Description of Historic Place

The Engineering Office, also known as Building 28, faces a large, open yard in the Bear Creek Compound, a historic, non-operating, placer gold mining facility in the Klondike River valley. The two-storey, wood-frame building is clad with horizontal wood siding and topped by a metal gable roof with a rooftop ventilator. The front elevation of the building links to an adjacent warehouse to the east, and a concrete addition, is set back on the west side. The designation is confined to the footprint of the building.

Heritage Value

The Engineering Office is a Recognized Federal Heritage Building because of its historical associations, and its architectural and environmental value.

Historical Value
The Engineering Office, as part of the Bear Creek Compound, is closely associated with the corporate phase of Yukon’s gold mining history. The building provided offices, records space, a drafting area, and other amenities for engineers, geologists, accountants, and others working at the mining facility. Relocated from the Yukon Consolidated Gold Corporation’s Arlington camp in 1940, the Engineering Office also illustrates the changes brought about following the renewal and expansion program of the 1930s.

Architectural Value
The Engineering Office is valued for its good, simple aesthetic. The functional nature of its design consists of a rectangular structure whose front elevation extends into a one-storey wood-frame link to Warehouse 1 to the east, and a two-storey, concrete vault set back on the west side. The building’s good workmanship is demonstrated in its wood-frame construction clad in the appropriate materials such as the horizontal wood siding and the metal, gable roof.

Environmental Value
The Engineering Office maintains an unchanged relationship to its site and reinforces the character of its industrial setting at the Bear Creek Compound. The structure is familiar to those within the immediate area.

Sources:
Joan Mattie, Bear Creek Industrial Complex, Bear Creek, Yukon Federal Heritage Building Review Office Building Report 89-008; Engineering Office (28) (Building #28), Bear Creek Compound, Yukon, Heritage Character Statement, 89-008.

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of the Engineering Office should be respected:
the simple and functional nature of its design, and its overall good workmanship and appropriate use of materials; the features of its form, construction, and materials that unify it with the site’s other buildings, including its rectangular shape, its gable roof, its grey wood horizontal siding, its corrugated metal roof covering, its rooftop ventilator, and its wood-frame structure; the arrangement and detailing of its doors and windows; its comfortable relationship – due to its form, materials, detailing, and colour scheme – with the other structures and landscape features of the site, particularly the adjacent Warehouse No. 1 (Building 27).

Heritage Character Statement

Disclaimer - The heritage character statement was developed by FHBRO to explain the reasons for the designation of a federal heritage building and what it is about the building that makes it significant (the heritage character). It is a key reference document for anyone involved in planning interventions to federal heritage buildings and is used by FHBRO in their review of interventions.

The Engineering Office (Building #28), originally a large mess hall and bunk house at the Arlington camp of the Yukon Consolidated Gold Corporation, was relocated to YCGC's Bear Creek industrial complex, a service facility for the YCGC's mining operations, in 1940. At its new location, it was converted for use as an office building. A two-storey concrete addition provided vault space, and a one-storey shipping office linked it to the adjacent Warehouse No. 1 (Building #27). It provided offices, records space, a drafting area, and other amenities for engineers, geologists, accountants, and others working at the mining facility. Operations at the Bear Creek complex ceased in 1966, and the property was acquired by Parks Canada, its present custodian, in 1975.

Reasons for designation

The Engineering Office (Building #28) is a 'Recognized' Federal Heritage Building because of its historical, architectural, and environmental values:

As part of the Bear Creek complex, the Engineering Office is associated with the corporate phase of Yukon's gold mining history. Relocated from the YCGC's Arlington camp in 1940, it also illustrates the changes brought about following the renewal and expansion program of the 1930s.

The Engineering Office is simple and functional in design, and exhibits good workmanship and appropriate use of materials. The building's two-storey rectangular form is clad with horizontal wood siding, painted grey, with white trim. It is topped by a metal-covered gable roof with a boxed ventilator. The front elevation of the wood-frame building extends into a single-storey wood-frame link to Warehouse No.1 to the east, and a concrete addition, which served as a vault, is set back on the west side.

The Engineering Building reinforces the industrial character of this functionally obsolete but remarkably intact village-like mining service facility, with its 80 structures and several landscape features relating to large-scale mechanical placer mining. Like the site's other main buildings, it faces the large open yard. It enjoys a visual and functional link with the adjacent Warehouse No. 1 (Building #27).



Character-defining elements

The following character-defining elements of the Engineering Office should be respected:
· The simple and functional nature of its design, and its overall good workmanship and appropriate use of
materials.
· The features of its form, construction, and materials that unify it with the site's other buildings, including its
rectangular shape, its gable roof, its grey wood horizontal siding, its corrugated metal roof covering, its
rooftop ventilator, and its wood-frame structure.
· The arrangement and detailing of its doors and windows.
· Its comfortable relationship ' due to its form, materials, detailing, and colour scheme ' with the other
structures and landscape features of the site, particularly the adjacent Warehouse No. 1 (Building #27).