Servicing both residential and commercial customers, City Glass provides exceptional service from the moment you call through the completion of each project – and beyond. Whether you are in need of a specialty mirror or commercial glass, their signature staircase glass or any form of custom glasswork, you can rely on their collective 140 years of experience to exceed your expectations.
This year City Glass celebrates a milestone anniversary of 65 years.
Mark Kirkup, general manager, says, “We are in the business of helping you love your space. Whether your home needs windows or a new shower or your business needs custom glasswork, that is what we are all about – improving your space.”
He and his team are proud to have worked on projects from residential homes to the EPCOR Tower, from local restaurants to the Northland Properties Group’s Sandman Hotels. City Glass excels at custom glass stair work, with Kirkup taking a special interest in this service and delivering designs that seamlessly blend into both traditional and contemporary styles.
“The projects we do are so varied on a daily basis,” Kirkup says. “We just quietly and humbly go about our business executing projects. One of the larger residential projects we recently completed was $250,000 in custom glasswork for a custom homebuilder. That project worked out so well! The house is going to be featured in a magazine.”
The project saw City Glass innovating glass into as many design features as possible in the home. Not only that, a lot of it is smoked glass to give the residence a nostalgic feel when the accent lights are on but instantly transforms to a sleek modern feel when the accent lights are turned off.
“The combination of the glass and lights created an incredibly cool house,” says Kirkup. “It’s a standout project to me for sure.”
In addition to being the go-to source for innovative projects of this nature, City Glass is also one of the only full-service glass shops in Edmonton.
Kirkup explains, “There are three different glazing trades: auto, residential and commercial; they could not be more different! There are a lot of shops that do commercial and a lot that do residential but not many do both. Residential glass needs a different level of focus and a very different skillset and mindset.”
He describes how City Glass excels at both, “We had primarily been a high-end custom service company for residential glass. We took our mindset about customer service and our outstanding corporate culture and put that into the commercial division so our customers on the commercial side can be happy and content that they are getting the best quality projects and installations. We also hired an operations manager with 25 years of experience. With his experience, he has helped build our commercial division.”
It is this dedication to constantly innovating and expanding in skills, service and knowledge that has grown City Glass consistently for over 60 years.
He continues, noting, “A business leader from Junior Achievement visited my school and said, ‘If you are not serving the customer, you better be serving the person that is.’ That stayed with me.”
With 65 years of growth behind them, Kirkup credits the team and the customers for the ongoing success.
“I love that we have grown mainly from referrals,” he says. “We just quietly go about our business doing the right thing and the years have just flown by. We don’t hit it out of the park every time. Being vulnerable is an important part of our success too. All we ask is that you give us an opportunity to fix any things that do not go right. One chance – and we will fix it. We can’t walk away from an unhappy customer. This is our level of dedication to keeping our customers happy.”
Kirkup concludes with a thank you to Ron Pasika, who worked with City Glass for 58 years and retired in January 2024.
“There is little doubt that without Ron’s skillset, dedication and character, City Glass would not have thrived like it did. I just picked up the torch and carried it. He is the one that made the torch, lit the torch and carried it for a considerable amount of time.”
What does the future hold? For Kirkup, it’s as clear as glass.
“We will continue to do what has made us successful for the last 65 years; working hard and being innovative, taking care of our customers, valuing the team and remaining committed to service in our work and in our community.”
Learn more about City Glass on their website and be sure to view their impressive gallery under “services.”
City Glass is also active on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
9100 Yellowhead Trail T5B 1G2
780-477-3521 | cityglassltd.com