Exploring the Capital: An Architectural Guide to the Ottawa Region

By Andrew Waldron, Peter Coffman and Harold Kalman

The many and varied threads of Canada’s national life come together in its capital region. Where the Rideau River flows into the Ottawa River, an Algonquin community was visited by French explorers and settled by British colonists. The town grew into a city, spilled over a provincial border, and now represents Canada to the world.

Ottawa is a seat of government and has all the official edifices to show for it. But as Andrew Waldron shows you in Exploring the Capital, it’s a lot more than that. Follow the twelve guided-tours covering all corners of the region in Ontario and Quebec and you’ll encounter homes and schools, cultural sites and green spaces, houses of worship and shrines to commerce. Early houses, humble or magnificent, from the era of the lumber barons can be found steps away from the latest in sleek condominiums and office towers built for sustainability. Waldron takes you behind the doors of more than 390 diverse structures to learn who made them, how, and why.

Exploring the Capital is for architectural experts and amateurs, and for residents and visitors alike. Visit Ottawa’s landmarks and neighbourhoods through its stories, maps, and photographs, and learn how great design and engineering turn landscapes into cityscapes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Figure 1 Publishing
• Release date: May 31, 2017
• ISBN: 9781773270074

Andrew Waldron

Andrew Waldronis an architectural historian who has worked at Parks Canada and is Brookfield Global Integrated Solutions’ heritage conservation manager in Ottawa. His passion for Canadian architecture and historic sites began when he was young. Andrew and his wife Danielle live in a historic house in Lowertown.

Book preview

Life & Bronze cover imageLife & Bronze title page

Copyright © 2017 by Andrew Waldron

Photography copyright © 2017 by Peter Coffman except where otherwise noted

Foreword copyright © 2017 by Mark Kristmanson, Jim Watson and Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the publisher or a licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). For a copyright licence, visit www.accesscopyright.ca or call toll-free to 1-800-893-5777.

Published simultaneously by University of Ottawa Press as Explorez la région de la capitale nationale.

Cataloguing data available from Library and Archives Canada

ISBN 978-1-927958-91-9 (pbk.)

ISBN 978-1-77327-007-4 (ebook)

ISBN 978-1-77327-008-1 (pdf)

Design by Natalie Olsen

Photography by Peter Coffman

Editing by Barbara Czarnecki

Copy editing by Stephanie Fysh

Proofreading and indexing by Stephen Ullstrom

Maps by Eric Leinberger

Ebook by Bright Wing Books (brightwing.ca)

Figure 1 Publishing Inc.

Vancouver BC Canada

www.figure1pub.com

The publisher and authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

With love, to Danielle and Diane

The Tours

Foreword

Introduction

A Parliament Hill

B The ByWard Market

C Centretown

D Sandy Hill

E Glebe, Old Ottawa South and Alta Vista

F New Edinburgh, Rockcliffe Park and Vanier

G Rideau Canal

H The West End

I Hull and the Chaudière

J Nepean

K Beyond the Greenbelt

Glossary of Architectural Terms

Acknowledgements

Index of Designers

Index of Buildings

Foreword

Dr. Mark Kristmanson CEO, National Capital Commission

His Worship Jim Watson Mayor of Ottawa

Le Maire Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin Mayor of Gatineau

THE YEAR 2017 is one of celebration in Canada, marking 150 years of democracy and diversity that have made Canadians proud. As the nation’s capital, Ottawa—indeed, the Ottawa–Gatineau region—is a reflection of Canada’s values in its institutions and landmarks. It is the home to political leaders, the governor general and many ambassadors and foreign dignitaries. It is where the nation mourns its fallen soldiers and hosts the country’s biggest Canada Day party—which means it is unlike any other Canadian city you have experienced.

You can enjoy the modern and vibrant life of the region yet appreciate our shared history, reaching back to Indigenous travellers who met along the banks of the region’s rivers. You can enjoy the surrounding outdoor wildness and then savour food at the trendiest restaurants, or unwind at a spa in the Gatineau foothills, then take in a concert at Canada’s National Arts Centre. There are few other places where nature and culture are so connected. Repeatedly, surveys on quality of living rank Ottawa and Gatineau at the top. Why? Because of the richness of what we have to offer.

