Another excellent article from the
Hill Times. It helps explain the portrait gallery idea.
Portrait-gallery plan popular as government consults on fate of old U.S. embassy
PSPC is looking for a public use for the building and put forward six options at an Aug. 18 public town hall meeting where a majority endorsed a national portrait gallery plan.
By LAURA RYCKEWAERT
PUBLISHED : Monday, Aug. 22, 2016 12:00 AM
A consensus seems to be building around the idea of resurrecting a plan to turn the old U.S. embassy at 100 Wellington St. in Ottawa into a national portrait gallery.
“The portrait gallery was a very good plan, Canada needs a national portrait gallery,” said David Jeane, president of Heritage Ottawa. “Canada has a huge collection of portraits [in archives] … but generally this is a huge resource of Canadian history that the public never sees.”
The building has sat vacant for almost two decades and a previous Liberal plan to turn it into a national portrait gallery was scrapped under the Harper Conservatives in 2006. There was briefly talk of instead putting a portrait gallery in Calgary, but that never came to fruition.
Since then, it’s cost an average of $200,000 each year to maintain the structure, including costs for “small repairs” to the roof to prevent water damage, masonry assessments, and heating “to prevent deterioration,” Rob Wright, an assistant deputy minister with Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC), said in an interview Aug. 17.
While a plan has yet to be determined, the government is intent on creating a public use for the building.
At a public town hall held Aug. 18, PSPC put forward its six proposals for the space: a “Canada House” venue; a capital information centre; an artwork gallery (it doesn’t specify for portraits); an indigenous cultural facility; an interpretive centre for Parliament; and an artefact museum.
Around 100 people showed up for the town hall, and of the 12 who got a chance to speak, all but two spoke in favour of resurrecting the old national portrait gallery plan. A former architect and a director general of the portrait gallery plan, as well as former Liberal Senator Jerry Graftstein, were among those who endorsed the idea, as did an Ottawa-based group, with a member from Kingston, Ont. who spoke, armed with pamphlets.
Before the town hall, more than 500 people took a tour of the building during a two-hour open house. PSPC is also running an online consultation survey, giving people a chance to comment on proposed plans or suggest their own, until Sept. 9. Surveys will also be handed out to people visiting Parliament Hill.
“There will be a bit of an analysis of the results, and then those results will be made pubic in the coming months,” said Mr. Wright, adding that such consultations are being sought because the space will be for “public use and we feel that Canadians should help define how to use it publicly.”
No timeline has been indicated for announcing a new plan, but it’s hard to ignore the fact that Canada’s 150th birthday is coming up next year and various other project announcements are slated for then
In an emailed response to questions from The Hill Times on Aug. 18, Public Services Minister Judy Foote (Bonavista-Burin-Trinity, N.L.) said she was “pleased” there was an “opportunity to consult Canadians” on how to use “this significant heritage building,” which she called an “architectural gem.”
While the decision ultimately lies with the federal government (subject to National Capital Commission approval), “consultation will shape and influence the decisions,” said Ms. Foote.
She said she’s been “very impressed” by the work completed to the former Bank of Montreal building, now known as the Sir John A. Macdonald Building, as well as on the nearby Wellington Building.
Getting action on the empty 100 Wellington St. building was a campaign commitment from Ottawa Centre, Ont. Liberal MP Catherine McKenna, now environment minister, and last week she told The Hill Times in an interview she’s “really excited” public consultations have now been launched.
Ms. McKenna said she and Ms. Foote began discussing what to do with 100 Wellington St. shortly after the election last October.
“It’s an amazing building in an amazing location, and I just said, ‘Look, this is a huge opportunity to showcase great public space,’ ” she said said, adding it was something the government was already looking into as part of wider, ongoing work to rehabilitate Parliament Hill.
“Certainly I heard a lot of interest [from constituents during the 2015 election] in the portrait gallery,” Ms. McKenna said, adding that there’s “a lot of support” for using the building for this purpose.
“There are a number of groups that have been talking about a portrait gallery, but I’m more interested in just making sure that we hear from residents of Ottawa Centre and all across Canada about how we make the best use of this amazing public.”
Ms. McKenna said it’s a “shame” the space has been empty for almost two decades, and thinks “we can bring Canadians together around this, especially as we head into our 150th” anniversary of Confederation.
Former Ottawa Centre NDP MP Paul Dewar said the government “should look seriously at the portrait gallery” option.
“It would be important to have something along those lines right across from Parliament,” he said.
Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson, who spoke at the town hall last week, said he has two preferred plans for the building: either a national portrait gallery, or a museum for Canadian keepsakes.
He said he’s been a “dog with a bone” for years over getting action on the building, and under the previous Conservative government wasn’t even able to get a tour of the vacant space.
