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VOL.34 > N o 1 > 2009

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ISSN 1486-0872
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Page make-up | Mise en Pages
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Cover | CouverturE
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Journal Editor | Rédacteur du Journal
Luc Noppen
Chaire de recherche du Canada en patrimoine urbain
Institut du patrimoine
Université du Québec à Montréal
CP 8888, succ. centre-ville
Montréal, QC H3C 3P8
(514) 987-3000 x 2562 | f : (514) 987-6881
e : noppen.luc@uqam.ca
Assistant Editor | Adjoint à la rédaction
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Assistant Editor | Adjoint à la rédaction
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Parks Canada
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e : lana.stewart@pc.gc.ca
Editor of News & Views |
Rédactrice de Nouvelles et Coups d’œil
Heather Bretz
Stantec Architecture Ltd.
200-325 25 th Street SE
Calgary, AB T2A 7H8
(403) 716-7901 / f : (403) 716-8019
e : heather.bretz@stantec.com
President | Président
Andrew Waldron
Architectural Historian, National Historic Sites Directorate
Parks Canada
5 th Floor, 25 Eddy Street
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(819) 953-5587 / f : (819) 953-4909
e : andrew.waldron@pc.gc.ca
Vice-presidents | Vice-président(E)s
Peter Coffman
6313 Norwood Street
Halifax, NS B3H 2K9
e : peter@petercoffman.com
Lucie K. Morisset
Études urbaines et touristiques
École des sciences de la gestion
Université du Québec à Montréal
CP 8888, succ. Centre-ville
Montréal, QC H3C 3P8
(514) 987-3000 x 4585 / f : (514) 987-6881
e : morisset.lucie@uqam.ca
Treasurer | TrésoriER
Barry Magrill
8080 Dalemore Road
Richmond, BC V7C 2A6
barrymagrill@shaw.ca
Secretary | Secrétaire
Vacant
Provincial Representatives |
Représentant(E)s DES PROVINCES
George Chalker
Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador
P.O. Box 5171
St. John’s, NF A1C 5V5
(709) 739-1892 / f : (709) 739-5413
e : george@heritagefoundation.ca
Ann Howatt
PO Box 2311
Charlottetown, PEI C1A 8C1
(902) 626-8076
e: ahowatt@upei.ca
Terrence Smith Lamothe
1935 Vernon
Halifax, NS B3H 3N8
(902) 425-0101
Tom Urbaniak
Cape Breton University
1250 Grand Lake Road
Sydney, NS B1P 6L2
(902) 563-1226
e : tom_urbaniak@cbu.ca
Thomas Horrocks
ADI Limited
300-1133 Regent Street
Fredericton, NB E3B 3Z2
(506) 452-9000 / f : (906) 452-7303
e : thd@adi.ca / horto@reg2.health.nb.ca
Mathieu Pomerleau
379, rue de Liège
Montréal, QC H2P 1J6
e : mathieu.pomerleau@umontreal.ca
Sharon Vattay
322-11 Elm Avenue
Toronto, ON M4W 1N2
(416) 964-7235
svattay@chass.utoronto.ca
Bernard Flaman
201-1800 11 th Avenue
Regina, SK S4P 0H8
(306) 780 3280 / f : (306) 780 7242
e : bernard.flaman@pwgsc-tpsgc.gc.ca
Heather Bretz
Stantec Inc.
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Calgary, AB T2P 0R9
(403) 262-5511 / f : (403) 262-5519
e : heather.bretz@stantec.com
Daniel Millette
511-55 Water Street
Vancouver, BC V6B 1A1
t / f : (604) 687-4907
e : lucubratio@yahoo.com
Kayhan Nadji
126 Niven Drive
Yellowknife, NT X1A 3W8
t / f : (867) 920-6331
e : kayen@nadji_architects.ca

contents | table des matières
essaYs | e s s a I s
analyses | analyses
Research Notes
Notes de recherche
Report | Rapport
> Jo n at h a n Cha
« La ville est hockey ».
De la hockeyisation de la ville
à la représentation architecturale :
une quête urbaine
> Malcolm Thurlby
‘Parisian Gothic’: Interpretations of Gothic
in three Victorian Buildings in Paris, Ontario
> G eorge Th o m a s
Kapelos
The Small House in Print
Promoting the Modern Home
to Post-war Canadians through Pattern
Books, Journals, and Magazines
> Y ona Jébrak et
Barbara Julien
Hydrostone’s Heritagization:
Garden City of War
> Marie-José Fortier
Deux exemples de jardins civils à Montréal
au dix-huitième siècle
> R hona Goodspeed
National Arts Centre, Ottawa, Ontario
3
19
33
61
67
75
VOL.34 > N o 1 > 2009

