The John G. Diefenbaker Building is a building in the

New Edinburgh New Edinburgh is a neighbourhood in Rideau-Rockcliffe Ward, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is located to the northeast of the downtown core. It is bordered on the west by the Rideau River, to the north by the Ottawa River, to the south by Bee ...

neighbourhood of Ottawa,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

. The building served as Ottawa's city hall from August 2, 1958, to January 1, 2001, and afterward was commonly known as Old City Hall. Purchased in 2003 by the

Government of Canada The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown ...

, it was known by its municipal address, 111 Sussex Drive, until September 2011 when it was renamed after Canada's 13th prime minister,

John Diefenbaker John George Diefenbaker ( ; September 18, 1895 – August 16, 1979) was the 13th prime minister of Canada, serving from 1957 to 1963. He was the only Progressive Conservative party leader between 1930 and 1979 to lead the party to an electi ...

. The building is located on Green Island where the Rideau River empties into the Ottawa River.

Construction

After Ottawa's city hall on Elgin Street was destroyed by a fire in 1931, the city operated for the next 27 years out of temporary offices in the Transportation Building. The new international style building was opened on August 2, 1958, by Princess Margaret as a member of the

Canadian Royal Family The monarchy of Canada is Canada's form of government embodied by the Canadian sovereign and head of state. It is at the core of Canada's constitutional federal structure and Westminster-style parliamentary democracy. The monarchy is the founda ...

. It was designed by John Bland of the firm Rother, Bland, and Trudeau, and is considered one of the most important International Style buildings in Canada, winning the Massey Medal for design in 1959. The structure was noted for being the first building in Ottawa to be fully

air conditioned Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...

. The original drawings for the building are held at the

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous ...

Library Special Collections as part of the John Bland Archive.

Expansion

In 1988, Ottawa mayor

Jim Durrell James A. Durrell is a Canadian business owner, former politician and president of the Ottawa Senators. He served as Mayor of Ottawa from 1985 to 1991. Durrell has extensive governance experience and has served on numerous boards including the ...

initiated a controversial scheme to expand the building, quadrupling its original size. Architect

Moshe Safdie Moshe Safdie ( he, משה ספדיה; born July 14, 1938) is an architect, urban planner, educator, theorist, and author, with Israeli, Canadian, and American citizenship. He is known for incorporating principles of socially responsible des ...

was chosen for the redesign, completed in 1994. Conflict soon broke out between Safdie and the city. Safdie demanded a higher fee and delayed the project for several months before the city acquiesced to his demand. Further disagreements broke out over a pair of eighteen story observation towers. City council voted to cut the towers to save the million dollars they cost. This infuriated Safdie who felt the towers were essential to the design. The panel that picked the design had singled out the tower as one of the highlights of the design. Eventually the city compromised and a bare

scaffold Scaffolding, also called scaffold or staging, is a temporary structure used to support a work crew and materials to aid in the construction, maintenance and repair of buildings, bridges and all other man-made structures. Scaffolds are widely used ...

was erected instead. The new building caused considerable controversy in the city with some liking the design, but others seeing the $72 million structure a waste of money. The building was much larger than the city needed and for several years large sections were vacant.

Federal government ownership

In 1999, offices were rented out to

Global Affairs Canada Global Affairs Canada (GAC; french: Affaires mondiales Canada; AMC)''Global Affairs Canada'' is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (). is the department ...

, which is based at the nearby Lester B. Pearson Building. After Ottawa's amalgamation on January 1, 2001, it was decided that the new municipal government would be based at a new location,

Ottawa City Hall Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core of ...

. This building was considerably smaller, but was located closer to the city's centre. In 2003, the former city hall was sold to the federal

Public Works Department This list indicates government departments in various countries dedicated to public works or infrastructure. See also * Public works * Ministry or Board of Public Works, the imperial Chinese ministry overseeing public projects from the Tang ...

. Today the building mainly houses Global Affairs Canada employees. For several months in 2004, it was the site of the Gomery Inquiry hearings during the

Sponsorship Scandal The sponsorship scandal, AdScam or Sponsorgate, was a scandal in Canada that came as a result of a federal government " sponsorship program" in the province of Quebec involving the Liberal Party of Canada, which was in power from 1993 to 2006. ...

References

{{coord, 45, 26, 23.68, N, 75, 41, 40.78, W, type:landmark_region:CA-ON, display=title Government buildings completed in 1958 City and town halls in Ontario Federal government buildings in Ottawa Modernist architecture in Canada International style architecture in Canada Moshe Safdie buildings Former seats of local government Designated heritage properties in Ottawa Sussex Drive