Studio Bell holds a collection of instruments, and it also holds a hotel. The hotel is the part to go see first.
The National Music Centre’s home was designed by Brad Cloepfil of Allied Works Architecture and opened on Canada Day, July 1, 2016. It covers 160,000 square feet, with five floors of exhibition space and a 300-seat performance hall. It also has recording studios with three control rooms and three live rooms, and space for CKUA radio inside the building. That’s a lot of music under one roof.
The King Eddy comes home
The King Eddy opened in 1905, picked up the nickname Home of the Blues and closed as a blues bar in 2004, according to Canada’s History.
The building came apart brick by brick. Each piece was cleaned, numbered and catalogued so it could go back together as it stood in 1905, and the sandstone windowsills, the cornices and the neon sword sign all made it back.
That makes the King Eddy the largest artifact in the whole collection, and you can walk right into it. It serves food, drinks and live music again.
Why it works
This is the smartest part of the plan. A museum can tell you the blues once lived in Calgary. A rebuilt King Eddy lets you sit down inside the answer.
The Bell Live Series was set up to bring live music to the King Eddy, so the old hotel has a real job again.
Put the architecture, the hall, the radio space and the old hotel together and you get a block of the East Village that rewards a long afternoon.
Plan one visit. Go early, see the studios, then finish at the King Eddy with a drink and a band.
There’s more where this came from. Start with Go sit in the King Eddy, Calgary’s home of the blues, or jump to Three women, a kitchen table and a $15 million dare. Or try Calgary Buildings Never Forget Their Old Names for a change of pace.
If this one hooked you, we think Calgary Had a Literary Scene in the 1920s and Someone Mapped It and Calgary’s Art Underground Has Its Own Map are a good next read.
Quick answers
Studio Bell opened on Canada Day, July 1, 2016. Brad Cloepfil of Allied Works Architecture designed it as the National Music Centre’s home, and it covers 160,000 square feet, with five floors of exhibition space and a 300 seat performance hall.
Studio Bell has recording studios with three control rooms and three live rooms, plus space for CKUA radio inside the building. It also holds a 300 seat performance hall and the rebuilt King Eddy, so there is a lot of music under one roof.
The building came apart brick by brick. Each piece was cleaned, numbered and catalogued so it could go back together as it stood in 1905, and the sandstone windowsills, the cornices and the neon sword sign all made it back.
