk at length and in detail — accompanied by a Powerpoint presentation! — about the many urban planning wonders [1] I encountered while there.
I gather it was a tough summer here?
This column was supposed to focus on some of the aftermath from that. Specifically, a mean-spirited debate on a council motion to declare a houselessness emergency. But then, a building to which I have a strong sentimental attachment burned down.
It smoulders as I type. Hell of a way to welcome a guy back.
A Cake With Candles Would’ve Been Fine
As of this moment (evening Tuesday, Sept. 26), I think we can officially start referring to the Gordon Block in the past tense. Fire and Protective Services showed up in the wee hours of Sep. 24 to put out visible in the century-old building. They were still pouring water on the fire into the evening of Sep. 25. By the afternoon of the Sep. 26, the fire was effectively out, but no one will ever set foot in the building again.
Autumn Dawson, Regina’s director of planning, says they will work to preserve what heritage elements they can from the exterior but I will be surprised if they find a way to preserve the facade intact.
I expect the Gordon Block will be a pile of rubble by the time you’re reading this.
And that makes me sad.
When I first started writing for Prairie Dog in 2007 or 2008, Whitworth and I would meet for “writers’ meetings” over breakfast in the Novia Café in the ground floor of the Gordon Block. The Novia had seen better days by that point. [2] It was like a diner out of a Tom Waits song [3] or a Jim Jarmusch film. [4] In other words: exactly what I was looking for in a breakfast joint, and I have fond memories of hanging out there.
As the Gordon Block burned, similar nostalgic reminiscences about the Novia appeared on social media. I’m not alone in feeling like something good has been lost.
That’s the power of heritage buildings, and why we need to protect them. They provide a tangible connection to our history and stand as emblems to what our city has been and what it will become.
And blah blah blah, let’s face it, that’s never been terribly convincing for technocrats or real estate tycoons. It’s all too airy-fairy intangible. For them, it’s all ‘line goes up, line goes down, what’s the carrying cost on a deteriorating building versus long-term profit on a surface parking lot?’
As evidence: We recognized the heritage value of our downtown buildings back in 1996 and established the Victoria Park Heritage Conservation District. It conferred upon the buildings that surround the park and those along the FW Hill Mall all the protections of a designated heritage property.[5]
Obviously, that included the Gordon Block. Fat lot of good it did.
Too Little, Too Late
If the Victoria Park Heritage Conservation District were functioning as intended, the Gordon Block would never have gotten to the state it was in. All heritage buildings are required to be kept in a condition that closely resembles what they looked like when constructed — at least from the outside, if nothing else.
And just this spring, council beefed up our heritage policies by passing heritage maintenance guidelines. Those included a list of requirements for buildings like the Gordon Block that are going to be left vacant for long periods of time; requirements like: keep the water out of your foundation, fix holes in the roof, keep the heat on in winter, keep mice and pigeons out, have a security guard check in regularly. The new policy even required property owners to register a conservation plan with the city for any vacant heritage properties.
Up until the fire, Harvard Developments — the Gordon Block’s owner — had assured the city the Gordon Block was secure and while, they argued, the building was no longer fit for tenants, they were preserving the building structure and exterior.
That said, the company has made two attempts to have the building demolished. Harvard applied for a demolition permit in 2011 but did not provide a plan for what to do with the lot. That application disappeared after negative press. Then, in 2022, Harvard made another demolition application. But according to Dawson, after conversations with the city, Harvard withdrew that application and was working towards preserving the building.
And yet, the Gordon Block burned down.
Any time a building sits derelict for more than a decade, the odds go up that something will irreparably compromise the structure — whether that’s fire, flood or rot. And the city’s maintenance policy and renewed interest in heritage preservation is coming a couple decades too late to save many iconic buildings. [6]
And that’s a problem — and not just because of the memories we watched go up in flames.
Just before the Novia closed and the Gordon Block was boarded up for good, the city passed its Downtown Neighbourhood Plan. That document envisioned a vital, economically prosperous downtown. The Plaza upon which the Gordon Block looked was supposed to be a centrepiece of that revitalization.
Sadly, for more than a decade the Gordon Block has been a derelict husk in the heart of our city. The damage that’s done to our hopes for downtown renewal are hard to measure but anyone who walked past it could feel how it sapped the energy out of our city’s core. No one has put a dollar figure to how much business that has killed but we all know it isn’t zero.
Leaving the Gordon Block boarded-up and unsightly was an act of indifference and disrespect for Regina’s public realm. That’s why, regardless of this fire’s specific cause, the Gordon Block’s ultimate collapse feels like it was inevitable.
We are all poorer as a result. ■
FOOTNOTES, OH HOW I HAVE MISSED YOU
[1] You do want to hear about Slovenian urban planning wonders? You must if you’re reading a footnote. Joy! Here’s a quick, incomplete list: intercity bicycle highways; cheap public transit that’s half-priced on weekends (meaning a half-hour bus trip from Koper to Ankaran is only 80 freaking Euro-cents on a Saturday!); robust heritage preservation and restoration; widespread, free, immaculately cared-for public sports facilities; outdoor bistros adjacent to every park and playground at which you can buy beer and cocktails and, somehow, anarchy doesn’t ensue; really good coffee. It was pretty great. But I was there long enough to experience some of the downsides to what Slovenia has created. For example: everyone on the beach was so fit and healthy, I’ve come home with a host of body issues. “Thanks, Slovenia, for making me feel like a couch-potato loser!” he types from his couch.
As with everywhere, there’s stuff that can be improved. But with this as your status quo? Well… I hope they don’t fuck it up.
[2] No shade on the Novia’s owner and staff. It was clear to anyone who sidled into a booth that it was the landlord, Harvard Devlopments, whose heart wasn’t in keeping the building much farther into the future.
[3] Tom Waits has this line he uses in interviews: “It’s getting harder and harder to find a bad cup of coffee.” Wasn’t a problem at the Novia! In a good way.
[4] See Coffee & Cigarettes, 2003.
[5] Whenever you refer to buildings in the Victoria Park Heritage Conservation District as “heritage buildings,” the property owners in the area are quick to say their buildings aren’t “designated heritage properties.” I expect you’ll hear a lot of that about the Gordon Block. But I’d argue “heritage building” versus “building in a heritage district” is a distinction that lacks meaning. Properties in heritage districts should receive all the same protections as heritage buildings. And the provincial Heritage Act, from which the city’s ability to regulate heritage properties flows, defines a “designated property” as “(i) any Municipal Heritage Property; or (ii) any property within a Municipal Heritage Conservation District.” I’m no slick-tongued lawyer but that sure makes it sound like they’re the same thing.
[6] Speaking of heritage properties… what happened with the Burns Hanley Building? In 2022, the owners — Harvard again — said that damage incurred over COVID had irreparably undermined the building’s structure and it had to be demolished soon. Leaving it up could put people at risk. Harvard struck a deal with council to take down the building and preserve the front so that the facade could be incorporated into a new building. I was told that work was to happen this summer. But here we are at the end of the construction season and that work hasn’t happened. There hasn’t even been a fence put up around it. What happened? I thought it was an imminent danger to the public?!?