The American Institute of Architects guides to major American cities have long made Canada seem like a poor cousin. But historian Andrew Waldron?s book on Ottawa architecture is of a quality comparable to the AIA guidebooks, and it matches Harold Kalman?s and Robin Ward?s Exploring Vancouver in the calibre of its scholarship and presentation. As such, it is an important step towards realizing the national series of architectural guidebooks we deserve. And as Kalman and Ward did in 2012, Waldron sees buildings through a civic-minded lens that has a distinctly Canadian ring.
Waldron hopes to ?raise the civic consciousness of the city,? as he puts it, by writing ?a citizen?s guide as well as an architectural guide,? organized around 11 tours that can be walked, cycled or driven. The book documents and maps 350 points of interest in the Ottawa and Gatineau region, with descriptions that range from landscape features to development schemes to vernacular architecture to landmarks. The commentaries are dense with information, but a fun and easy read. They might describe a late 19th-century real estate experiment or mention where its stone was quarried, and then casually identify the architectural style that informs it. One may read about the reversals of fortune of a prominent family, the multiple uses of their property over time, and changing patterns of trade. The result is a matrix of anecdotes that help readers see all buildings as vital, and telling pieces of a city?s history...