Government expected to sell Heron Road training centre
Robert Bostelaar, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: January 29, 2015, Last Updated: January 29, 2015 7:26 PM EST
Meeting hall at Federal Study Centre site was originally a Catholic chapel.
The federal government is reportedly preparing to sell off another prime Ottawa property — this one an east-side education campus that has been heralded for its modernist architecture.
Heritage Ottawa, a volunteer group, says the federal Public Works and Government Services landlord is preparing to transfer the 12-building Federal Study Centre at 1495 Heron Rd. to the government’s real estate arm for disposal.
The centre, originally built as a religious complex, is listed on the Canadian Register of Historic Places and designated as “recognized” by the Federal Heritage Buildings Review Office for the clean lines of its brick structures and pleasing scale of its walkways and courtyards.
Whether a potential buyer would wish to preserve the buildings on a seven-hectare site that could have more value for a housing development is uncertain, however. Heritage Ottawa is vowing to “advocate for the preservation and adaptive reuse of the complex.”
The group said in a website post that Public Works “assures us” it is working with the City of Ottawa, which would have veto power over any development proposal. The city could also seek a municipal heritage designation for the campus, the group noted.
However, while such status can delay changes to a property, it cannot prevent them. Nor do the federal designations offer protection. The 1967 Sir John Carling Building, though recognized by the Federal Heritage Office since 2004, was demolished last year to avoid repair bills.
Late Thursday, Public Works said it is “assessing options” for the centre.
Sarah Gelbard, a researcher and writer on architecture and urban topics, counts the Heron Road campus among her favourite Ottawa sites. She hopes it can be preserved, “but seeing what’s happening in Ottawa right now with modernist architecture, I’m doubtful that someone’s going to take it over and recognize the heritage value and maintain it in that light.”
Gelbard, a Carleton University architecture graduate now working on her PhD in urban planning at McGill University in Montreal, points to the loss of the Carling Building, the replacement of the former Ottawa Congress Centre, and the planned reskinning of the National Arts Centre — the latter two examples of the brutalism movement in architecture — as examples of a continued disregard for modernism.
Unlike the crumbling Carling building, the study centre has been well maintained, with few alterations that would detract from its original design, Gelbard said.
“It’s actually still in really great condition, relative to its original. It’s kind of a time capsule … you look at the old photos from the 1960s and it kind of feels like you’re still there.”
The complex was an early commission of Ottawa architect Tim Murray, who was approached by the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame and designed two schools, a convent and other structures, all placed around the anchor of a square-edged, copper-roofed chapel.
While a portion of the complex remains in use as a Catholic intermediate school, the rest was sold in 1973 to the federal government.
The property is in the Alta Vista ward of newly elected Ottawa Coun. Jean Cloutier. The councillor’s office said Thursday that Cloutier was unavailable for comment.
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Federal Study Centre (Campanile Complex)
1495 Heron Rd.
Property: 7.3 hectares
Number of buildings: 12
Built: 1963-1965
Architect: Tim Murray, Murray and Murray Associates
Original owner: Sisters of Congregation of Notre Dame
Original use: Boys’ high school, girls’ high school, convent, novitiate
Subsequent owner: Government of Canada (1973)
Subsequent uses: Language and other training
Floor area: 14,800 square metres (159,306 square feet)
Yearly payment to city in lieu of taxes: $327,895.29 (2013)
http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/government-expected-to-sell-heron-road-training-centre
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