Blatchford Field Hangar

The Fort Edmonton Historical Foundation was established to ensure the continued growth of Fort Edmonton Park as a living history museum. Currently, the Foundation is running a $5 Million fund raising campaign to add three new facilities to Fort Edmonton Park which includes the Blatchford Field air Hangar. The original Blatchford Hangar was built on what is now the Edmonton City Center Airport. It was home to many renowned bush pilots and World War I flyers including Punch Dickens and Captain Wilfred "Wop" May the decorated flying ace who helped shoot down the infamous Red Baron. The Hangar was completed in 1929 and used to store and service planes, to handle cargo and passenger traffic and as a control tower. The present day use of the Hanger will be to serve as a revenue generating facility for Fort Edmonton Park. The 600 people sit down seating capacity ranks the Blatchford Hangar as one of the largest facilities in the City for hosting a variety of events/functions. A primary architectural priority for the project was to recreate the Hangar with as much historic accuracy as possible. This included not only the exterior look of the structure but also the construction materials and details utilized. This provided the project team with numerous challenges throughout and resulted in compromises of historical accuracy in favor of modern materials and construction details. The construction of the Hangar consisted of 81 foot long glulam bow string trusses supported by steel columns and glulam beams for the main hall structural framing. The shed roof utilized TJI joists supported on steel columns. Wood studs were used for framing the exterior and interior walls. The exterior envelop consisted of a SBS roofing system and an acrylic stucco wall system c/w batt insulation. The interior was finished with painted gypsum board. The slab on grade was smooth finished and left exposed. The Hangars' facilities include sufficient washrooms along with a kitchen serving area c/w kitchen equipment large enough to handle 800 person functions. Four large sliding hangar doors on the south elevation open up onto an asphalt tarmac allowing for an increase in area available for functions.