The Alberta Legislature Building at night.View from the north. A large plaza and greenspace is situated to the north of the legislative grounds.
The building is on a promontory overlooking the scenic North Saskatchewan River valley near the location of Fort Edmonton, Mark V (1830–1915), a Hudson's Bay Companyfur-trading post, a long-established economic and administrative centre of the western Prairies.[5][6] It is just up the hill from the archaeological finds at Rossdale Flats to the east, remnants of a long-standing First Nations campsite and location of an earlier Fort Edmonton. The Legislature's location was selected shortly after Edmonton was confirmed as the provincial capital by the first session of the Legislature in 1906. The legislature building was located along 97 Avenue. That road was routed through a tunnel during the 1970s renovations to the grounds, allowing a large plaza to connect the legislature to a greenspace to the north.
Nearby to the northeast is the Government Centre transit centre, and further east is the Rossdale neighbourhood and Edmonton Ballpark. The security of the Legislature building and surrounding grounds are the responsibility of the Alberta Sheriffs Branch.
Several memorials and statues are situated within the Legislative Buildings, or the grounds surrounding it. The fountain inside the Legislature Building was installed during 1959 to commemorate the first visit of Queen Elizabeth II to the building.[8] For the province's centennial, the Queen unveiled in the same structure a series of stained glass windows that highlight the role of the monarchy in Alberta over the previous century. The centre window, at the front entrance of the building, focuses on the reign of Elizabeth II, including her royal cypher surmounted by St. Edward's Crown and flanked by wild roses, while the other windows commemorate the reign of George VI, Edward VIII, George V, and Edward VII, along with provincial emblems such as the coat of arms and the wild rose.[9]
View of the building in 1914, shortly after it was opened and prior to the demolition of Fort Edmonton (visible in the foreground).
The Alberta Legislature Building was built between 1907 and 1913 in the Beaux Arts style at the same time as the much larger Saskatchewan and Manitoba legislative buildings by architects Allan Merrick Jeffers and Richard Blakey. Montreal architect Percy Nobbs helped with the final revisions.[13] Allan Merrick Jeffers served as the Alberta Provincial Architect from September 1907 to 1910. The Provincial Archives of Alberta holds drawings for virtually all provincial buildings executed under his supervision.[14]
The use of Greek, Roman, and Egyptian architectural influences was considered appropriate for a public building, as they suggested power, permanence, and tradition. Beaux-Arts buildings are characterized by a large central dome above a spacious rotunda, a symmetrical T-shaped plan, doors and windows decorated with arches or lintels, and a portico supported by massive columns. The dome has terracotta made by Gibbs and Canning of Tamworth, Staffordshire, England.
The building is supported on concrete piles and constructed around a steel skeleton. The first floor is faced with Vancouver Island granite; upper floors feature sandstone from the Glenbow Quarry in Calgary. The interior fittings include imported marble, mahogany, oak, and brass.
The building is about 57 metres (187 ft) in overall height;[17] the project cost over $2 million at the time.[18]
For the centennial of the province of Alberta, stained glass windows with the royal cypher and the emblems of Alberta were installed above from the main entrance of the building. These stained glass windows were unveiled by Queen Elizabeth II on May 24, 2005.[19][20]
^Jackson, Michael D. (2005). "The Queen of Canada in Alberta"(PDF). Canadian Monarchist News. Fall-Winter 2005 (24). Toronto: Monarchist League of Canada: 14. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2009-07-08. Retrieved 2011-02-14.
^"Percy Erskine Nobbs Biography". History Writ Large: The Architecture of Percy Erskine Nobbs. McGill Library. 2002. Archived from the original on 18 September 2024. Retrieved 26 February 2014.
