The Central Okanagan Heritage Society is saddened by news that the former Kelowna Courier facade at the corner of Lawrence Avenue and Water Street is being torn down. 

Property owners Marc Anthony Group recently announced plans to dismantle the facade with hopes of preserving the bricks for future use.

Development Planning Department Manager for the City of Kelowna Nola Kilmartin said the decision to bring down the facade came from a demand to reopen the street and parking spaces on the corner. 

"They had explored a number of different development options and concepts over the past four years, three of which went to council," Kilmartin explained of the Marc Anthony Group. "However, they had some more recent assessments done by structural engineers who are familiar with heritage buildings across Canada as well as some local experts who have worked on other heritage buildings locally and were told that any attempts to remove that construction scaffolding would require additional supports to stabilize the wall in place."

In order to stabilize the facade, Kilmartin said it would require drilling in anchors that would cause irreparable damage. The decision was made to bring the wall down and store the bricks with the hopes of using them to add a heritage element to the site in the future. 

"The priority here is preserving that brick to the best of the circumstances and getting the sidewalks and the on-street parking spaces open and available for use again."

Heritage Society director Shona Harrison commented it's easier said than done. 

"I strongly believe we will lose so many of these precious bricks in trying to dismantle it that we would not be able to rebuild it," said Harrison. 

The bricks from Knox Mountain used on the old facade are vertical, Harrison explained, and much softer than the traditional horizontal bricks used today. She said the mortar sets itself into the more porous bricks and trying to peel the mortar off could cause the brick to break.  

"It's a significant loss for Kelowna even if it's rebuilt if it can be rebuilt."

Harrison noted that despite the old building being on the heritage registry, the City of Kelowna did not impose any requirements on the purchasers to maintain its heritage value. 

"There's supposed to be a certain amount of protection for these buildings," Harrison said. "While [the city] didn't, at this point, take out a deposit or something to make sure that the building is safe and maintained, we are hopeful as the heritage society that will happen."

She also hopes that the city will learn from this and better protect heritage buildings in the future. 

"They are a tangible articulation of our past. They hold and represent these narratives that without them we are going to lose and ultimately lose part of our past... They are integral in understanding who we are as a city."

Construction on the facade has already started, however, it is not known when the project will be completed.