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Downtown Commercial Core · Calgary office building record

W.R. Castell Central Library

Office · mid-rise office building · built 1974 · 616 Macleod Trail SE

LiDAR roof height30.5 m

Storey-equivalent (derived)8

Footprint5,141 m²

Parcel7,526 m²

Year built (roll)1974

Assessed 2026$17.3M

Structures on parcel3

Nearest CTrain43 m

Civic address: 616 Macleod Trail SE, Calgary, AB
Community: Downtown Commercial Core (DNC)
City sub-property use: C101 Office · all Office sites
Land use district: CR20-C20/R20 — Commercial - Residential Core (Commercial - Core)
Height rank: #142 of 580 citywide · #90 of 111 in Downtown Commercial Core
Site coverage: 68% of parcel under LiDAR footprints
Parcel pieces: 1 titled piece · roll 201570884
Coordinates: 51.046771, -114.05712

Massing and site plan

Left: isometric massing of every LiDAR structure on the parcel, at true scale, viewed from the south-west with 3.9 m storey lines. Right: plan of the parcel with surrounding footprints, Plus 15 walkways and nearby stations. Open this building in the 3D city →

30.5 m · 2,229 m² · 22.4 m · 2,724 m² · 9.5 m · 188 m²

Context within 185 m. Grey footprints darken with height; lime is the Plus 15 network.

How it compares

Roof height against the Downtown Commercial Core median and tallest, and against the city.

Access

Public-geometry tests only; confirm routes, entrances and hours with the building.

CTrain

Nearest station: City Hall, 43 m straight-line (route 201/202). Planned Green Line station Event Centre / Grand Central Station is 616 m away (Downtown Segment, per the City’s Green Line map).

Other office buildings near City Hall Station →

Plus 15

The City’s Plus 15 walkway geometry touches this parcel; the plan above shows the connected segments in lime. Confirm access points, hours and the interior route with the building.

Heritage inventory

The City of Calgary Inventory of Evaluated Historic Resources records the following on this parcel.

W.R. Castell Central Library (Calgary Public Library, Main Branch)

Construction year: 1963
Architect: J.H. Jiggs Cook & Associates
Builder: Poole Construction (original building); Cana Construction (addition)
Style: Modern
Typology: Library
Development era: 1957 to 1982 (Modern)
Designation: Inventory listing only

This site is significant because¿.

For nearly a half century the WR Castell Library has been the busy hub of numerous activities in the areas of research, education, informal learning and leisure. (Activity value ¿ City-wide significance)

The W.R. Castell Central Library has high institutional value for its role as the central library for the City of Calgary since the 1960s. As one of the few public spaces in the downtown core, the WR Castell has been Calgary's largest publicly accessible non-university repository of information. (Institutional value ¿ City-wide significance)

The W.R. Castell Central Library is valued at the city-wide level as a symbol of the urban renewal initiatives of the City of Calgary in the 1960s and the resulting development of a civic and cultural precinct on the eastern boundary of the downtown core. The Central Library, the Glenbow Museum and the Calgary Boa

Character-defining elements: Key elements that define the heritage character of the W.R. Castell Central Library include its: - original placement of the structures on the site; contextual relation as part of a grouping of cultural and civic facilities in the cultural and civic precinct at the east end of downtown Calgary; - form, scale and massing of the structures as expressed by their rectangular, six-storey plan; flat roof; shallow, arched concrete arcade at street level on original 1963 building; - reinforced-concrete and steel frame construction; white marble cladding and polished green marble spandrels on 1963 buil

Source: The City of Calgary Inventory of Evaluated Historic Resources, entry 650.

Assessment history

Assessed values are The City of Calgary’s taxation figures by roll year, not sale prices or rents; Alberta does not publish transaction prices.

Roll 201570884 · Office

Series not charted. The City’s published values for this roll number change by more than half or double between years, which usually signals a re-numbered, split or partially assessed account rather than a market movement. The published figures are listed below without a trend claim.

Published values by roll year

Roll year	Assessed value	Change
2011	$19.9M	—
2012	$20.4M	2.2%
2013	$47.6M	133.7%
2014	$54.7M	14.8%
2015	$54.8M	0.2%
2016	$52.4M	-4.3%
2017	$46.0M	-12.3%
2018	$30.7M	-33.3%
2019	$28.1M	-8.3%
2020	$25.7M	-8.5%
2021	$22.5M	-12.7%
2022	$23.3M	3.7%
2023	$23.3M	0.0%
2024	$23.3M	0.0%
2025	$21.8M	-6.4%
2026	$17.3M	-20.7%

Development and building permits

Applications the City has located on this parcel since 2012, from the Development Permits and Building Permits datasets.

