The new Ottawa Art Gallery is part of the revitalization of a downtown block that includes a new mixed hotel-residential tower.
PROJECT Ottawa Art Gallery Expansion and Arts Court Redevelopment, Ottawa, Ontario
ARCHITECTS Barry Padolsky Associates and KPMB Architects (design architects); Régis Côté et associés (architect of record); LEMAYMICHAUD architecture design (joint venture with Régis Côté for private tower)
TEXT Odile Hénault
PHOTOS Adrien Williams
The 30-year-old Ottawa Art Gallery (OAG) has a new home in the heart of Ottawa, steps from the Rideau Canal. The six-storey building, designed by KPMB with Barry Padolsky Associates, is much more than a venue for art. It is the key project in a major effort to revitalize an awkward city block, originally designed for houses of justice rather than for cultural institutions. On the same block, the former Carleton County Gaol was turned into a hostel in the 1970s, and stands next to what used to be the county courthouse and its adjoining annex. Over the years, the courthouse was converted into a hub called the Arts Court, bringing together numerous arts organizations (including, until recently, the OAG). The former Ottawa Police Headquarters?designed by Peter Dickinson in the 1950s and demolished in 1994?is the site of the new OAG. The more or less abandoned lot had become an anomaly in the dense city fabric surrounding it; now, it has been cleverly infilled with the Gallery?s striking white volume, an eye-catching de...