essay | essai
« La ville est hockey ». De la hockeyisation
de la ville à la représentation
architecturale : une quête urbaine
Jonathan Cha est architecte paysagiste et
doctorant en études urbaines à l’Université du
>Jo n at h a n Ch a
Québec à Montréal, en cotutelle avec l’Institut
d’urbanisme de Paris. Il est jeune chercheur à
la Chaire de recherche du Canada en patrimoine
urbain et rattaché au Centre interuniversitaire
d’études sur les lettres, les arts et les traditions
(CELAT).
Le hockey est depuis plus d’un siècle
une marque de l’identité canadienne.
La plus ancienne formation, Les Canadiens
de Montréal, fête son 100 e anniversaire
en 2009. Les célébrations du centenaire,
déjà bien entamées, représentent l’événement
symbolique le plus important de
la ville depuis le 350 e anniversaire de la
fondation de Montréal en 1992. Dans le
dessein de susciter un intérêt « métropolitain
», la direction marketing du Club de
hockey Canadien désirait hisser le Tricolore
au titre de « fait culturel » premier à
Montréal en répandant, voire en propageant
« la bonne nouvelle » : le hockey
est de retour et Montréal vit au rythme
du hockey.
Dans le contexte post-lockout des difficultés
de la Ligue nationale de hockey
(LNH) et pour relancer le sport, le Club
de hockey Canadien lançait en 2006 une
campagne publicitaire associant directement
l’image du hockey à celle de la
ville. Baptisée « La ville est hockey », elle
associait l’équipe de hockey à des références
architecturales montréalaises. La ville
agirait ainsi comme support à l’image des
Canadiens et le hockey ne serait plus simplement
un sport, mais une marque de
l’identité culturelle évoluant au cœur et
à l’échelle de la ville.
ill. 1. Médaillés d’or Shane Doan et Rick Nash de l’Équipe Canada au Championnat mondial de l’International
Ice Hockey Federation. | IIHF, 2007.
Les recherches nous ont permis de constater
que cette publicité s’inscrivait dans
un courant bien répandu, à Montréal
comme dans le reste du Canada, d’un
vouloir entrepreneurial (équipes de hockey),
populaire (partisans) et administratif
(villes) de lier ville et hockey. Il y aurait
une véritable « conquête » partisane qui
se serait engagée dans l’espace public.
JSSAC | JSÉAC 34 > N o 1 > 2009 > 3-18
3

Jon at h a n Cha > essaY | essaI
Tableau 1
Les processus de la quête du label « ville de hockey »
IDENTITÉ NATIONALE
PHÉNOMÈNE SOCIAL
APPROPRIATION
REPRÉSENTATION
HOCKEYITÉ
HOCKEYVILLE
Afin de bien saisir le contexte dans lequel
s’insère la campagne publicitaire « La ville
est hockey » et l’ancrage des Canadiens
au centre-ville, l’article se divisera en trois
axes principaux : l’entrée du hockey dans
l’espace public urbain ou la hockeyisation
de la ville au Canada, les attributs et le
vouloir d’appropriation du titre de « ville
de hockey » et la représentation de la
ville dans la mise en marché du hockey
à Montréal 1 .
HOCKEY :
SPORT
HOCKEYNATION :
IDENTITÉ
PROCESSUS
HOCKEYTOWN
VILLE DE HOCKEY :
QUÊTE
LA VILLE :
SUPPORT
HOCKEYISATION
IDENTITÉ URBAINE
PHÉNOMÈNE URBAIN
ESPACE PUBLIC URBAIN
ARCHITECTURE
ARCHITECTURE
Nous mettrons de l’avant la quête identitaire,
socioculturelle mais surtout
urbaine, pour laquelle le hockey devient
un prétexte et la ville un support dans
l’affirmation des « villes de hockey ».
Le système de la « ville de hockey », de
l’anglais hockeytown, qui ne représente
rien de moins qu’une quête d’une identité
urbaine, est déterminé par quatre
processus/concepts : la hockeyisation (le
transfert du hockey dans l’espace urbain),
la « ville est hockey » (campagne publicitaire
montréalaise), hockeyville (concours
canadien visant à déterminer la ville la
plus partisane au Canada) et la hockeyité 2
(passion pour le sport) (tableau 1). Nous
aborderons les interrelations entre la pratique
du hockey et l’espace urbain, les
échanges entre la pratique du hockey et
les représentations de la ville et enfin les
interrelations entre les représentations de
la ville et les représentations du hockey.
Hockeynation : entre
identité nationale et
identité urbaine. Le hockey
au cœur de la société
canadienne et montréalaise
Le hockey : « consolidateur » de
l’identité canadienne
Depuis la pratique généralisée du hockey
sur glace remontant au début du vingtième
siècle au Canada, le hockey est
devenu le sport national, une identité
partagée d’un océan à l’autre (ill. 1). La
grande majorité des coupes Stanley ont été
remportées par des équipes canadiennes
et, malgré l’internationalisation de la LNH
aujourd’hui, plus de la moitié des joueurs
qui y évoluent sont d’origine canadienne.
Dans un document portant sur l’avenir
des équipes de la LNH au Canada réalisé
conjointement par Industrie Canada, les
provinces, les municipalités et les équipes,
le Forum des politiques publiques confirmait
l’impact et le rôle important joué
par le hockey dans la société canadienne 3 .
Il statuait d’ailleurs sur l’importance historique
et culturelle du hockey : « Toutes
les parties ont admis que le hockey
– et le hockey professionnel – a joué un
grand rôle dans l’histoire du Canada. 4 »
Pour le Forum des politiques publiques, il
est indubitable que le hockey occupe une
place spéciale dans la vie au Canada et
dans la mythologie intérieure de sa population,
comme son sport d’hiver national 5 .
Pour la LNH, « Canada is and always has
been the heart of NHL hockey » 6 . Les victoires
répétées d’Équipe Canada aux Jeux
olympiques, aux Championnats du monde
et à la Coupe du monde de hockey depuis
l’an 2000, au même titre que l’atteinte des
finales de la coupe Stanley en 2004, en
2006 et en 2007 par Calgary, Edmonton
et Ottawa respectivement, ont généré
un engouement et une fierté du sport
national partout au Canada 7 . Le hockey
serait au cœur de l’« identité nationale »
canadienne.
Selon un sondage national mené en mars
1999 par Decima Research, soixantedouze
pour cent des Canadiens étaient
d’avis que le hockey contribue à leur
identité comme nation et les définit
comme Canadiens. De même, dans une
enquête nationale du magazine MacLean
leur demandant quelles sont les « choses
qui [les] lient ensemble », le hockey
arrivait au deuxième rang, précédé seulement
par le système national de soins
de santé. Alors que le blogue le plus
important sur le hockey au pays porte
le titre évocateur de Hockeynation, le
réseau CBC a capté toute l’importance
du hockey dans la société canadienne
en créant le concours Hockeyville. Ce
concours, notable par l’engagement et
l’esprit communautaires qu’il génère,
consiste en l’élection de la meilleure
ville de hockey au pays. Les collectivités
4 JSSAC | JSÉAC 34 > N o 1 > 2009

