| Senate of Canada Building | |
|---|---|
Édifice du Sénat du Canada | |
 View from Rideau Street | |
 Interactive map of Senate of Canada Building | |
| Former names |
|
| General information | |
| Type | Temporarylegislative building |
| Architectural style | Beaux-Arts |
| Location | 2Rideau Street,Ottawa,Ontario, Canada |
| Current tenants | Senate of Canada |
| Opened | 1912 |
| Renovated | 2018 |
| Renovation cost | $269 million |
| Client | Grand Trunk Railway |
| Owner | Government of Canada |
| Technical details | |
| Floor area | 7,387.7 square metres (79,521 sq ft) |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Bradford Gilbert |
| Designations | Classified Federal Heritage Building |
| Renovating team | |
| Renovating firm |
|
| Main contractor | PCL Construction |
| Website | |
| The Senate of Canada Building | |
| [1] | |
TheSenate of Canada Building (French:édifice du Sénat du Canada) is a government building and former railway station that serves as the temporary seat of theSenate of Canada. Located at 2Rideau Street indowntown Ottawa, it was known asOttawa Union Station and served as the city's central railway station from 1912 until 1966. From 1966 to 2018, it was operated by theGovernment of Canada as theGovernment Conference Centre. The building currently includes a temporary Senate chamber (housed in the concourse of the former railway station), as well as some Senate offices and committee rooms (in the waiting room of the former station).
It is situated at the intersection ofWellington Street and theRideau Canal, across the street from theChâteau Laurier hotel (which was constructed around the same time). It is 600 metres (2,000 ft) fromParliament Hill andConfederation Square.[2]
Before the turn of the twentieth century, several railway companies had run lines into the city and had begun to buildrailway stations. In chronological order:[3]
Broad Street, in theLebreton Flats area, was the site of several stations including the first Union station (1881), which perished by fire in 1896 and again in 1900 and was rebuilt each time.[4] The last one closed in 1920. Broad Street was near thePrince of Wales Bridge, the link to Montreal via the north shore of the Ottawa River. Broad Street itself no longer exists, erased as part of the National Capital Commission's efforts at improving the capital area.
Ottawa became part of theCanadian Pacific Railway's transcontinental rail service on June 28, 1886, when the first Pacific Express arrived at Broad Street fromMontreal viaLachute andHull, Quebec,[5] on its way toSudbury,Winnipeg,Calgary, andPort Moody, B.C. It used the existingPrince of Wales Bridge to cross theOttawa River near the site of the present-dayO-Train Bayview Station, west ofParliament Hill. This rail bridge had been built in 1880 by theQuebec, Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental Railway and was transferred to Canadian Pacific in 1882.
However, there was no centrally located station until 1895, through efforts ofJohn Rudolphus Booth.[3] Booth was a Canadian lumber baron known for creating Canada's largest sawmill right in Ottawa, nearChaudière Falls. His mill's capacity exceeded the distribution infrastructure, and he looked to rail as a solution. (Eighteen years previous, he had established theCanada Atlantic Railway.) Booth had built a central depot in 1895 just south of Rideau Street, on the east side of the canal and reachable by way of a covered stairway from Sappers Bridge.[6] The station seemed to not be truly serving the needs of the railway companies, since it was built for the interests of the Canada Atlantic Railway.[3]
CPR'sRoyal Alexandra Interprovincial Bridge built in 1901 became the second railway bridge to cross the Ottawa River between Ottawa and Hull. It led to Booth's central depot. In 1905, Booth sold the Canada Atlantic Railway to theGrand Trunk Railway.[7]
In 1910, the Grand Trunk was apportioned part of the Rideau Canal in order to build a new station and hotel.[3] The hotel would become the famousChateau Laurier, and the station would become Ottawa's Union Station.
The building was opened by theGrand Trunk Railway in 1912 as Ottawa's centralrailway station, and the hotel was built across the street to serve travelers. A tunnel under Rideau Street links the station and the hotel. Over the course of the following years, passenger services of other railways moved to this station, thereby clarifying and unifying passenger travel in the city.[8] When the last Canadian Pacific trains moved from the old Union Station on Broad Street to Grand Trunk Central station on January 4, 1920, the old station was closed and the Grand Trunk station became Ottawa Union Station.[9]
The June 1912 opening of the Union Station and the Chateau Laurier was not met with much fanfare, since Grand Trunk Railway general managerCharles Melville Hays had just perished in theTitanic disaster two months previously.[3]
The Doric Roman Revival multi pillar Union station[10] was originally designed by New York-based architectBradford Lee Gilbert who was eventually dismissed due to concerns of mismanagement. The Montreal firm ofRoss and MacFarlane took over the project, making many design changes to the station.[11] Ross and MacFarlane also took over the design of the Château Laurier and later builtToronto'sUnion Station.
