Building and rebuilding Canada’s Parliament Buildings

Building the Parliament Buildings

When the Province of Canada was founded in 1841, its capital city moved from Kingston to Montréal. It then rotated between Toronto and Québec. The Department of Public Works (one of the departments that became Public Services and Procurement Canada) was responsible for these moves. Queen Victoria selected Ottawa as the permanent capital in 1857.

The government asked Public Works to build 4 federal buildings in Ottawa:

• 1 Parliament building (the Centre Block)
• 2 administrative buildings (the East and West Blocks)
• 1 Governor General’s residence

It was one of the largest building projects ever to be undertaken in the young nation of Canada.

In 1859, Public Works held a competition to find suitable architects.

Thomas Fuller and Chilion Jones won the contract to design the original Centre Block. Charles Baillairgé contributed later. Thomas Stent and Augustus Laver designed the East and West Blocks. The Governor General’s home planned at that time was never built.

The buildings were all designed in a style called Gothic Revival. Public Works chose this style rather than neoclassic designs. At that time, neoclassical was popular in the United States. The Gothic Revival style was chosen because it went well with the landscape of Parliament Hill. It was also favoured because of the rich textures and decorative themes that spoke to the progressive spirit of the new nation.

Construction of the buildings began on December 20, 1859. The buildings officially opened on June 6, 1866.

In 1876, Public Works completed the Library of Parliament and the landscaped grounds of Parliament Hill. Later that year, the department built the wrought-iron Queen’s Gates at the main entrance of Parliament Hill.

Interesting fact

The department lit up the outside of the Parliament Buildings for the first time in 1897. Thousands of electric lights were turned on to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.

Centre Block destroyed by fire

On February 3, 1916, a fire destroyed the Centre Block. Only the Library of Parliament survived.

In the aftermath of the fire, Public Works readied the Victoria Memorial Museum (now home to the Canadian Museum of Nature) overnight so that the House of Commons would have a place to sit the next day, a Friday. By the following Monday, the museum boasted:

• a Senate Chamber
• offices for members of Parliament
• committee rooms

Rebuilding Centre Block

After the fire, Public Works began constructing a new Centre Block building almost immediately. The government began construction while Canada was still fighting in the First World War.

While Public Works cleared the rubble from the site, the architects developed and submitted their plans to the government.

John A. Pearson and Jean-Omer Marchand were the architects chosen for the project. They quickly ruled out merely rebuilding a replica of the old 4-storey building. The new Centre Block was made as a modern Beaux-Arts building with a Gothic Revival decorative scheme. The new building was a 6-storey steel-reinforced stone building. It is about 143 metres long by 84 metres wide. Although it has almost the same footprint as the original 4-storey building, it has 47% more interior space. The architects also used more modern construction techniques like:

• steel-frame construction
• load-bearing concrete
• fire-proof materials

Where the interior of the old Centre Block was mostly wood, the current Centre Block’s interior is mostly stone and marble. The architects chose stone so that if there was another fire, it would not spread as quickly. The architectural planning of the building is based on Beaux-Arts principles.

Despite the pressures of the First World War, Public Works constructed the building fairly quickly. At the time, many of Canada’s resources were going towards the war effort.

The new Centre Block opened in 1922.

Pearson and Marchand designed the Peace Tower as an expression of gratitude for peace after the First World War. The Peace Tower’s Memorial Chamber is a shrine to Canada’s war dead. Public Works finished building the Peace Tower in 1927.