Olympic Plaza Calgary is paved with 22,000 bricks inscribed with the names of donors to Olympic events. It was built in 1988 for the Winter Olympics and hosted the medal presentation ceremonies, which makes the ground itself a guest book.
The City of Calgary lists the plaza at 228 8 Ave. S.E., covering 1.2 hectares, and its parks page says it hosts special events and festivals through the year. The Calgary Heritage Initiative describes the design in detail, with an amphitheatre with terraces on three sides, stairs, a fountain and a Legacy Wall for Olympic plaques.
Then there are the seasons. The plaza floods for a summer reflective pool and a winter skating surface. The City says it has a refrigerated outdoor ice surface, one of the few in Calgary, so you can skate where the medals were handed out.
Arts fans have a reason to wander over too. The City project sheet places the plaza between 7 Avenue and Arts Commons, with Macleod Trail on the east and 1 Street S.E. on the west, and six rooms, four names and one very busy arts building fills in the Arts Commons side. For another Olympic-sized Calgary memory, Cool Runnings slid into Calgary and never really left.
If you’re mapping a downtown walk, walk Stephen Avenue like a movie fan is nearby, and the Calgary Tower’s continuous concrete pour in 1967 gives you a skyline anchor. Both fit nicely before or after a lap of the plaza.
The City lists a redesign called the Olympic Plaza Transformation, so the layout may change in the coming years. Go soon, look down, and read the bricks.
Quick answers
Olympic Plaza was built in 1988 for the Winter Olympic Games in Calgary and was the site of the medal presentation ceremonies. The City of Calgary lists it at 228 8 Ave. S.E., and it covers 1.2 hectares downtown.
The plaza is paved with 22,000 bricks inscribed with the names of donors to Olympic events, according to the Calgary Heritage Initiative. It also has an amphitheatre, a fountain and a Legacy Wall for Olympic plaques.
The City of Calgary lists a refrigerated outdoor ice surface at Olympic Plaza, one of the few in the city. The plaza floods for a summer reflective pool and winter skating, but events and conditions can change, so check the City page.
Sources: City of Calgary, Olympic Plaza, Calgary Heritage Initiative, our winter Olympic legacy, Alberta Authentic photo via Wikimedia Commons
