Old City Hall (Ottawa)
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The building today commonly referred to as the Old City Hall was the building that served as Ottawa's city hall from 1958 to 2000. Today it is officially known as 111 Sussex Drive and is owned by the Federal Government of Canada.
The building is located on Green Island at the point where the Rideau River empties into the Ottawa. The historic city hall on Elgin Street had been destroyed by a fire in 1931. For the next 27 years the city operated out of temporary offices in the Transportation Building. The International Style building was opened on August 2, 1958 by Princess Margaret as a member of the Canadian Royal Family. It is noted for the first building in Ottawa to be fully air conditioned. It was designed by John Bland of the firm of Rother, Bland and Trudeau and is considered one of the most important International Style buildings in Canada. Winning the Massey Medal for design in 1959, modifications were made by Moshe Safdie in 1992-1993.
In 1988 Ottawa mayor Jim Durrell initiated a controversial scheme to expand the building, quadrupling its original size. Architect Moshe Safdie was chosen to do the redesign. Conflict soon broke out between Safdie and the city. Safdie demanded a higher fee and delayed the project for several months before the city acquiesced to his demand. Then a conflict broke out over a pair of eighteen story observation towers. City council voted to cut the towers to save the million dollars they cost. This infuriated Safdie who felt the towers were essential to the design. The panel that picked the design had singled out the tower as one of the highlights of the design. Eventually the city compromised and a bare scaffold was erected.
The new building caused considerable controversy in the city with some liking the design, but others seeing the $72 million dollar structure an ugly waste of money. The building was much larger than the city needed and for several years large sections were vacant. In 1999 offices were rented out to the Department of Foreign Affairs, which is based just down the street and this mostly filled the building.
On January 1, 2001, a new single-tier City of Ottawa was created to replace the Regional Municipality of Ottawa Carleton. It was decided that the new city would be based at the RMOC Building. This building was considerably smaller but far more centrally located. In 2003 the the old city hall was sold to the Federal Public Works department. Today the building mainly houses foreign affairs employees. For several months it was also the site of the Gomery Inquiry hearings.
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