HERITAGE OTTAWA

The following letter concerning the proposed Château Laurier addition was sent by Dr. Ian Holloway, Dean of Law at the University of Calgary, to Councillor Jan Harder, Chair of Ottawa's Planning Committee, and Mayor Jim Watson.

July 4, 2019

Dr Ian Holloway PC QC
Professor and Dean of Law
The University of Calgary
2500 University Drive NW
Calgary, AB
T2N 1N4

Dear Ms Harder,

I hope that you won’t mind me writing all the way from Calgary, but I understand that you are the Chair of the City of Ottawa’s planning committee, and that approval of this project falls under your purview. I’ve copied the Mayor, as I know that he has a deep interest in this, as well.

In short, I am one of the ones – who I expect form a majority of your correspondents – who are horrified by the proposed design of the addition. At best, it might fit in, in an industrial area on the outskirts of the city. But to have something this unattractive in the core of the national capital – literally, sitting between the Parliament and Ottawa’s original marketplace – is tantamount to spitting in the face of our country’s history. It would be a nothing short of a national disgrace, and I would urge you and your colleagues to have the political courage to vote against it.

I know that some architects have derided people like me as wanting to build “a Disneyland”. I don’t think that’s true. At least it is no more true than it is to say that the government of Canada was trying to build a Disneyland after the great fire of 1916, when they re-built Parliament in a classic Gothic style. Or, to use a comparison that is perhaps more apt, than the owners of the Willard Hotel, which sits across from the White House, were channeling Walt Disney when they re-built and re-modeled their hotel using the Beaux-arts style in the 1990s. Indeed, I urge you and your colleagues to have a look at the Willard Office Building, which was built in the mid-1980s, so as to blend in with, and compliment, the nineteenth century hotel. Was that an example of “Disneyland”? No, it was an example of fealty to history, and to good design sense.

As a lawyer, I’m no stranger to the notion of professional arrogance – the idea that we just know better than others. But the fact is that as citizens, we all are capable of making judgments about beauty and fit and functionality. Indeed, in some respects, our judgments about such things might be better, because they haven’t been clouded by inside-baseball professional prejudices. It is true that buildings can sometimes be like wine, and come to taste better with age. But with all respect to your colleagues on the planning staff, there is absolutely no way that something as uninspired as this will ever capture the public’s imagination. On the contrary, I guarantee that it will end up serving as an example of planning folly – and of the lack of backbone among Ottawa’s elected politicians.

One final point: some might ask why someone living in Calgary, Alberta, should have the right to comment on a matter within the jurisdiction of your city council. My answer is, for two reasons. The first is experiential. Calgary is a city that, until recently, paid little regard to history and aesthetics. As a result, the city looks and feels like a disconnected jumble. So you can learn from us. The second reason is that emotionally, Ottawa belongs to all of us. It is our capital. It is the heart of our democracy. It is Canada’s city. I know that you were elected by voters in Ward 3. But right now, you are not a civic politician. You are representing every Canadian, from coast to coast to coast.

Let me close where I began – by urging you and your colleagues to disallow this application. It would make Ottawa a worse place. And in so doing, it would make Canada a worse place.

Yours sincerely,

Ian Holloway

The Hon Ian Holloway PC QC
Professor and Dean of Law
The University of Calgary

__________________________________________

YOUR VOICE MATTERS!

Contact the Mayor and Ottawa City Councillors before July 10, 2019.

Click here for details: https://heritageottawa.org/chateau-laurier-addition