The Great Canadian City Halls And Government Buildings Thread

[stevanford1]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ Wow. Ontario's courthouses are really something else.

Quite a few are nice but we do have fugly ones.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by stevanford1

Quite a few are nice but we do have fugly ones.

Former Ontario Provincial Court in Kitchener (Architect John Lingwood). Not fugly, Brutalist. And a pretty good example.

Now being converted to Waterloo Region's police HQ.

[stevanford1]

[QUOTE=kwoldtimer;8683367]Former Ontario Provincial Court in Kitchener (Architect John Lingwood). Not fugly, Brutalist. And a pretty good example.

Now being converted to Waterloo Region's police HQ.[/QUOTE

It is a decent example, it just looks like a bunker to me. Also what’s that appendage out front?

[kwoldtimer]

[QUOTE=stevanford1;8683384]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

Former Ontario Provincial Court in Kitchener (Architect John Lingwood). Not fugly, Brutalist. And a pretty good example.

Now being converted to Waterloo Region's police HQ.[/QUOTE

It is a decent example, it just looks like a bunker to me. Also what’s that appendage out front?

Aporia by Edward Zelenak (1980). Zelenak had another piece on the UofW campus that came to be known as the Great Arctic Tundra Worm - somebody blew it up one night and it was never replaced.

[vid]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Holy crap. That thing is huge.

All the new Ontario courthouses are massive. Thunder Bay's literally takes up 10% of our downtown's surface area.

Now, let's all just take a moment to appreciate Ontario's wave of courthouse replacements during the Liberal administration:

Brampton:


https://www.infrastructureontario.ca...e-in-Brampton/

Coroners Office, Toronto:



Durham (Oshawa):


https://www.infrastructureontario.ca...on-Courthouse/

Quinte (Belleville):


https://www.infrastructureontario.ca...ed-Courthouse/

Thunder Bay:


http://www.thunderbaybusiness.ca/art...lete---556.asp

Waterloo Region (Kitchener):


https://www.infrastructureontario.ca...ed-Courthouse/




What should we call this style?

[vid]

Something to note: the courthouse isn't just courtrooms, there are actually law firms with offices inside the building itself, and a couple provincial ministries and several victim support services organizations are in there. I'm sure that's the case with the others.

Here are Thunder Bay's previous Superior Court, now a hotel:


https://www.courthousehotel.ca/

Provincial court of law: (This building is empty and may be demolished for new development)


http://www.courthouses.co/canada-cou...o/thunder-bay/

Provincial attorney's office:



And the municipally administered offenses court:



All four of these offices are now in the new building, which is why its so big.

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by vid

What should we call this style?

Is it not just late international style?

[esquire]

I admire Ontario's commitment to proper justice infrastructure. Those look like the kinds of court buildings you would expect a developed G7 country to have.

[TownGuy]

Owen Sound has a pretty impressive Courthouse for its size (about 20,000)

[Innsertnamehere]

The York region admin centre has some amazing interior spaces if you go in it - large atriums splitting up office areas, a grand entry hall with a huge Pomo feel, etc. A bit of a maze to navigate though.

Toronto’s new central courthouse is currently under construction behind city hall. I believe this will be larger than the Calgary courthouse:

[J.OT13]

Somewhat reminds me of the Export Development Canada Building in Ottawa.


https://www.kaisercaulking.ca/projects_comm.html

Here's Ottawa's courthouse from 1869 to 1988. Today it is the home of Arts Court, the City's main municipal art gallery.


https://www.ibew586.org/workers-subc...er-hasnt-paid/

The "new" courthouse, completed in 1988.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottawa_Courthouse

And the Federal Supreme Court, completed in 1946.


https://www.macleans.ca/politics/ott...supreme-court/

[Nouvellecosse]

I actually really like the BDC building and the new courthouse!

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

,.....

The "new" courthouse, completed in 1988.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottawa_Courthouse

......

Aka "Fort Court".

[Laceoflight]

In Québec, we have this series of identical district courthouses that were built around 1860.

Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu

IMG_5898 by Louis-Philippe Rousselle-Brosseau, sur Flickr

Joliette

Joliette Court House by Alain Quevillon, sur Flickr

Cowansville

Ministère de la Justice du Québec

La Malbaie

Ministère de la Justice du Québec

Saint-Joseph-de-Beauce

Ministère de la Justice du Québec

The one in Montmagny was renovated and enlarged recently.

The one in Saint-Hyacinthe burned down and was replaced with...

-------

Another series (built between 1901 and 1910):

Salaberry-de-Valleyfield

Ministère de la Justice du Québec

and Roberval

Ministère de la Justice du Québec

---

Last series of courthouses. Hull's was demolished during the federal project of 1969-1974. Kamouraska's still standing, but not in use anymore (moved to Rivière-du-Loup).

Hull

Journal le Droit

Kamouraska

Old court of Kamouraska by Dr Papillon and Hoedic, sur Flickr

[Laceoflight]

Sherbrooke's current City Hall was built in 1904 as a courthouse. The vocation changed in 1989.


Hôtel de Ville by Kethera, sur Flickr

[stevanford1]

Those Quebec courthouses are amazing!

[esquire]

Who are the enemy attackers that the Hull and Kamouraska courthouses appear to be fortified against?!

[Laceoflight]

Originally Posted by esquire

Who are the enemy attackers that the Hull and Kamouraska courthouses appear to be fortified against?!

But seriously, this is a marginal subgenre of the eclectism in Québec called style forteresse. There's an interesting article here. It would mostly be attributable to Elzéar Charest, the Public Works Department director of the province from 1891 to 1915. He was an autodidact, and a trained typograph. He used this style only on a few projects; there are also a few houses in Québec city and Montréal.
No one hardly knows the real story behind this anachronistic style and quite contradictory architectural composition. Some suggest that Charest was out of the trendy architects' bubble from his position and training. Others mention that there was an increasing nationalist movement in Québec (with Honoré Mercier) and that the architecture evoked a romantiscized vision of the old fortified city of Québec and its preponderant place in French canadian culture. Most agree that this style derived from the néo-médiévisme current (english translation needed).

[esquire]

Thank you for the background on those buildings!

[kwoldtimer]

A close cousin, I should think, of the Scottish Baronial style buildings that went up in Canada in the same time period (eg. Museum of Nature and Revenue Canada building in Ottawa, Craigdarroch Castle in Victoria).