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The British Columbia Parliament Buildings are located in
Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. The ...
, Canada, and are home to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. The
Speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** I ...
and the Serjeant-at-Arms are amongst those responsible for the legislative precinct, which by statute include the Parliament Buildings and grounds. The Neo-baroque buildings face north on Belleville Street facing the Inner Harbour and diagonally across from The Empress Hotel. A statue of Queen Victoria stands on the front lawn as well the
British Columbia Legislature Cenotaph The British Columbia Legislature Cenotaph, also known as the Victoria Cenotaph and the War Memorial to the Unknown Soldier, is a war memorial, installed outside the British Columbia Parliament Buildings in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Unvei ...
commemorating the province's
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
,
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
,
Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
and Afghanistan War dead. Atop the central dome is a gold-covered statue of Captain George Vancouver. Free guided tours of the facility are offered year-round.


History

From 1856 to 1860 the Legislature of the
Colony of Vancouver Island The Colony of Vancouver Island, officially known as the Island of Vancouver and its Dependencies, was a Crown colony of British North America from 1849 to 1866, after which it was united with the mainland to form the Colony of British Columbia ...
met at Bachelor's Hall at Fort Victoria. From 1860 to 1898 it was housed in the first permanent building at Legislative Hall or Legislative Council Court, a two-storey wooden building along with four other buildings (Land Office, Colonial Office, Supreme Court, and Treasury) known colloquially as "The Birdcages" because of their shape (burned 1957). Construction of a new Parliament Building was first authorized by an act of the provincial legislature in 1893, the ''Parliament Buildings Construction Act''. The province, anxious to commemorate its growing economic, social and political status, was engaged in an architectural competition to build a new legislative building in Victoria, after outgrowing "The Birdcages", which were notoriously drafty and leaked in wet weather.
Francis Rattenbury Francis Mawson Rattenbury (11 October 1867 – 28 March 1935) was a British architect although most of his career was spent in British Columbia, Canada, where he designed the province's legislative building among other public commissions. Divorc ...
, a recent English immigrant, 25 years old, entered the contest and signed his drawings with the pseudonym "A B.C. Architect". He progressed to the second round, signing his drawing "For Queen and Province" and eventually won the competition. Despite many problems, including exceeding budget—the original budget was $500,000; the final amount was $923,000—the British Columbia Parliament Buildings began operation officially during 1898. The grand scale of its long
andesite Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predo ...
façade, central dome and two end pavilions, the richness of its white marble, and combination of Baroque rigorous symmetry, use of domes and sculptural massing with the rusticated surfaces of the then popular
Renaissance style Renaissance architecture is the European architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 16th centuries in different regions, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of ancient Greek and Roman thought a ...
. Its success garnered Rattenbury many more commissions in Victoria and other parts of the province, including the Legislative Library (constructed between 1913-1915 and the
cornerstone The cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure. Over tim ...
of which was laid by
Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn (Arthur William Patrick Albert; 1 May 185016 January 1942), was the seventh child and third son of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He served as Go ...
), the design of the Empress Hotel, the Crystal Gardens indoor swimming pool nearby, and the Vancouver Court House (now the
Vancouver Art Gallery The Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) is an art museum in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The museum occupies a adjacent to Robson Square in downtown Vancouver, making it the largest art museum in Western Canada by building size. Designed by Franc ...
). The andesite of the British Columbia Parliament Buildings is from Haddington Island in the Alert Bay Volcanic Belt. The granite used to build the buildings came from Nelson Island, at the mouth of Jervis Inlet, on the Sunshine Coast. Besides the elected Members of the Legislative Assembly, two organizations have been granted the privilege of using the Legislative Chambers during the legislature's December recess: the British Columbia Youth Parliament (since 1924, except during its sessions of the late 1940s and early 1950s) and the British Columbia Universities' Model Parliament. During the
1994 Commonwealth Games The 1994 Commonwealth Games (French: ''XVéme Jeux du Commonwealth'') were held in Victoria, British Columbia, from 18 to 28 August 1994. Ten types of sports were featured at the Victoria Games: athletics, aquatics, badminton, boxing, cycling ...
, free music concerts were held on the front lawns of the buildings, attracting as many as 40,000 people. Similar-sized crowds have gathered on the front lawn over the years, ranging from political protests and rallies, such as during the
Solidarity Crisis The Operation Solidarity (also known as the Solidarity Crisis) refers to a protest movement in British Columbia, Canada in 1983 that emerged in response to the Social Credit (Socred) government's economic policy of austerity and anti-union legislat ...
of 1983, to celebrations of various kinds, including the BC 150 ceremonies.


