Parliament Buildings Centre Block
Parliament Hill (map V)
J.-O. Marchand and J.A. Pearson
1916-1927 II

• Classified Federal Heritage Building
• originally designed 1859 by Thomas Fuller and Chilion Jones.
• Fuller ,later Chief Architect Public Works, designed Langevin Building, opposite)
• design idea plagiarized from Alfred Waterhouse, Manchester Assize Court (1859)
• original multicoloured slate roof with Gothic decoration
• all but Library destroyed by fire in 1916
• redesigned by Pearson and Marchand (Canada's premier Beaux-Arts trained architect) (1916-1927)
• completely rebuilt as steel frame structure with additional floor and changed layout
• Gothic decoration retained but simplified, including corner tower roofs
• still harmonizes with East and West Blocks of Stent & Laver (1859)
• now has Beaux Arts symmetry, axial plan, progressive spaces, (tower to library)
• copper roof and modified dormers to harmonize with Chateau Laurier
• new much taller tower built as a free-standing masonry campanile
• Gréber disliked this view
• proportion of tower is wrong for picturesque Gothic style (see War Memorial)
• NCC plans to build new plaza at top of Metcalfe to create this "Beaux-Arts" view
• several demolitions of heritage buildings required, ( Fisher, Richmond-Bate, and Birks)

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