BothCanadian National Railways (successor to the Grand Trunk) andCanadian Pacific Railway operated regularly scheduled passenger trains through the facility until it ceased operations on July 31, 1966.[10]
| Preceding station | Canadian National Railway | Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ottawa Bank Street towardVancouver | Main Line | Carlsbad Springs towardMontreal | ||
| Terminus | Montreal –Ottawa Semi-local stops | |||
| Ottawa Bank Street towardNapanee | Napanee –Ottawa | Terminus | ||
| Graham Bay towardBarrys Bay | Barrys Bay –Ottawa | |||
| Preceding station | Canadian Pacific Railway | Following station | ||
| Carleton Place towardVancouver | Main Line | Montreal West towardMontreal Windsor | ||
| Terminus | Ottawa –Montreal Short Line | Blackburn towardMontreal Windsor | ||
| Ottawa –Montreal viaMontebello | Hull towardMontreal Place Viger | |||
| Ottawa –Prescott | Billings towardPrescott | |||
| Hull towardWaltham | Waltham –Ottawa | Terminus | ||
| Hull towardManiwaki | Maniwaki –Ottawa | |||
| Hull towardBrockville | Brockville –Ottawa | |||
| Hull towardChalk River | Chalk River –Ottawa | |||
| Preceding station | New York Central Railroad | Following station | ||
| Terminus | Ottawa Division | Finch towardTupper Lake Junction | ||
Several tracks which originated from the main railway infrastructure in Ottawa ran immediately adjacent to theRideau Canal (right on its east banks) and led northward into the city. They approached Union Station through several sheds. From the sheds, emerged two tracks (on the east side of the Rideau Canal), and continued along, proceeding under the bridge whereWellington Street crosses the canal. They then ran immediately adjacent to the west side ofChateau Laurier, in a structure which was used for a time in a converted form, by theCanadian Museum of Contemporary Photography. The track continued, where there is now a paved road and ran to the Alexandra (Interprovincial) Bridge.
Once in Hull, there was the possibility to continue to other parts of Quebec, or to return to Ottawa by making a turn and returning over the Prince of Wales Bridge. Some of the pathways in present-day Gatineau are on locations where rails had once made this possible.
In 1966, theNational Capital Commission decided to remove the tracks along the east side of the Canal as part of anurban renewal plan. They were replaced by ascenic drive, and a newOttawa station was built just east ofOttawa's downtown area in the neighbourhood ofEastway Gardens. While the NCC had originally planned to tear down the structure, it was spared, becoming the centre ofCanada's centennial celebrations in 1967. After sitting empty for many years, it was turned into the Government Conference Centre. A new entrance and canopy at the rear of the building was built to provide greater security for theCommonwealth Heads of Government Meeting held in 1973. The same year, artistBruce Garner sculpted bronze doors for the new entrance, titledReflections of Canada.[8] The tracks and sheds south of the station were demolished and now taken over byColonel By Drive and theRideau Centre.
It had since been home to many gatherings of civil servants and politicians. In 1981, a pivotal meeting of federal justice ministerJean Chrétien and provincial justice ministersRoy McMurtry andRoy Romanow in the kitchen of the conference centre struck what was called the "Kitchen Accord" about thepatriation of theConstitution of Canada. In 2001, the building hosted theG20 conference, a gathering of 20 finance ministers from around the world.
As well as hosting conferences, the building was also sometimes used as a gallery. A section of theBerlin Wall was on display inside the main entrance from September 27, 1991, until January 29, 2011. Because the location of the display was not widely publicized, it was decided that the segment would be more prominent at its new location in theCanadian War Museum.[12]
The building is inspired by theBeaux-Arts architectural style. The main departures hall (now the main conference area) is based on the Great Hall of the RomanBaths of Caracalla at 3/4 scale. It is therefore similar to the now-destroyed departures hall ofNew York Penn Station.[8]
The cavernous structure has never been well suited to its role as a conference centre.[citation needed] In the mid-1990s a proposal was made to turn it into the new home for theCanadian Sports Hall of Fame, but these plans fell through. In his final year in office,Prime MinisterJean Chrétien announced that the building would become home to a new museum of Canadian political history, but incoming Prime MinisterPaul Martin cancelled this project, and it has remained a conference centre.[13]
In 2007, the idea of reverting the building back to its original use sprang up as Ottawa considered various proposals for regionalcommuter rail systems. It is seen as being feasible to do so (although it would require a long tunnel to reconnect to the existing railway tracks)[citation needed] ; however, the Government of Canada's Department of Public Works says the building is not for sale.[14][failed verification]
In July 2013, it was announced byPublic Works Canada that the building would be used to temporarily accommodate the Senate chamber (in the main concourse of the old train station) along with 21 Senate offices and three committee rooms (in the old general waiting room)[15] while theCentre Block undergoes major rehabilitation work projected to take up to ten years. It was decided that the need to rehabilitate this historical building presented a perfect opportunity to find an interim home for the Senate.[16] The works included:
In February 2019, the Senate of Canada Building formally re-opened in its current role.[17]
The two chambers now sit about 600 metres apart, which will likely affect how many MPs respond to the Usher of the Black Rod's traditional summons to Throne Speech or royal assent ceremonies. Furthermore, it is unclear whether there is a plan for how to shuttle members between buildings.
45°25′28″N75°41′37″W / 45.424525°N 75.693655°W /45.424525; -75.693655