Heritage Ottawa NEWSLETTER Dedicated to Preserving Our Built Heritage Summer 2002 Volume 29, No. 1 Heritage Ottawa Addresses the NCC’s Board of Directors. President’s Report Carolyn Quinn he National Capital Mayors of Ottawa and Gatineau is The City of Ottawa has designated Commission invited local essential. When communicating the parts of Sparks Street a Heritage Tinterest groups to present capital to Canadians, it is the actual Conservation District under the Ontario nature and history of the capital that ideas to assist the commission in Heritage Act to preserve its history. What must be the focus. The city is the you propose is to transform Sparks Street, fulfilling its three-part national product of the life of the local citizens, a weasel word used in describing your mandate: Communicating the capital the Ontario-Quebec bilingual character, plans for LeBreton Flats. to Canadians; safeguarding and the cosmopolitan lifestyle of immigrant Similarly, the creation of a public preserving national symbols and and diplomatic communities and square runs contrary to the design of treasures; and creating a meeting the political climate as the seat of Parliament Hill. The High-Victorian government. place for all Canadians. The following Gothic Revival design of our Parliament Your mandate must balance the Buildings was chosen over the Neo- is a modified version of our response civic realm and the capital realm more Classical style because it reflected our presented to the Board of Directors of effectively. The ‘town versus crown’ non-revolutionary past and our feeling the NCC by President Carolyn Quinn dichotomy has tended to work against for the picturesque. The sheer delight of on May 2, 2002 those sites whose history is perceived as this architecture is meant to surprise the J’aimerais commencée par vous of too local significance. Federal urban visitor, not to impose itself from the remerciez pour cette occassion de planning sets priorities that aim at distance of a wide open space. présenter nos idées en ce qui concernent achieving national objectives that often Jacques Gréber understood this la réalisation du mandat de la jeopardise municipal heritage. important aesthetic consideration Commission de la Capitale Nationale. Your preference for a vision of when he planned the widening of En bref, notre message de toute the capital that favours it as visitor Elgin Street to create an angular premiére importance c’est de ne jamais showcase, includes a proposal that approach to the Hill. oublier de considérer la forte impression would see the demolition and relocation The NCC mandate, as a public que vos décisions ont sur les résidents de of heritage buildings in order to trustee of the region, must protect the la capitale et sur notre patrimoine locale. facilitate the construction of a four- physical evidence of the multifaceted For this over-riding precept – a storey underground parking garage and evolution of the heritage character of respect for the citizenry of the National the creation of a public square opposite Ottawa. The graceful low-key and quiet Capital Region – to guide all NCC plans, the Centre Block of Parliament Hill. character of the city with the vibrant life there must be transparency of the Both these destructive developments of its resident communities, is admired decision making process and increased ignore the historic significance of equally by residents and visitors. This consultation with the local communities Sparks Street as an important local very character must be communicated to and their representatives. This evening is cultural landscape – by severing it Canadians without added pretensions. a good beginning. Let us hope it is just in two. You have used the phrase Your mandate is to communicate the start of a more permanent practice. “reclaiming a historic downtown street the capital as history has made it, not Greater representation from the national for public and private use”. It has as Paris or Washington would have capital area on the NCC’s Board would always had public and private uses, planned it. To fulfil this mandate to be welcome. A regular meeting of the and it is not yours to reclaim. oversee the protection of our natural, Continued on page 2 1 President’s Report… architectural and cultural symbols and Canada’s Round Table on Historic Places treasures, you must stop the transfer of public lands into private hands.Some Concludes with Three Part Action Plan development must be part of the plan- Kerry Edmonds ning of federal lands, but it should be done in such as way that is responsive to anadian Heritage Minister our heritage. I am delighted tax payers and your own heritage policy. Sheila Copps and a that the initial response is over- Your vision of the capital as a C cross-section of experts whelmingly positive.” meeting place for all Canadians should from a variety of disciplines The Skills Group will bring include a respect for the living spaces of concluded the first Minister's together, among