The Great Canadian City Halls And Government Buildings Thread

[Rico Rommheim]

My favourite government building in Canada is the West Block. Such a classic.


West_Block_BW_2020_08_05 by Foofoo MacShoe, on Flickr



Canadian Parliament - West Block by Brandon Bartoszek, on Flickr


West Block by Will, on Flickr


The West Block (1865) of Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario by Hans Raffelt, on Flickr


From left to right, the Centre Block (built in 1867 and rebuilt between 1916-1920) and the West Block (1865) buildings of Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario by Hans Raffelt, on Flickr

[Chadillaccc]

Calgary's recently restored original city hall. It still contains the offices of the mayor and city council.


City Hall by Chadillaccc, on Flickr

City Hall Profile by Chadillaccc, on Flickr

Portal by Chadillaccc, on Flickr

New Old City Hall by Chadillaccc, on Flickr

New Old City Hall by Chadillaccc, on Flickr



And of course the view from the west balcony.


Calgary Skyline by Chadillaccc, on Flickr

[J.OT13]

Ottawa's original Courthouse (1870), now the municipal art gellery.




https://twitter.com/mchkzn/status/1388935884708454407

The tower behind is a condo and hotel (Le Germain), with an expansion of the art gallery at its base. It was the site of the short lived Waller Police Station HQ (1953-1983, demolished 1994).



A new courthouse was completed on Elgin in 1986.



Back to the old Courthouse, the Carleton-County Jail is attached (1862-1973) and now serves as a youth hostile and a regular part of the Haunted Walk Ottawa tour.


https://www.hihostels.com/hostels/hi-ottawa-jail

[Rico Rommheim]

Shawinigan city hall, a handsome art deco piece from 1943.


Shawinigan_City_Hall_in_Shawinigan_Series_14 by Foofoo MacShoe, on Flickr

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by Rico Rommheim

Shawinigan city hall, a handsome art deco piece from 1943.


Shawinigan_City_Hall_in_Shawinigan_Series_14 by Foofoo MacShoe, on Flickr

Reminds me greatly of Vancouver's City Hall

processrenewal

[Rico Rommheim]

Yeah that came to mind for me too. Also these ones:


Verdun city hall

Verdun city hall 2 by Vanishing Montréal, on Flickr

Hamilton GO station

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...sitStation.JPG

[megadude]

Will be passing through Collingwood soon. Noticed on google that they have a nice little city hall there.


https://www.collingwood.ca/building-...it-collingwood

[TorontoDrew]

I'm feeling pretty ignorant right now. I never new that the St Lawrence Market has one of Toronto's oldest facade jobs. Toronto's original City Hall.

Built in 1856
Source: https://globalnews.ca/


They used the second and 3rd floors for City offices, the basement had jail cells.

source: torontopubliclibrary.ca


Toronto,ON by sonicgregu, on Flickr

124bis_Inside_St-Lawrence by Dominik De Buyser, on Flickr

[megadude]

Pickering city hall. I guess 90s construction?


sawmill restaurant

[Airboy]

Originally Posted by megadude

Pickering city hall. I guess 90s construction?


sawmill restaurant

No about 89. it was up when I lived there.

[megadude]

Originally Posted by Airboy

No about 89. it was up when I lived there.

Ah. Population was 68k in 1991. Seems disproportionately large for back then. Population 99k as of 2021.

[csbvan]

Two small town BC City Halls (Greenwood and then Grand Forks):

20220820_115555 by csbvancouver, on Flickr

20220820_124311 by csbvancouver, on Flickr

[megadude]

City Hall in Orillia seems kind of imposing. Orillia is also home to the OPP.





https://www.alamy.com/ontario-provin...155574665.html

[Architype]

Originally Posted by megadude

City Hall in Orillia seems kind of imposing. Orillia is also home to the OPP.



...

It looks similar in style to Vancouver's old city hall.

1928. Vancouver City Hall (old market hall) on Main St.

https://miss604.com/2016/03/vancouve...l-history.html

[SignalHillHiker]

Our former Parliament, the Colonial Building, has been fully restored. A cabinet meeting was held there this week. It reopens to the public on Sept. 14 and is a museum of our political history covering the periods of colony and country.

