The developer and architect behind the Inglewood Lofts at the former Charles Camsell Hospital has sold the development for $60.5 million now that an art restoration project is complete.
"When this project was rezoned, this mural was recognized as sort of a masterpiece, but it was in pretty rough shape," said Gene Dub, the owner of Five Oaks and a principal at Dub Architects. "The mural, I think, is one of the most interesting things about the hospital."
The untitled mosaic mural by deceased Austrian-Canadian artist Alexander von Svoboda was completed in 1967, Dub said, around two decades after the hospital opened to treat Indigenous patients with tuberculosis. Many were hospitalized without their consent and without the knowledge of their families. The former Department of Indian and Eskimo Affairs operated the hospital until 1980, when it was transferred to provincial jurisdiction; it closed in 1996. The hospital has been described as horrific due to reported medical experiments, forced sterilization, and patients who vanished.
The city's heritage department stipulated that von Svoboda's work must be retained, protected during construction, restored, and incorporated into the building upon its conversion, a city spokesperson said. Dub told Taproot he satisfied these conditions with help from diligent workers who were able to clean the work and replace some missing tiles. (The artist has also produced works of note at the Royal Alexandra Hospital and NAIT.)
The work is now on display at the ground level of the Inglewood Lofts in a common area named for Jane Ash Poitras, a highly decorated Indigenous artist who has been named to the Order of Canada and whose mother was a tuberculosis patient at the hospital. The room is also home to works by Poitras, Ulayu Pingwartok, and Linus Woods.
"It's kind of an honour, right? The fact that he wanted to mention my name (in the space) was nice," said Poitras, before noting healthcare and art have parallels. "Art is a healing journey — when you look at art, it does heal people."
Fulfilling the city's heritage requirement allowed Dub to sell the rental development's 193 apartments and 20 townhomes to Strategic Group. A sale wasn't always the plan, he said, but project costs ballooned to $60 million over the years, making the $60.5-million sale far from a windfall.
"That's life," Dub said. "You win some, you lose some."
Architect Gene Dub had to ensure this mural by Alexander von Svoboda was restored before he could sell the Inglewood Lofts, a housing conversion at the former Charles Camsell Hospital. (Colin Gallant)
The extra expense is partly due to a buyout of 11 partners, asbestos remediation, and structural reinforcements. "It would have been cheaper to tear the building down and build a new building," Dub said. Plus, the market changed between idea and execution. The original plan was to sell the units as condos rather than rentals, but "the condo market has just evaporated" since Dub bought the property in 2004, he said.
Another cost came from sweeping the grounds for unmarked graves of former patients who were never seen by their families again after being admitted to the hospital. Dub's team found no graves after using ground-penetrating radar and digging when anomalies were detected. The work cost around $200,000, he said.
Looking ahead, Dub also owns a plot of land on the hospital's grounds that he and the City of Edmonton are working to transform into a public park. Dub said he plans to work with First Nations and Inuit people, including family members of former Camsell patients, to build a memorial in the park, though that work is still in its infancy.
Beyond the Camsell site, Dub said he is pushing forward on The Hive, a student-housing development in The Quarters managed by Elev, as well as residential development in Rossdale.
A closer look at Alexander von Svoboda's restored mural at the Inglewood Lofts. (Colin Gallant)