others, architects, the city’s residents. It is a local place Round Table on Historic Places labour representatives, engineers, that has a history that is older than the with commitment to a three tradespeople, artisans and country. Anything less is not only unfair phase plan of action. contractors with the aim to ensure to the people of this city, it results in a Phase 1 – Work will move Canada provides enough young misrepresentation of the city’s evolution ahead quickly to complete a new people with the know-how to to visitors. Canadian Register of Historic restore heritage buildings. We, the residents of this city are Places, conservation standards and The Municipal Outreach proud of what our forebears have built. a rigorous certification process. Group will work to engage both We are proud to be of the Nation’s large and small communities Capital. And when Canadians visiting Phase 2 – Participants concurred with the Minister's emphasis on in a campaign to push forward from other parts of Canada view their a national strategy on historic capital and go home, it is us, the the need to “complete putting our federal house in order,” and places. This group, led by elected residents, who are left to make this municipal officials, would also city work and to treasure its past. agreed on the requirement for new legislation to provide heritage advise the Minister on how tax Please, don’t destroy the shrine incentives might be used for to make way for the pilgrims. protection for key federal buildings and to provide new protection for heritage protection of single archaeological resources under family dwellings. federal jurisdiction. Participants The Sustainable Development also reached consensus on the need Working Group will seek to link for financial incentives to spur the work on historic places with the restoration and preservation of work of organizations such as historic buildings. the National Round Table on the Environment and the Phase 3 – Participants also agreed Economy. “We must strive to to work together towards the be as inclusive and as pan- establishment of a new Canadian Canadian as possible,” stated Trust for Historic Places. To assist Minister Copps. “Governments with the work, Minister Copps must work together to give the announced that she would establish Heritage Ottawa is a non-profit private and voluntary sectors organization dedicated to advocating three Ministerial Working Groups. the tools they need to conserve the preservation, restoration, and Skills, Municipal Outreach and and celebrate Canada’s extraordi- adaptive re-use of the National Broader Sustainable Development nary array of historic places.” Capital’s built and natural heritage. Issues. “We have an incredible array of Canadians with the Further information can be Membership fees: Individual $25 dedication and the knowledge Family $30; Student/Senior $15 obtained from: Kerry Edmonds, Patron $50; Corporation $75 essential to ensure a renaissance Director of Communications, of Canada’s historic places”, Office of the Minister of Canadian Heritage Ottawa, 2 Daly Avenue, said the Minister. “I intend to ask Heritage, (819) 997-7788. Ottawa, ON, K1N 6E2, Tel. 230-8841 those talented individuals to (Also available on the Internet at 1SSN 1483-9032 volunteer their services for the www.parkscanada.gc.ca under, Editor: James D. Georgiles conservation and celebration of Graphic Designer: Jan Soetermans What’s New) Printing: Tyrell Reproductions Ltd. 2 The Architecture of Ottawa’s Central Union Station by David L. Jeanes he Government Conference Centre, formerly Union Station, Twas designed in May 1908 by Ross & MacFarlane, a three-year old partnership of young Montreal architects. Their beaux-arts concept impressed city council and newspaper reporters as “strikingly beautiful” and “so completely different” from the rejected Gothic designs of New York architect Bradford Lee Gilbert. A central union station, planned since 1891 but delayed many times, had become a personal project of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Ottawa Mayor D’Arcy Scott and Grand Trunk Railway President Charles Melville Hays. By 1909 George Allen Ross and David Huron MacFarlane assembled their team for the station. Designer Shaw collection of F.D. Whittaker, W.C. Photo by: Louis-Joseph Théophile Décary and the Ottawa’s Union Station and Bush train shed in action, June 1956. firm’s chief draftsman Robert Henry MacDonald led 30 architects, engineers architects, studied at Bishop’s, McGill, Paris, and worked for leading beaux-arts and draftsmen, almost all Canadians, the École Polytechnique, M.I.T. in architects in Boston, New York or who had apprenticed to leading Montreal Boston, or the École des beaux-arts in Montreal. Ross & Macdonald Archive, Collection Centre Canadien Collection Centre Archive, Ross & Macdonald Montréal Architecture, for Centre d’Architecture/Canadian Louis-Joseph Théophile Décary, Architect. Longitudinal section, Central Union Station, Ottawa, 1909.