Condos, gym proposed for Yellowknife mine landmark

The tallest structure in the Northwest Territories could become a condominium tower, a climbing gym or even a 25-storey vertical garden, according to a preliminarystudy of ways to save the Robertson shaft headframe in Yellowknife.

The city prepared the pre-feasibility report with potential ideas for preserving the headframe, which was part of the Con gold mine until it closed in 2003.

The headframe was slated to be demolished last year, as part of the Con Mine cleanup. But residents lobbied council to save the structure, arguing that it's a prominent landmark in Yellowknife's skyline and part of the city's mining history.

"Some of these ideas are obviously more expensive and would require far more private sector involvement and investment," Coun. Mark Heyck, who chairs the city's heritage committee, told CBC News on Monday.

"By the same token, the idea with this pre-feasibility study was to go out and look at, you know, every potential use for that structure that there might be."

Monument, billboard also proposed

The 35-page city report, prepared by local firm Outcrop Communications, came with some relatively conservative ideas, such as simply preserving the Robertson headframe as a monument to the city's mining heritage.

The report also included some ballpark cost estimates: for example, it would cost at least $50 million to transform the headframe into a condominium development, or $3 million to turn it into an indoor climbing gym.

Converting the headframe into an indoor vertical hydroponic greenhouse would cost around $20 million, according to the report.

One ideathat was raisedis to turn the headframe, which has warm air flowing underground, into a geothermal energy plant that would provide low-cost heat to downtown Yellowknife. The report also suggests installing solar panels on the tower to complement the geothermal heat plant.

Other ideas range from turning the headframe into a giant billboard-typeadvertising space to building a camera obscura that can project an outside view from the rooftop inside the structure's walls or floor.

By comparison, simply demolishing the headframe would cost around $500,000, and the city would not have any responsibility for the structure, according to the report.

Good business sense

While some of the ideas may seem outrageous, the 25-storey structure could be turned into just about anything if there's enough money, said Warren McLeod, an engineer from Yellowknife.

McLeod said it might make good business sense to combine a number of ideas.

"For example, you know, have a rooftop restaurant and an observation deck with some amount of retail, perhaps, and condominium-style apartments," he said.

"Pulling all those together might, in the end, make sense financially, which in the long run is really what will drive whether or not saving the headframe will happen."

But McLeod warned that before anything happens, the structure would have to be carefully examined.

He added that the reclamation of the Con Mine could influence possible uses for the headframe, since residential development standards are strict.

Heyck said it may be up to the next city council to decide what the next steps should be for saving the Robertson headframe. With municipal elections coming up in October, the current council has only a few meetings left.