The west side of downtown Calgary began as a community of single-family houses, about a third already built by 1911. Mount Royal College started there in 1911, and expanded in 1931 and 1948. The college relocated in 1972, and its Kerby Memorial Building (1948) became and remains a seniors’ centre. Extensive demolition of the houses began in the 1970s, with more than half gone by the 1990s. They were replaced by medium-rise office buildings, car dealerships and surface parking lots. Then in 1982, Westmount Place, a high-rise apartment, was built, a harbinger of change in the neighbourhood. Starting around 2000, the West End was transformed by a surge of high-rise residential development. Notable buildings include the Avatamsaka Monastery, a grand Buddhist centre that grew from a small commercial building; the Mewata Armoury (1917), and the boldly Brutalist Centennial Planetarium (1967), now the art space Contemporary Calgary.

• Hope, Marty. Nov 5, 2000. “Red-hot core: Calgary’s downtown poised for population boom”. Calgary: Calgary Herald.
• Planning and Building Department. 2009. Downtown West Policy Consolidation. Calgary: City of Calgary. Accessible at Calgary Public Library.
• White, Richard. Nov 16, 2018. “Downtown West: the quiet evolution”. Calgary: Calgary Herald. Online Resource.
• Inventory of Evaluated Historic Resources. Centennial Planetarium. Calgary: City of Calgary. Online Resource.
• Inventory of Evaluated Historic Resources. Elsworth (Gosnik) Residence. Calgary: City of Calgary. Online Resource.
• Inventory of Evaluated Historic Resources. Kerby Memorial Building. Calgary: City of Calgary. Online Resource.
• Inventory of Evaluated Historic Resources. Mewata Armoury. Calgary: City of Calgary. Online Resource.