Development Rumours

[eastcoastal]

I feel like the Centennial Pool is a building that should be considered for heritage designation. It's a significant example of a time when, in post-WWII, Canada was really trying to position itself as exemplary of the new world, free of cultural baggage that had led to two world wars. It fits in there with Peacekeeping and the development of sport as a point of national pride - Canada Games began as a way to lead to improved performance in the olympics, which fit into a federal approach to soft power internationally.

Centennial building projects across Canada used the language of modernism to move away from the british links evident in Parliament Hill and many other government buildings, and to avoid Republican/Greek architecture of domes and columns of American national buildings. Modernism was supposed to be more egalitarian and less rooted in a "dominant" and "colonizing" culture. Beyond just rejecting gothic-inspired British colonial symbols of power, the Centennial building projects in Canada were meant to reflect a young, vibrant, and energetic nation. We were still young on the world's stage.

So, Centennial Pool, which was built the year Canada held its very first Canada Games, brings a lot of those moves together: it marks 100 years of nationhood, it rejects British/Gothic expression in favour of modernism, and it supports Canada's desire to compete above its relatively small size on the international stage, whether that's sport or diplomacy.