Recent development permits 6 since 2012

Applied	Permit	Category · description	Status
2024-08-14	DP2024-05926	Signs - Discretionary Use REVISION: SIGN - CLASS E (DIGITAL MESSAGE SIGNS - 2, 2 YEARS) - CHANGE TO DP2024-02376, CORRECT ADDRESS	Released Approval
2024-08-12	DP2024-05885	Change of Use - With Change to Site Plan CHANGES TO SITE PLAN: POST-SECONDARY LEARNING INSTITUTION (LANDSCAPING)	Released Approval
2024-04-08	DP2024-02376	Signs - Discretionary Use TEMPORARY USE: SIGN - CLASS E (DIGITAL MESSAGE SIGNS - 2, 2 YEARS)	Released Approval
2017-12-06	DP2017-5594	Surface Parking Lots TEMPORARY USE: PARKING LOT - GRADE	Released Approval
2015-01-19	DP2015-0195	Signs - Permitted Use NEW: SIGN - CLASS B (FASCIA SIGNS - 5)	Released Approval
2012-05-15	DP2012-1979	Surface Parking Lots TEMPORARY USE: PARKING AREA (TEMPORARY)	Expired Approval

Recent building permits 15 since 2012 · 1 in the City’s office class

Applied	Permit	Class · work	Est. cost	Status
2024-07-26	BP2024-15404	5104 - College, Other · Improvement Exterior alteration	$51,930	Completed
2023-04-13	BP2023-04867	5104 - College, Other · Improvement Exterior Alterations (Bow Valley College South Campus Smoke Seal Repair)	$523,490	Completed
2021-07-20	BP2021-12812	5115 - University Of Calgary · Improvement U of C BAS 210211 CBDL Laser Cutter - Interior Alteration	$54,000	Completed
2020-08-31	BP2020-12132	3402 - Office · Improvement Interior Alterations	$57,000	Completed
2020-08-24	BP2020-11678	6399 - Municipal/Commercial Misc. · Improvement Temporary Structure - 9 Block Canopy Project	$67,500	Issued Permit
2020-03-12	BP2020-03053	2303 - Bridge (+15) · Improvement Plus 15 Walkway Restoration #1504	$995,000	Completed
2019-03-14	BP2019-02592	6307 - Police · Improvement APU Wall Build Out	$2,500	Issued Permit
2018-10-19	BP2018-14009	6399 - Municipal/Commercial Misc. · Improvement CMLC Retrofit to Existing/Old Central Library	$241,095	Completed

Declared estimated project cost across all 15 non-residential building permits on the parcel since 2012: $6.2M. Permit descriptions are the City’s records at retrieval; applicant and contractor names are not reproduced.

Nearby office buildings

The six nearest office building sites in the record, by straight-line distance between parcel centroids.

Catholic School Centre300 6 Ave SE19.5 m · built 1967 · Office · Downtown Commercial Core · 108 m
615 Macleod Trail SE62.8 m · built 1972 · Office · Downtown Commercial Core · 124 m
Education Centre Building515 Macleod Trail SE25.4 m · built 1967 · Office · Downtown Commercial Core · 184 m
Original Centre Street Bridge Lions800 Macleod Trail SE57.2 m · built 1982 · Office · Downtown Commercial Core · 188 m
Burns Building237 8 Ave SEheight n/a · built 1913 · Office · Downtown Commercial Core · 204 m
St. Louis Hotel430 8 Ave SE13 m · built 1913 · Office · Downtown East Village · 264 m

W.R. Castell Central Library questions

Answers drawn from the record.

How tall is W.R. Castell Central Library?

The main structure on the parcel has a LiDAR roof height of 30.5 m in The City of Calgary’s 3D building data, a storey-equivalent of about 8 at 3.9 m per storey.

When was W.R. Castell Central Library built?

The City’s assessment roll records 1974 as the year of construction. The heritage inventory records 1963.

Which CTrain station is closest to W.R. Castell Central Library?

City Hall Station, 43 m in a straight line from the parcel centroid.

Is office space available at W.R. Castell Central Library?

This profile is built from public records and does not track availability, rents or tenancy. Submit a private requirement and current options in the building or nearby will be confirmed through Commercially.

Open in 3D Downtown Commercial Core office buildings Calgary office space guide Downtown map Skyline Office lease cost guide Office tour checklist

Public record sources: Current Year Property Assessments (Parcel), Historical Property Assessments (Parcel), Assessment Subproperty Use Codes, 3D Buildings - Citywide (LiDAR roof outlines), Land Use Districts, Transit LRT Stations, Green Line Stations, Plus 15, Historic Resource (Inventory of Evaluated Historic Resources), Development Permits, Building Permits, Calgary Existing Buildings - Performance Metrics (BenchmarkYYC) — The City of Calgary, retrieved 2026-09-21. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – City of Calgary. Building names, floor counts and architects, where shown, come from Wikidata (CC0). No brokerage, listing-data or commercial research source is used.

Boundary: Assessed values are the City’s assessment-roll figures for taxation and are not sale prices, asking rents, vacancy or availability; Alberta does not publish transaction prices. LiDAR heights are roof-surface elevations above the lowest ground point at the building perimeter and can differ from architectural heights. Storey equivalents are derived at 3.9 m per storey and are not floor counts. Distances are straight-line. Permit descriptions are the City’s records at retrieval and do not establish current use, tenancy or availability. Read the methodology.

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