To help you appreciate the Ottawa–Gatineau region’s history, Exploring the Capital offers you tours featuring places with important stories about our past, showing how we have changed for the better. At one time, our English and French ancestors settled the area with a pioneer spirit that challenged even the hardiest immigrant. But in time, they created an attractive home that now is the envy of other urban places. Fast rapid transit, many bike paths, cultural venues and museums serve us, thanks in part to the National Capital Commission, working together with the cities of Ottawa and Gatineau.

Each of our cities has been able to achieve visions that only a few years ago were still on our wish lists. We have a new transit line across Gatineau, light rail transit comes to Ottawa in 2018, Lansdowne Park is revitalized, the new Ottawa Art Gallery and Arts Court will soon open, and the Rideau Canal and the rivers are more accessible than ever to all of us.

We are also a mirror of Canada’s values: progressive, demo-cratic and inclusive, while also being richer for our bilingualism and having close ties between each level of government. It is astonishing that we were once a small rough lumber town, then a government town and now we rank as one of the best places to live in Canada!

Canada’s 150th anniversary celebrations in 2017 will be the largest in generations, with many memorable events and activities for residents and visitors of all ages. Exploring the Capital is a legacy project that captures the architectural and cultural history of our region and will be read for years to come. We hope you enjoy the places in this book and that you return many more times to explore our national capital region.

Introduction

CANADA’S CAPITAL IS A CONFLUENCE of landscape, politics, ideas and language. At the shores of its rivers, Indigenous peoples, explorers, fur traders, armies and politicians crossed paths, eventually creating a capital representative of Canada. This boiling-pot frontier resulted in a diversity unique for a national capital.

Ottawa’s history reaches back long before Canada became a nation, to when it was inhabited by the Algonquin people, a branch of the Anishinaabeg. (The Odaawaa, who gave their name to the river, lived farther west.) Forming an alliance with the French, the Algonquins accompanied Samuel de Champlain up the Ottawa River in 1613 and prospered from the fur trade. Later, the Iroquois drove the Algonquin from their lands. As the fur trade declined, the lumber industry came, again feeding European markets and beyond, giving rise to the Ottawa Valley lumber barons who helped shape the region.

Two events made the region into something more than scattered settlements on the Canadian Shield: the British government’s decision to build the Rideau Canal and Queen Victoria’s selection in 1857 of Bytown as Canada’s national capital. Lieutenant-Colonel John By arrived in 1826, built the Rideau Canal as a defensive measure against the United States and laid out a townsite beside Barrack’s Hill. In 1841, Upper and Lower Canada joined as the United Province of Canada, with many cities vying to be capital. In a cunning political compromise, Bytown was selected and renamed Ottawa—the lumber town suddenly became a capital. A decade later, Confederation saw the formation of the Dominion of Canada.

In the following century, the national capital region enjoyed an exceptional wave of building that followed fashions and styles, especially embracing the romantic Châteauesque style created by the Canadian Pacific Railway. While other cities demolished and rebuilt, Canada’s capital is fortunate to have saved many landmarks and lost precious few.

To celebrate this architectural heritage, Harold Kalman published Exploring Ottawa in 1983. It was a guide to historic and contemporary architecture and was cherished by architectural historians, but copies were rare and difficult to find. To solve this, we have created a new, long overdue guide that explores the nation’s capital as it exists 150 years after Confederation.

Exploring the Capital offers you ten unique tours through-out the region, including towns and villages beyond the cities of Ottawa and Gatineau. By no means is this book intended to be an exhaustive inventory of every building in the capital. The Internet and social media have broadened our knowledge and created a wealth of accessible information on historic places, and you can find more in-depth research and sources online for many of the locations marked in this book. We hope this book is only a beginning for learning. Compared to thirty years ago, citizens better understand and appreciate the capital’s heritage, and undoubtedly many facts that more knowledgeable people may raise have been overlooked. We hope nonetheless that we have captured the region’s best architecture and most interesting stories for both local residents and visitors. Ottawa has come a long way, from rough lumber town to cultured city enjoyed by guests from around the world. This guidebook will help you explore the richness of our capital.

