"She never played council games… she was intellectual, honest and spoke common sense," former mayor Rod Sykes said of Virnetta Anderson.

Calgary's historic city hall reopened Tuesday following an extensive three-year, $34-million heritage restoration project on the 113th anniversary of the laying of the original cornerstone.

Work on the hall began in 2017 and has since been under wraps while crews worked through every season to repair and preserve the more than 15,000 sandstone pieces that make up the building's exterior.