BNR Edmonton began temporary operation in leased facilities in a 15-storey office building, referred to as the Weber Centre at 5555 Calgary Trail NW, (now also known as Clark Builders Place). There was a Contiinental Bank branch located on the ground floor, used by many BNR EDM employees. Continental was acquired by Lloyd’s Bank in 1986. Our leased space comprised a single floor, and was in use from 1981 till some time in the Spring of 1982, when the move to the new, dedicated Lab occurred.
The dedicated Lab building was located at 150 Karl Clark Road in what later became the Edmonton Research & Development Park. It was constructed in 1981 and in use by BNR during the period 1982-1986. The Lab was formally opened in June, 1982
During those years, the building was a single-story unit, with dedicated parking. There were no other buildings in the immediate vicinity. The site was not extensively landscaped. There were no recreational or sports facilities and no outdoor use of the grounds was made in the summer months.
The building housed rows of ‘ESD’ electronics workbenches, shelves and partially equipped bays of the Northern Telecom Fiber Optics products under development, conference rooms, office space for managers and Herman-Miller cubicles for the rest of the employees.
The ‘open concept’ layout had been designed by BNR’s Real Estate & Design Interpretive staff; it featured a well thought out design, contemorary office furniture & equipment, excellent lighting, plenty of greenery and common areas equipped with whiteboards for informal meetings and design sessions. Conventional TWX, Telex and photocophing equipment were provided and conveniently located in the center of the Lab. The Director’s office, formal reception and facilities for greeting visitors were located at the extreme NW end of the building, away from the day-to-day work.
One of the informal meeting areas included a couple of ‘person’ chairs — always of interest to Lab visitors with a photographic urge, although no pesonal cameras were permitted in the Lab.
There was a small on-site cafeteria serving a hot lunch — operated by a contractor. Since there were no close competing alternatives, its useage was higher than might have been expected. Popular off-site watering holes: The Lion’s Head Pub located in the Terrace Hotel (now a Radisson) on Calgary trail, about 5km from the Lab, and less than 1km from the Weber Centre — was especially popular for TGIFs. As well, the first of several Earl’s locations was well liked — both at lunchtime and after work; Earl’s was located near the Lion’s Head on Calgary Trail as well.
A mainframe computer served the on-site ASIC development workstations, a line printer and dozens of IBM 3270 display terminals — many located in several dedicated clusters, each comprising a half dozen terminals. The Edmonton site was also a node on Northern Telecom’s extensive global enterprise PBX network.
The building has been extensively modified since 1986 and was subsequently occupied by LSI Logic Corp., then LogiCan Technologies Inc.
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