Did you know that the site of the 1988 Winter Olympics, the historical "Olympic Plaza" in Calgary, Canada, will cease to exist in its current form after this summer season? The plaza will close, and then the entire site will be excavated to accommodate the Arts Commons Transformation, which is anticipated to take up to five years to complete*.

Almost everyone I've talked to doesn't even know this is happening! I think that people would like to know that their famed 1988 Winter Olympic Games site is being dismantled, and with it, the tens of thousands of bricks surrounding it—bricks with special messages and names of people who supported the city by purchasing a brick in their special promotion for $19.88, back in 1986*.

Closing the plaza and erasing history like this, without proper feedback on the new design from the entire community*, deciding together how to preserve/change this monumental, magical, and historical site, is just wrong, wrong, wrong, on another level.

Yes, we have many ice rinks in and around Calgary, but only ONE historic Olympic Winter Games site and ONE refrigerated outdoor rink.

I started a petition to try to make a difference. We need less paying and more free activities—some can barely pay for rent and food, let alone afford a ticket to an Arts Commons performance. This is one of the few spaces directly connected to the LRT where you can come to enjoy the wading pond in the summer or skate in the winter—without the expectation to pay a fee.

Please sign my petition and speak up with me! Let's not lose the things that make Calgary cool, a legacy of the games that brought the world's attention  - and instead make the mistake to create a facsimile "North American" space, devoid of Canadian historical character and Calgary’s spirit, in place of that.

This beautiful and historical outdoor giant refrigerated rink is kept impeccably by the proud workers who maintain this ice every day. It is as good, if not sometimes better than, indoor rink ice. They have done an amazing job keeping it beautiful for us to skate on all of these decades. Thank you so much to everyone who worked on this site over the years. One man has worked here for 23 years and is very sad to see this happen. He was happy to sign my petition, as were many other shocked people.

Images released so far by CMLC* show no more refrigerated rink, with beautiful lights and shimmering glass office towers lining the background. No more pond in which to wade and cool off in the summer months... We need to keep the "free" things for families and people to access! We need treed inner-city spaces of sanctuary, not more buildings charging more money to use, taking away our unique, award-winning facilities, erasing our history, and replacing it with more cement!

*References:

[City of Calgary Arts Commons Transformation Project*](https://www.calgary.ca/planning/projects/arts-commons.html

[CBC News: Downtown Calgary Olympics 1988 Plaza*](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/downtown-calgary-olympics-1988-plaza-1.6880513

[Engage Calgary: Olympic Plaza Development*](https://engage.calgary.ca/myOPCD?redirect=/myopcd

[Calgary Municipal Land Corporation: Arts Commons Transformation*](https://www.calgarymlc.ca/projects/arts-commons-transformation