Saskatchewan Legislative Building

Saskatchewan Legislative Building
Saskatchewan Legislative Building and grounds
Record height
Tallest in Regina, Saskatchewan from 1912 to 1927[I]
General information
Architectural style	Beaux-Arts
Town or city	Regina, Saskatchewan
Country	Canada
Construction started	August 31, 1908
Completed	January 25, 1912
Cost	$1.75 million
Client	Government of Saskatchewan
Owner	Government of Saskatchewan
Design and construction
Architect	Edward and William Sutherland Maxwell
National Historic Site of Canada
Official name	Saskatchewan Legislative Building and Grounds National Historic Site of Canada
Designated	2005
Saskatchewan Heritage Property Act
Type	Provincial Heritage Property
Designated	1978

The Saskatchewan Legislative Building is located in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, and houses the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan.

History

The Saskatchewan Legislative Building being constructed

The Saskatchewan Legislative Building was built between 1908 and 1912 in the Beaux Arts style to a design by Edward and William Sutherland Maxwell of Montreal. The Maxwells also supervised construction of the building by the Montreal company P. Lyall & Sons, who later built the Centre Block of the federal Parliament Building in Ottawa after the 1866 Parliament Building was destroyed by fire in 1916. Piles began to be drilled for the foundations during the autumn of 1908 and in 1909 the Governor General of Canada, the Earl Grey, laid the cornerstone. In 1912, Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, by then the serving governor general, inaugurated the building.^[1][2]

People enjoying a boat race on Wascana Lake north of the Legislative Building circa 1910.

The design contemplates expansion of the building by the addition of wings extending south from the east and west ends and coming together to form a courtyard. The plans originally called for the exterior of the building to be red brick but after construction had begun and red bricks were already on the site, Premier Walter Scott decided that Manitoba Tyndall stone would give the building greater grandeur and the plans were adjusted with the substitution increasing the building cost by $50,000. The total cost of construction came to $1.75 million by the time of its opening in October 1912, ten months after the assembly had begun meeting in the yet-uncompleted building.

Characteristics

The legislative chamber inside the Saskatchewan Legislative Building with its original red carpet

Diverging from parliamentary tradition, the carpet in the legislative chamber was red until 2012. Canonically, red carpet is used for houses of unelected members, such as the Canadian Senate, and houses of elected members are given blue or green carpet. In anticipation of green carpet, the legislative chamber was given green marble trim. Walter Scott preferred red carpet, and for a century the Saskatchewan Legislative Building stood as one of only two in Canada to feature red carpet in its legislative chamber (British Columbia's being the other). The red carpet was replaced by green carpet in the summer 2012.^[3]

Legislative rotunda, ca. 1925. The overhead mural entitled “Before the White Man Came”, painted by Department of Public Works employee John Leman, was not painted until 1933, so it did not exist when this photograph was taken.

Walter Scott anticipated that the building might "for a century yet be credible enough to form the main building on the Capital grounds" (Barnhart: 2002, 43), the general assumption of the time being that Saskatchewan's population would grow to several million. That century has now almost elapsed; the provincial legislative building remains the main building on the "Capital grounds", but indeed, continues to be the most imposing structure in a city smaller than its founders envisioned.

Such planning is evident in the legislative chamber itself, designed to accommodate well in excess of one hundred members. The assembly has never expanded beyond 66 MLAs (and has been fixed at 58 members since 1995). As a result, even after those elections which yielded massive majorities (such as those held in 1982 and 1991) there has been plenty of space to seat all government members to the speaker's right.

The Institute for stained glass in Canada has documented the stained glass at Saskatchewan Legislature.^[4]

The Saskatchewan Legislative Building is located at 2405 Legislative Drive, Regina, overlooking Wascana Lake. Free tours of the facility are offered throughout the week.

Significance

The legislative building and its grounds were designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 2005.^[5] It is also a Provincial Heritage Property.^[6]

Of historical significance, the table that was used during the meeting of the Fathers of Confederation in Quebec City in 1864 resides in the building's library, albeit with six feet of it removed. The Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West Territories brought the table to Fort Battleford, which was the capital of the territory at the time. Six feet of the table length was removed from the middle so that it could be stored.

Trafalgar Fountain

Statues at Legislature

Statue of the Queen north of the building

There is an equestrian statue of Queen Elizabeth II and in the past was one of Louis Riel but it represented him nude and was removed on objection of First Nations people. On the eastern side of the building there is a fountain, one of two brought from London's Trafalgar Square, the other having been taken to Ottawa.

References

Further reading

• Barnhart, Gordon L., Building for the Future: A Photo Journal of Saskatchewan's Legislative Building (Regina: Canadian Plains Research Centre, 2002). ISBN 0-88977-145-6.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Saskatchewan Legislative Building.

• Drawings of unsuccessful designs in the 1907 competition for the commission to plan the Legislative Building
• Canadian Registry of Historic Places

Coordinates: 50°25′57″N 104°36′54″W / 50.432426°N 104.615099°W / 50.432426; -104.615099

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