Today we’re looking at the (former) Crescent Heights Safeway on the west side of Medicine Hat Alberta. The store opened 1960 and closed 2014. It’s a smaller community Safeway built without the iconic “Marina” arched roof, but still a very ’60s design. The style of the time, be it for cars, fashion or architecture, was to challenge or break free of accepted norms.
In that spirit, Safeway went all in with a series of stand-out designs in that era. The arched-roofed model is most well known (iconic), but for smaller stores like this, they often went with something a bit more subdued. Still reflecting the attitudes of the time, but less showy.
No matter which, these Safeways were all airy and open, thanks to the extensive use of laminate beams requiring minimal intermediate supports on the inside. This one in Crescent Heights was not the only example of this design, and we know of others like it built in Calgary. A couple are still standing, but house other businesses now.
The Safeway firm stood out thanks to the architecture of its stores, but today they seem content to looks like everyone else. In the most blasé and cookie-cutter way possible. They’re just another store now and no longer dominate the market as they did when this outlet was built.
The Crescent Heights Safeway was empty on our visit, but someone was doing work inside. That, we understand, is in preparation of a Dollarama moving in. That’s not the first Safeway to dollar store transition and something similar happened with a former Marina Safeway in Calgary not far from BIGDoer HQ. The arch, in an instant, tells you what it was.
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