Central Centretown: does it merit heritage status?

Stephen Thirlwall

The City of Ottawa is currently re-evaluating the heritage status of parts of Centretown. They have begun with central Centretown between Elgin and Kent Streets to determine whether this area can be considered a Heritage Conservation District.

A high percentage of Centretown was constructed during the period 1880 to 1925. These 95 to 140-year-old buildings bear the classic architecture of the time.

Almost all were built of the same orange-red brick, often with intricate brick designs that we don’t seem to be able to reproduce today. Many are very large to grand size–even the single houses. Building heights were one to three storeys. The original area was primarily residential and closely related to the nearby Parliament Buildings.

Since the 1980s, 22 special Heritage Conservation Districts (HCDs) were established within Ottawa. A Centretown HCD was designated in the Ontario Heritage Act of 1997. A smaller HCD was also established specifically for Bank Street, and a third HCD in Minto Park.

What is heritage?

In general, heritage includes all those things in our past that give meaning to our history, culture, civilization, and personal way of life, tradition and identity. It is not just one thing but many factors. It is not static but evolves over time. Each period has its own elements of heritage. Buildings, statues, parks, trees, famous people and events, which make up our urban landscape, are especially important in Ottawa.

In terms of the city, heritage is more narrowly defined by buildings. Heritage is a planning tool to determine which buildings require special approval for demolition, alteration, or additions, and which buildings (or parts thereof) should be preserved close to their original form and style because of their high-heritage value. The concept of heritage districts places heritage value of each building in the context of the surrounding buildings and other features.

Central Centretown as a whole could be considered an HCD because so many of its original buildings still exist and form a vital part of its community. As described in the city’s Draft Plan, an HCD must be “a collection of buildings, streets or open spaces of special significance to the community” with a distinctive character distinguishable from neighbouring areas. It must have a concentration of heritage structures and cultural landscapes, and have visual coherence in building scale, mass, height, material, proportion and colour which convey a sense of time and place.

Finding heritage

I first heard about the new draft plan through the Centretown Community Association Trees and Greenspace Committee and became engaged. It was important for me to go out on the street and see what heritage looks like, decide which buildings could help define it and see how coherent they are as a group.

I started at Laurier Avenue, which had, for a long time, been the dividing line between the Central Business District to the north and the mixed low- to mid-rise residential and commercial area to the south. It quickly became clear that in more recent times, many older buildings have disappeared and been replaced by increasingly larger and taller buildings. At present, intensive urbanization continues moving further south into central Centretown. Most of the new buildings will be 25- to 35-storeys tall. This has serious implications for heritage.

In a meeting between the CCA Heritage Group and a city of Ottawa official, many questions were raised and views expressed, particularly over the newly proposed process of how to evaluate buildings.

The city wants to move the process from having a three-level evaluation to just one–buildings are either heritage or not. This would make work simpler and more efficient for the city.

However, the Heritage Group feels a one-step classification could easily set the standard too high, greatly increasing the chance of demolition of many older buildings that have at least “moderate” heritage status.

The process would actually ignore heritage clusters and overlook heritage neighbourhoods. What is really needed is a multilevel heritage evaluation that includes the surrounding context of each building being considered and which provides a more rigorous defense of heritage.

After this meeting, I revised my initial perception of central Centretown on realizing the deep historical knowledge of some of the other group members (i.e., Brian Bourns, Jack Hanna and Brian Beaven). Our perception is critical.

While the district has been greatly disrupted by development, there are still many spatially distinct pockets of potential heritage buildings, as well as thematic groupings of specific building types (e.g., large apartments, churches, banks). To confirm this and to gain an approximate count of buildings, I created my own field map of the full area.

Heritage layout of Central Centretown

1) The northern portion – north of Lisgar east of Bank, plus north of MacLaren west of Bank – has only a small number of widely scattered original buildings, except for a small enclave of about 10 buildings on Nepean Street near Kent. One building is a four-unit clapboard row with a heritage plaque. Two others are now fancy restaurants in old brick houses.

The 15-block area, almost a third of central Centretown, has become highly urbanized since 1920 through various waves of redevelopment and intensification causing the removal of many original buildings. At present, east of Bank, there is aggressive development of condo towers.

2) The zone along either side of Centretown’s original main street (Bank Street) contains a mix of old and new buildings. But their street-level facades are all new since most are shops, restaurants and other businesses. On the south end, between Gladstone Avenue and Catherine Street, there has been extensive rebuilding since about 2010.

An example of partial preservation of heritage is the inclusion of the front of the old Metropolitan Bible Church in the Hideaway Phase 1. There are some old banks and a church along the street. The Bank of Nova Scotia is still in operation, as is the United Church at Argyle. Throughout the last 100 years, Bank Street has maintained its distinct and dynamic community-based atmosphere.

3) Elgin Street forms a similar main street status. It has been greatly revised through recent redevelopment.

4) The area west of Bank and south of MacLaren contains about 95 of the original houses and remains residential.

However, with intensification, some buildings are now subdivided into various units. Renovations have kept most of these buildings in good condition and their exteriors show off their original form.

5) The middle segment of central Centretown south of Lisgar is a mix of new and old, low- to super-high rises. Yet it still retains many historic buildings.

The landscape contains a blend of various-sized houses and apartments, commercial buildings and big administrative-style buildings that now house associations and embassies. Its largest historic building is the Canadian Museum of Nature with its extensive grounds.

Parkland is at a minimum close to the Jack Purcell Community Centre. The area also includes Somerset Village, a dozen buildings on Somerset Street West just east of Bank that are now all restaurants, pubs and offices.

On either side of Metcalfe Street are a series of classic old apartment blocks (e.g., Queen Elizabeth, Duncannon, The Mayfair, The Sheffield, Stonehall). Spatially, they form a sizable pear-shaped area. There is another apartment cluster bounded by Frank, McLeod and the west side of Metcalfe to Elgin. The more than 50 apartments in Central Centretown form a “thematic” heritage grouping.

Another thematic grouping is of very grand buildings scattered along parts of O’Connor and Metcalfe. Over 100 historic houses, many now in multiple units and some containing businesses, are south of MacLaren between Metcalfe and Bank Streets. From Cooper to Lewis, and centred around O’Connor Street, is a zone of recent, current and proposed high-rise development that could change the character of this location.

Heritage is not just single buildings

Heritage does not have to mean just a handful of elite buildings of historic age. It should mean significant pockets of old buildings that still exist as a vital part of our community and so provide a lot of distinction, meaning and value. A heritage designation will allow more of these buildings to be protected longer from demolition and help preserve our neighbourhoods.