The West Block (officially the Western Departmental Building; ) is one of the three buildings on

Parliament Hill Parliament Hill (), colloquially known as The Hill, is an area of Crown land on the southern bank of the Ottawa River that houses the Parliament of Canada in downtown Ottawa, Ontario. It accommodates a suite of Gothic revival buildings whose ...

, in

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

. Since 28 January 2019, it has housed the interim

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

Chamber, installed to accommodate the House while the

Centre Block The Centre Block () is the main building of the Parliament of Canada, Canadian parliamentary complex on Parliament Hill, in Ottawa, Ontario, containing the House of Commons of Canada, House of Commons and Senate of Canada, Senate chambers, as we ...

is closed. The West Block also houses offices for parliamentarians, a branch of the

Library of Parliament The Library of Parliament () is the main information repository and research resource for the Parliament of Canada. The main branch of the library sits at the rear of the Centre Block on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario. The library survived th ...

, committee rooms, and some preserved pre-

Confederation A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

spaces. Built in the Victorian High Gothic style, the West Block has been extended twice since its original completion in 1865. Though not as renowned as the

of parliament, the West Block appears on the obverse of the Canadian five-dollar bill.

Characteristics

asymmetrical Asymmetry is the absence of, or a violation of, symmetry (the property of an object being invariant to a transformation, such as reflection). Symmetry is an important property of both physical and abstract systems and it may be displayed in pre ...

structure built in the Victorian High Gothic style, with load bearing masonry walls, all clad in a rustic Nepean sandstone exterior and dressed stone trim around windows and other edges, as well as displaying a multitude of stone carvings, including

gargoyle In architecture, and specifically Gothic architecture, a gargoyle () is a carved or formed Grotesque (architecture), grotesque with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building, thereby preventing it from ...

grotesque Since at least the 18th century (in French and German, as well as English), grotesque has come to be used as a general adjective for the strange, mysterious, magnificent, fantastic, hideous, ugly, incongruous, unpleasant, or disgusting, and thus ...

s, and

frieze In classical architecture, the frieze is the wide central section of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic order, Ionic or Corinthian order, Corinthian orders, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Patera (architecture), Paterae are also ...

s, keeping with the style of the rest of the parliamentary complex. The West Block adds to the Ottawa skyline three prominent towers: the Mackenzie Tower (added in 1878), the Laurier Tower (added in 1906), and the Southwest Tower.

History

The Department of Public Works sent out, on 7 May 1859, a call for architects to submit proposals for the new parliament buildings to be erected on Barrack Hill, which was answered by 298 submitted drawings. After the entries were narrowed down to three, then

Governor General Governor-general (plural governors-general), or governor general (plural governors general), is the title of an official, most prominently associated with the British Empire. In the context of the governors-general and former British colonies, ...

Sir Edmund Walker Head was approached to break the stalemate and the winner was announced on 29 August 1859. The departmental buildings,

, and a new residence for the Governor General were each awarded separately and the team of Thomas Stent and Augustus Laver, under the pseudonym of ''Stat nomen in umbra'', won the prize for the first category. Construction on all three blocks commenced by the end of 1859. By the time the West Block was completed in 1865, the building was three years behind schedule. The first tenants were the offices of the postmaster general, the Ministry of Public Works, and the

Crown land Crown land, also known as royal domain, is a territorial area belonging to the monarch, who personifies the Crown. It is the equivalent of an entailed estate and passes with the monarchy, being inseparable from it. Today, in Commonwealth realm ...

s departments. As the number of parliamentary and administrative staff increased with the expansion of the country's area, more space was added to the West Block: the Mackenzie Wing and Tower in 1878 and, in 1906, the Laurier Tower and link. In the early 2000s, the masonry of the West Block was found to be in a state of severe disrepair. Scaffolding and protective sheeting were erected in order to prevent falling blocks from striking pedestrians and cars below and a restoration project was immediately implemented. The two largest towers were also stabilised with temporary steel structures for fear of stones falling off them. West Block Test 1-2019

An $863 million project to completely renovate the West Block began in 2011, and the renovated building opened on 28 January 2019. In preparation for a planned, decade-long renovation of the Centre Block to begin in 2019, the central courtyard of the West Block was transformed into a temporary chamber for the

. The new chamber is surrounded by formerly exterior stone walls and covered by a glass roof. Multiple underground levels as well as planned tunnel connections to other Parliament Hill buildings were constructed out of dug-out bedrock under the West Block during the extensive renovations. When the renovation of Centre Block is complete and the House returns to its traditional chamber, the interim House chamber will be used as committee rooms.

References

External links

Explore the West Block
(Parliament of Canada) {{Parliament Hill Parliament of Canada buildings Federal government buildings in Ottawa 1865 establishments in Canada