The National Capital Commission’s 2017 Confederation Pavilions also create a unique itinerary for residents and visitors to discover both new and rarely open public venues in the nation’s capital. The pavilions are indicated within the tours with the symbol star

A

Parliament Hill

IN 1826, THIS UNINHABITED HEIGHT OF LAND overlooked the grand Ottawa River. Aside from a few distant houses and mills owned by Philemon Wright near the roaring Chaudière Falls, few signs suggested that in thirty years this place would be chosen as a national capital. That year Lieutenant-Colonel John By arrived and laid out a townsite around what would become the impressive Rideau Canal. Labourers struggled to build the canal and trade timber while spending their time off forgetting their harsh lives.

For a decade after the town was chosen to be the new capital of the United Province of Canada in 1857, sixteen years into the new colony’s life, this area became a massive construction site. The ambitious and impressive Parliament Buildings drew more development across Wellington Street, and landowner Nicholas Sparks became the town’s first prominent developer. You will see on this tour the evolution between Crown and Town, the strange bedfellows of private commerce and the federal public service. It features a range of buildings, mostly on Wellington Street and the Sparks Street Mall, from those dating to earliest settlement days to the most contemporary.

01 Confederation Square

Department of Public Works, Jacques Gréber 1938; Phillips Farevaag Smallenberg, Stantec 2000

A01

Confederation Square has evolved into a grand public space. Once the location of the post office, city hall and other important buildings, the square was redesigned in 1938 with the National War Memorial and its impressive sculpture, The Response, as its centre-piece. Soldiers surge through a tall granite arch to symbolize Canada’s great response—and massive losses—in (and since) the First World War. Above the soldiers, Peace and Freedom offer hope of future security. The Unknown Soldier rests on the podium. The sculptor, Vernon March, was chosen in an international compe-tition in 1926, and his six brothers and sister completed the work after his sudden death in 1930. The finished sculptures were displayed in Hyde Park, London, and then were stored for four years until the square was completed. The memorial was unveiled by King George VI on the eve of war in 1939. A Remembrance Day service is held here every November 11.

02 Bytown Locks, Rideau Canal

Between Wellington Street and the Ottawa River, northeast of Confederation Square

Lt.-Col. John By, Thomas McKay 1826–32; Parks Canada 1982–83

A02

The War of 1812 left Canadians fearing a possible American attack. In response, as a defence against American artillery across the Saint Lawrence River, the British built the two-hundred-kilometre Rideau Canal. Over six years, sappers (royal engineers) and more than two thousand labourers, Irish and others, carved an impressive waterway out of the wilderness, connecting lakes with channels and constructing forty-seven locks and fourteen dams. Colonel By chose this deep ravine for eight locks that would lift boats 25 metres above the Ottawa River, and used massive limestone blocks quarried from the cliffs. It is a recreational canal, restored by Parks Canada, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site (2007). The Commissariat near the locks, built in 1827 and now the Bytown Museum, is the oldest building in Ottawa.

03 The Parliament Buildings

Wellington Street

A03

Poised majestically on the crown of The Hill, is the seat of the Government of Canada. Barrack’s Hill became the obvious choice for Parliament, and a competition was held, with the winners adopting a Civic Gothic style. The three buildings were ready in 1866. Two—for government departments, cabinet ministers, the prime minister, and the governor general—flank Centre Block, with space for 264 public servants, but when New Brunswick and Nova Scotia joined Confederation to create the Dominion of Canada, they immediately became overcrowded. Today, half the public service is scattered among other buildings in Ottawa and Gatineau. After years of neglect, Parliament Hill is undergoing a twenty-year program to restore the buildings (2007–27). This began with the rehabilitation of the West Block, to be completed in 2017, and will finish with conservation of the Centre Block.

A03

The Centre Block accommodates the chambers of the elected House of Commons and the appointed Senate. All legislation is debated here. On a cold February evening in 1916, the original Centre Block (Thomas Fuller, Chilion Jones 1859–66) was destroyed by a spectacular fire, save for the Library. Parliament sat for four years in the Victoria Museum (C13) while the Centre Block was rebuilt. The architects (John A. Pearson, J. Omer Marchand 1916–27) at first intended to preserve parts of the destroyed building but instead designed a steel frame using the same Nepean sandstone. Pointed-arch windows, steep roofs and corner turrets continue Gothic Revivalism but with an underlying Beaux-Arts office plan, following two major axes, dominated by the 90-metre Peace Tower with a fifty-three-bell carillon to honour Canada’s war dead, especially the soldiers who died at the Battle of Vimy Ridge. Since completion, over thirty sculptors have collaborated under the Dominion sculptors (William F.K. Oosterhoff 1950–62; Eleanor Milne 1962–93) on the richly ornamented interior. While the Centre Block is undergoing its restoration, the Senate will be moved to the Government Conference Centre (G1).