Exterior sculpture program

The sculpture on the buildings was designed by the provincial librarian, E.O.S. Scholefield and executed by Charles Marega and his assistant Bernard Carrier. For the exterior of the library Marega created 14 figures: Chief
Maquinna Maquinna (also transliterated Muquinna, Macuina, Maquilla) was the chief of the Nuu-chah-nulth people of Nootka Sound, during the heyday of the maritime fur trade in the 1780s and 1790s on the Pacific Northwest Coast. The name means "possessor of ...
, Captain George Vancouver, Sir Matthew Baillie Begbie, Dr. John McLoughlin, Hon.
John Sebastian Helmcken John Sebastian Helmcken (June 5, 1824 – September 1, 1920) was a British Columbia physician who played a prominent role in bringing the province into Canadian Confederation. He was also the founding president of the British Columbia Medica ...
, Captain James Cook, Sir James Douglas, Sir Francis Drake, Sir Alexander McKenzie, Simon Fraser, Lord Lytton, Sir Anthony Musgrave, David Thompson, and Col. R.C. Moody. Carrier produced twelve figures of women, all allegorical, three around each of the building's four domes.


Mural controversy

In 1932, artist George Southwell was commissioned to paint
mural A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spani ...
s in the rotunda depicting scenes from British Columbia history from 1792 to 1843. The work was completed three years later. Decades later, controversy arose over the depiction of west coast aboriginal people in the murals, which in modern times is now regarded as degrading, and amounting to cultural appropriation. One mural, entitled ''Labour'', portrays bare-breasted aboriginal women hauling timber while a white man watches. In another entitled ''Justice'', an aboriginal chief is shown standing before a judge (said to be Matthew Baillie Begbie), suggesting the subjugation of natives to colonial law. However, Southwell's daughter claimed that her father depicted the chief as standing before another judge, one who championed native rights. A 2001 report, commissioned by the
New Democrat New Democrats, also known as centrist Democrats, Clinton Democrats, or moderate Democrats, are a centrist ideological faction within the Democratic Party in the United States. As the Third Way faction of the party, they are seen as cultural ...
government of the day, recommended that the murals be relocated to a museum where they could be given historical perspective. However, as the murals are painted on to the walls of the rotunda, the cost of removing them was estimated at $280,000. In April 2007, the legislature voted to remove murals, with only 3 of the 71 members voting against the motion. Since that vote, the murals have been fully restored and hidden from public view behind false walls.On June 25, 2007, the B.C. legislature removed murals that depict four scenes from
colonial history Colonial or The Colonial may refer to: * Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology) Architecture * American colonial architecture * French Colonial * Spanish Colonial architecture Automobiles * Colonial (1920 aut ...
. They were supposed to represent courage, enterprise, labour and justice and depict native men and women working or watching as colonial men sign documents or supervise.


See also

* '' Douglas Obelisk'' * '' Knowledge Totem Pole'' * Legislative buildings of Canada


References

{{coord, 48.41963, -123.37026, region:CA_type:landmark, display=title Government buildings completed in 1898 Buildings and structures in Victoria, British Columbia Legislative buildings in Canada Parliament Buildings Government buildings with domes Francis Rattenbury buildings Buildings Heritage sites in British Columbia