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4mo ago

Calgary Returns Thousands of Personalized 1988 Olympic Plaza Bricks to Donors

Over 5,600 commemorative bricks were salvaged and returned as part of a major redevelopment of Calgary's Olympic Plaza.

Work has already begun on trying to recover thousands of specially engraved bricks from Calgary's Olympic Plaza after the city said more than 5,000 people applied to recover their bricks before the plaza is demolished.
Peter Soroka displays the brick his parents purchased to support the 1988 Winter Olympics, in Calgary on Friday, Jan.3, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Bill Graveland

Overview

  • The City of Calgary salvaged and returned 5,600 of the 33,000 personalized bricks installed at Olympic Plaza for the 1988 Winter Olympics.
  • The bricks were originally sold for $19.88 each as part of a fundraiser and bore personalized inscriptions from donors, many of whom shared emotional connections to their bricks.
  • Approximately 8,000 requests were made for brick retrieval, with a 70% success rate despite challenges posed by decades of wear and mortar adhesion.
  • The brick-return effort followed public outcry after initial plans to discard the bricks during the $660 million redevelopment of Olympic Plaza and Arts Commons.
  • The redevelopment, expected to preserve elements of Calgary's Olympic legacy, includes a $70 million overhaul of the plaza and is slated for completion by 2028.