The East Block (Frederick Warburton Stent, Augustus Laver 1859–65) is the most exuberant building on the Hill, with walls of multicoloured Nepean sandstone enlivened with red Potsdam sandstone to create a polychromatic effect popular in Victorian times. Windows and doors are trimmed with more sober buff Ohio sandstone. Rich decorative carving and grotesque gargoyles animate the walls, and wooden dormer windows punctuate the roof. An imaginative person can see the eyes and nose of a face in the openings on the southwest tower. Some have suggested that the carved figures, built in a time of scientific discovery, are associated with early Darwinian ideas of evolution. The historic rooms have been renovated and restored (Department of Public Works 1975–81) to return them to their appearance at the time of Confederation.

The West Block looked much like its sister building, before the impressive west tower (Thomas Seaton Scott 1874–78) was added. Until the Peace Tower was completed fifty years later, the immense Mackenzie Tower was the tallest structure in Ottawa. Around 1960, a proposed demolition of the West Block was avoided after protests. Infill of the courtyard will serve as the Commons while the Centre Block is rehabilitated (to be completed in 2027).

The sixteen-sided Library (Thomas Fuller, Chilion Jones, completed by Thomas S. Scott, John Bowes 1859–77; Mathers & Haldenby 1953–56; Public Works & Government Services Canada, Spencer R. Higgins, Architect 1995–2002) behind the Centre Block is the only part of the original building to have survived the fire. Its riot of colour and jagged silhouette produce a picturesque Victorian richness. Reminiscent of a medieval chapterhouse, the Library holds the parliamentary collection begun by librarian Alpheus Todd, serving not only members of Parliament but also the city. Sir John A. Macdonald complained that it should not be a circulating library to be carried home by members, knocked about by their children for a year, and then lost or returned torn and defaced. A 1952 fire in the roof, the first iron dome in Canada, caused extensive water damage to the building and books. The Library was poorly repaired until the 1990s restoration. The reading room, with its carved pine and a marble statue of Queen Victoria (Marshall Wood 1871), can be seen on tours of the Centre Block.

The Parliamentary Grounds (Calvert Vaux 1873) encompass a large garden and a wilder treed escarpment. Terraces unite the different elevations. The Wellington Gates (Frederick J. Alexander 1873–75; ironwork by H.R. Ives & Co.) open onto a ceremonial path and grand staircase. Protests and announcements take place here. A perpetual flame, lighted on New Year’s Eve in 1966 to mark the beginning of Canada’s Centennial year, is mounted with provincial and territorial coats of arms. Beside the West Block, a new underground Visitor Welcome Centre (Moriyama & Teshima Architects, IBI Group 2014–17) allows visitors to enter the Centre Block from below. Vestiges of a Lover’s Walk across the escarpment are still seen, but this is closed. The Summer Pavilion, originally built for the Speaker of the House in 1877, was reconstructed behind the Centre Block (Julian Smith 1995). Throughout the grounds, sculptures commemorate activities related to Parliament and governance, their subjects including royalty, prime ministers and the Famous Five women who gained equal political rights. An odd exception is a memorial to the War of 1812, quietly unveiled in 2014 to mark the anniversary of the end of the conflict.

Pictured: (A03 first image) East Block | (A03 second image) Peace Tower | (below) Library

A03

04 Langevin Block

80 Wellington Street

Thomas Fuller 1883–89; Miska, Gale & Ling 1975–77

A04

Intended to satisfy the growing public service, this block was built by the architect of the original Centre Block and is named after Father of Confeder-ation Hector-Louis Langevin, the first minister of the Department of Public Works. His chief architect abandoned Gothic Revivalism in favour of a more fashionable blend of Italian Renaissance and Second Empire styles, employing rounded arches, mansard roofs and more robust and warm olive-coloured Dorchester sandstone from New Brunswick. Until the 1960s, several departmental headquarters were located here. The Prime Minister’s Office and the Privy Council took the building for their use in the mid-1970s after extensive renovations.