A few pics from Premier on FB:

[J.OT13]

Why did Newfoundalnd and Labrador build a new Parliament in the 50s? Related to joining Confederation in 1949?

[SignalHillHiker]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Why did Newfoundalnd and Labrador build a new Parliament in the 50s? Related to joining Confederation in 1949?

Yes, it is certainly directly related and there are two main theories. (Also, quick note, Confederation Building has never been a Parliament. Its highest calling has been a provincial legislature).

The first and most likely is simply Joey Smallwood's affection for industrial Ontario urban form and architecture. He genuinely wanted Newfoundland to look like Sudbury, or Chemical Alley, or whatever else. He would've gleefully bulldozed St. John's to build Mississauga. Very, very of that era. So anything historic, anything distinctly Newfoundland, had to go. A historic legislature was embarrassment, we were the newest province, and should look like it, etc. The book Newfoundland Modern is a wonderful exploration of the style he inspired here - it's also why Memorial University is, objectively, the ugliest campus in the country.

The second explanation, which is certainly a reality but didn't necessitate our hideous Confederation Building or moving government out to the then fringes of the city, is that running a Canadian province required a larger government/public service than running Newfoundland as a country. St. John's did fuck all for rural Newfoundland, consciously and vindictively. The capital understood it wasn't sustainable to try to provide roads, water, electricity, healthcare, sewerage, etc. for 10,000 villages of a few hundred people. The entire promise of Confederation, the way it was advertised, the reason rural NL voted for it, was access to public services. So we suddenly had to dramatically increase basically every department of government (even with getting rid of foreign affairs, customs, and all that at the provincial level), and the Colonial Building was BARELY meeting our needs even in the 1930s.

It was also a really nice nation-building exercise. Just about everything in Confederation Building, from masonry to maces, was donated by already-existing Canadian provinces, and many contain their motifs intertwined with our own.

[TorontoDrew]

Niagara on the Lake's old town hall now municipal courthouse.


Built in 1848
source: www.ontarioaway.com

[Maldive]

^ and used to have a summer job as a second stage/small theatre, but I guess they kicked Shaw Festival out. I ran that little theatre... fun musicals staged there.

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Yes, it is certainly directly related and there are two main theories. (Also, quick note, Confederation Building has never been a Parliament. Its highest calling has been a provincial legislature).

The first and most likely is simply Joey Smallwood's affection for industrial Ontario urban form and architecture. He genuinely wanted Newfoundland to look like Sudbury, or Chemical Alley, or whatever else. He would've gleefully bulldozed St. John's to build Mississauga. Very, very of that era. So anything historic, anything distinctly Newfoundland, had to go. A historic legislature was embarrassment, we were the newest province, and should look like it, etc. The book Newfoundland Modern is a wonderful exploration of the style he inspired here - it's also why Memorial University is, objectively, the ugliest campus in the country.

The second explanation, which is certainly a reality but didn't necessitate our hideous Confederation Building or moving government out to the then fringes of the city, is that running a Canadian province required a larger government/public service than running Newfoundland as a country. St. John's did fuck all for rural Newfoundland, consciously and vindictively. The capital understood it wasn't sustainable to try to provide roads, water, electricity, healthcare, sewerage, etc. for 10,000 villages of a few hundred people. The entire promise of Confederation, the way it was advertised, the reason rural NL voted for it, was access to public services. So we suddenly had to dramatically increase basically every department of government (even with getting rid of foreign affairs, customs, and all that at the provincial level), and the Colonial Building was BARELY meeting our needs even in the 1930s.

It was also a really nice nation-building exercise. Just about everything in Confederation Building, from masonry to maces, was donated by already-existing Canadian provinces, and many contain their motifs intertwined with our own.

I've visited the Confederation Building and enjoyed the visit with a great tour guide. He let us spend lots of time in the legislature on our own since my wife and I were the only visitors on the tour. He said many of the same things you just mentioned about why the building is so unlike any other provincial legislature and how other provinces gave gifts for the decor and objects. What really surprised me is when I asked him what percentage of visitors were from out-of-province that Summer and he said everyone! He said that it's not a place that people living there want to visit.

As for parliaments, the Ontario Legislative Assembly is referred to as our provincial parliament and our members are MPPs (Member of Provincial Parliament) I know that yours are MHAs but your House of Assembly is a parliament even if it's not called one.