The historic UBC Fire Hall that occupied the 2038 lot of West Mall for almost 100 years was moved earlier this month.
The fire hall was relocated to a temporary space to make room for the Sauder expansion after the approval from the Board of Governors during their September 25 meeting.
UBC Properties Trust and Heatherbrae Builders managed the move, and Associate Vice-President of Campus + Community Planning (C+CP) Michael White explained in an interview with The Ubyssey that the hall was separated into three different sections when it was transported.
According to White, in about two years, it will be reassembled and put on a new foundation at its permanent space at the Lower Mall Precinct (LMP) Student Housing Redevelopment at St. John’s College, where it will house the college’s programming space.
“We heard from heritage groups on campus, and we heard from the broader community that it's really important to preserve this building,” said White.
First constructed in 1926, the bright red fire hall was one of the first buildings built on campus.
The hall used to serve the entire campus and saw many practical and cosmetic changes over the century. In the ‘70s, additions to the west side of the building offered on-site accommodation for firefighting personnel. And when the city took over fire operations in 1982, the hall was decommissioned and repurposed by the department of art history, visual art and theory as a studio and office space. It was also at this time that the fire hall adopted its bright red colour from its original grey, to remind people of its existence and also save it from demolition, according a UBC media release.
According to White, similar to the fire hall’s move, the C+CP is currently working to identify other historic sites on campus of importance to Musqueam to ensure their preservation amidst the campus’s ever-changing infrastructure.
“The fire hall represented an important period of UBC in the University Endowment Lands,” said White. “So through the work we do in planning and Campus Vision 2050, it's important to identify these historic resources, and alongside that is understanding and supporting Indigenous presence on campus and sites and locations of importance for our host nation.”
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