05 Former Embassy of the United States of America

100 Wellington Street

Cass Gilbert Jr. 1931–32

A05

Located directly across from Parliament Hill, where it provided Americans with ready access to Canadian lawmakers, the former embassy alludes to the Classicism preferred by Washington, in contrast to Canadian fondness for the Gothic. The three-storey façade follows the arrangement of an Italian Renaissance palace, with a piano nobile over a rusticated arched ground floor. A row of Corinthian pilasters, carved ornament and a rooftop balustrade bolster the Classical associations. The U.S. mission moved in 1999 to a larger and more secure embassy on Sussex Drive (B5). The government intended to repurpose 100 Wellington Street as a national portrait gallery, but the project was shelved in 2005 and the palazzo remains vacant. The open plaza beside it was the location of the legendary Rideau Club (1875; destroyed 1979), where parliamentarians often finished their work. The club’s first president was Sir John A. Macdonald. The diminutive three-storey Romanesque Revival Union Bank Building (128 Wellington Street, Frederick J. Alexander 1887–88) is the last survivor of the once extensive Bankers’ Row along Wellington Street.

06 Sir John A. Macdonald Building

144 Wellington Street

Ernest I. Barott 1929–32; NORR, MTBA Associates 2012–15

A06

This former Bank of Montreal takes the Classical temple form and strips it down to its essentials in a style often called Stripped Classicism. The façades are articulated with a ribbon-thin cornice and pilasters engraved into the Queenston limestone. Allegorical scenes representing Canadian industry and commerce were carved over the windows (Emil Siebern). The bank was rehabilitated under the guidance of the Federal Heritage Buildings Review Office as a reception hall and meeting rooms, adding a glass atrium and reorienting the entrance. The grand former banking hall with a coffered ceiling was sensitively restored.

07 National Press Building

150 Wellington Street

Richards & Abra, C.P. Meredith 1917–18

Photo credit: Hellmut Schade, Carleton University Audio-Visual Resource Centre, 1984

A07

The Fourth Estate of journalists have offices in this nine-storey terracotta-clad structure formerly known as the Norlite Building. The National Press Theatre was opened here in 1967 for parliamentary announcements. A conservative yet competent design, the building features Classical ordering, with a three-bay central entrance and tower-like stepped parapets. Free-standing urns at the top were remove in the 1970s.

08 Wellington Building

180 Wellington Street

D. Everett Waid, J.A. Ewart associate architect 1924–27; Marani, Morris & Allan 1957–61; Eriksson Padolsky 1979–80; Public Works and Government Services Canada, NORR 2010–16

A08

The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company retained a grand Beaux-Arts design for its headquarters. Sturdy Corinthian columns facing Wellington and Bank streets conceal a modern steel structure. The lobby features a Byzantine-style mosaic (Barry Faulkner) depicting the company as Mother alongside her insurance holders and employees. Public spaces were adorned with marble and gold leaf. An eleven-storey curtain-wall building proposed in 1953 on the east side, stretching from Wellington Street to Sparks Street, was rejected to preserve views of the Peace Tower (A3). Instead, an addition in keeping with the original Neoclassical design was built. The building was expropriated by the federal government in the early 1970s. An extensive restoration and rehabilitation (2016), at a cost of $425 million, features a living wall in the atrium, stylish breakout rooms and solar-panel water heating.

09 Confederation and Justice Buildings

229 and 249 Wellington Street

Department of Public Works 1928–31; Burritt & Horwood 1935–38

Pictured: Confederation Building

A09

Government growth increasingly required construction of buildings beyond Parliament Hill. At first, buildings were constructed along Sussex Drive, but the government later acquired land west of the Parliament Buildings and built these two annexes. The Loire Valley–inspired buildings were in vogue at the time. Steep copper roofs, dormer windows and a picturesque silhouette are hallmarks of the Château style.

10 Bank of Canada

234 Wellington Street

Marani, Lawson & Morris, S.G. Davenport 1937; Arthur Erickson Architects, Marani, Rounthwaite & Dick 1974–79; DTAH, Perkins+Will 2013–17