The old U.S. embassy was completed in 1932 and designed by renowned American architect Cass Gilbert, who also designed the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. and the Woolworth building in New York City, among other works. Three smaller buildings from the late 1800s that were part of Ottawa’s old bankers’ row along Wellington Street were demolished to build the embassy, which originally sat beside the former Rideau Club building on the corner of Metcalfe and Wellington streets, until that building burned down in 1979.
“It’s part of the history of Canada becoming a nation,” said Mr. Jeane, who toured the building on Aug. 18.
“Until 1931, Canada could not have embassies from foreign nations. When the [original] U.S. embassy was planned, it was only going to be a legation, not an embassy. But it was only because of the Statue of Westminster political change in 1931 that Canada was actually able to have its own foreign policy independent of Great Britain,” he said, highlighting it was the first foreign embassy in Canada, and, along with Paris and Tokyo, was one of the first built by the U.S. government.
The three-storey building at 100 Wellington St. is a high renaissance style building, which in and of itself makes it unique among Ottawa architecture, featuring Vermont marble on its bottom floor and lining an arched stairwell leading up to the higher-ceilinged second-storey. The former ambassador’s office is on the second floor and is lined with a Canadian knotty pine panelling, featuring a marble fireplace and large floor-to-ceiling windows that look out onto Parliament Hill, offering an unobstructed view of Centre Block and its Peace Tower. Surrounding these spaces are smaller offshoot offices, with a smaller staircase leading to the third-floor.
The Americans outgrew the space and expanded into nearby offices, prompting a search for a new home. In 1998, 100 Wellington St. was emptied as the U.S. Embassy was moved to Sussex Drive, where it remains today.
In 2001, the Chrétien Liberal government approved and set in motion a plan to turn the classified heritage building into a national portrait gallery. A total of $6.4-million was spent on this initiative—with engineering and architectural plans drawn up, and demolition and hazardous material removal work (including asbestos abatement) completed, the latter at a cost of roughly $800,000—before plans were scrapped in 2006 when the Harper Conservatives came into power.
With that “deconstruction phase” of work already complete, Mr. Wright said, “what we have is a building that’s ready to go forward.”
Former Liberal public works minister Don Boudria, who oversaw the department as minister in 2002, told The Hill Times he’s keeping his “fingers crossed” the building will be turned into a national portrait gallery.
“Right across the street from the Parliament buildings, what better spot to have a portrait museum,” said Mr. Boudria. “Only a small sampling of them are exposed now, and they all would have been in the one place.”
Mr. Boudria said the previous Conservative government scrapped the idea in 2006 because of new “priorities.”
“Its priorities were generally showing the rest of Canada that Ottawa was spoiled and didn’t deserve to have new stuff,” he said.
Mr. Boudria, speaking the day before Liberal MP Mauril Bélanger passed away following a battle with ALS, said the late MP was an early “champion” of the idea of turning 100 Wellington St. into Canada’s national portrait gallery.
Mr. Bélanger, who had represented Ottawa-Vanier, Ont., since 1995, passed away late Aug. 15, with news not breaking until a day later. Early on Aug. 16, Mr. Bélanger’s office had responded via email to questions from The Hill Times.
“Mr. Bélanger believes that in order to showcase Canada’s rich diversity and history through portraits, one would need a central location in our capital city, such as this heritage building,” aide Danick LaFrance said in the email, adding Mr. Bélanger applauded the government “for its leadership towards finding a suitable use for this heritage building.”
For the last five years The Hill Times has asked, PSPC had indicated it was “exploring options” for the building. Last week, Mr. Wright said with 21 projects completed since 2006 and work on the West Block and Government Conference Centre soon to finish, it’s now time to “pivot and focus” on the three blocks along Wellington Street facing Parliament Hill.
Library and Archives Canada has a massive collection of historic artwork stored in its preservation centre in Gatineau, Que., of which portraits make up a “significant portion,” including 20,000 drawings, paintings, and prints; four million photographs; and “several thousand caricatures,” among other things, explained Library and Archives media relations head Richard Provencher.
“The collection includes portraits of ordinary Canadians, who helped build this country, and aims to represent Canada’s diverse regions and peoples,” he explained in an email response last week.
It’s a collection Library and Archives has been gathering and preserving since 1872, in an effort to document “historical personalities important to Canada’s development.” Among the portraits currently in storage is a “Four Indian Kings” collection of oil-on-canvas portraits from roughly 1710 of Aboriginal diplomats, “painted some 300 years ago by John Verelst during a historic meeting in London between Aboriginal emissaries and Queen Anne.”
Occasionally, portraits in the collection (or sometimes reproductions) are used in travelling or other exhibits in Canada.
Just down the street from the old embassy, at 128 Wellington St., sits another relic of the old bankers’ row, which is also currently vacant and has been for years. Mr. Wright said once public consultations are complete and a use for 100 Wellington St. has been determined, it will inform “the broader planning exercise for the parliamentary precinct,” including what to do with the small heritage building at 128 Wellington St.
lryckewaert@hilltimes.com
The Hill Times
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