Left, City planning manager Craig Guidinger holds the Municipal Heritage Award given to the King's Bench Court House window replacement project. Beside him is Chief Justice Martel Popescul, architect Justin Wotherspoon and Malcolm Hoehn, with SaskBuilds. Behind them is the Rose Window.  (Susan McNeil/paNOW)

By Susan McNeil

King's Bench Courthouse

King’s Bench courthouse window project in P.A. honoured as building nears century mark

Oct 12, 2023 | 6:00 AM

When the King’s Bench courthouse in Prince Albert was built in 1927, King George V sat on the throne of England and the Commonwealth.

In the nearly 100 years that have passed since, George was succeeded by Edward, then Edward’s brother George VI, then Elizabeth II and now her son Charles II.

In that time, many judges, lawyers and criminals walked the red carpets of the Prince Albert court house, including current Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, Martel Popescul.

“This courthouse holds a special significance for me,” said Popescul. “It was here over 43 years ago, that I conducted my first cases in this very courthouse.”

“This is where John G. Diefenbaker, the 13^th Prime Minister of Canada, conducted many of his trials. I could feel the importance and history of this building as I walked in his footsteps.”

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In 1983, the building was named a municipal heritage building with its location at the top of the hill over-looking Central Avenue symbolic of its prestige.

Director of Planning for the City of Prince Albert Craig Guidinger said the Municipal Heritage Award given to the building on Wednesday was the first of its kind handed out since 2016.

Several years ago, the province decided to replace all of the windows in the building, except for one known as the Rose Window.

As a heritage building, however, just replacing the windows with modern versions of the previous ones is not sufficient.

Research was done before the custom replacements were ordered and the architects made sure the new windows were an authentic version of the old ones.

The Rose Window was not replaced, instead, they re-furbished it and covered it with a custom pane that can be opened so it can be cleaned and maintained as needed.

Justin Wotherspoon, who is with SEPW Architecture Inc., said the job was challenging.

“From our perspective, preserving our mutual architectural history is just so important, and we take that very seriously,” he said.

It took a team of several people to complete the job of changing old (but not original) windows with modern, triple glazed, metal clad oak windows that improve energy efficiency.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com