Jon at h a n Cha > essaY | essaI
Tableau 2
La hockeyisation de la ville
PHÉNOMÈNE URBAIN
PHÉNOMÈNE SOCIAL
IDENTITÉ URBAINE
HOCKEY
La HOCKEYISATION
VILLE
ESPACE PUBLIC
ARÉNA
RUE
PLACE
ILL. 2. Publicité d’Air Canada, Magazine Les Canadiens,
2002, vol. 17, no 6, p. 45.
à travers le Canada rivalisent entre elles
afin de démontrer leur passion pour le
hockey. Lors de l’année inaugurale en
2006, quatre cent cinquante municipalités
ont participé au concours 8 , prouvant
de facto tout l’intérêt pour le hockey à
l’extérieur des grands centres urbains
et confirmant son inscription dans la
société canadienne. Chaque année, la
ville gagnante reçoit cent mille dollars
pour la rénovation de ses installations
sportives, en plus d’accueillir un match
avant-saison de la LNH. Roberval a profité
de sa victoire à Hockeyville en 2008
pour remettre à neuf son aréna et réaménager
son Village sur glace, qui représente
désormais l’une des principales
attractions hivernales de la ville.
Le hockey : un phénomène urbain
L’histoire nous rappelle que le hockey est
avant tout un phénomène urbain. À Montréal,
les différents arénas utilisés par les
équipes professionnelles, répartis d’est en
ouest dans la ville, démontrent l’emprise
urbaine du hockey. De la première patinoire
aménagée en 1862 et couverte en
1875, située au sud de la rue Sainte-Catherine
entre les rues Drummond et Stanley
(Victoria Skating Rink), jusqu’au Centre
Bell situé sur la rue de la Gauchetière
entre les rues de la Montagne et Stanley,
la localisation aura toujours joué un rôle
majeur dans leur implantation 9 .
L’Association des athlètes amateurs
(AAA), le National, le Montagnard, les
Victorias, les Shamrocks, les Wanderers,
les Maroons puis les Canadiens étaient
des équipes de hockey montréalaises et
leur rayonnement ne dépassait pas les
limites de la ville. Jusqu’au début des
années 1940, le hockey des Canadiens
demeure un phénomène essentiellement
urbain. « Il faut toutefois rappeler qu’à
cette époque, même si on joue au hockey
jusque dans les coins les plus reculés du
Québec rural, le phénomène du hockey
professionnel de la LNH est principalement
urbain, pour ne pas dire métropolitain
et plus précisément montréalais 10 . »
C’est avec la disparition graduelle de
ces équipes au début du vingtième
siècle, mais surtout celle des Maroons
en 1938, que les Canadiens, désormais
seule équipe montréalaise, deviendront
un phénomène provincial : « Dès lors,
le Canadien amorce un nouveau virage
dans son existence. Autrefois équipe des
Canadiens français, il sera dorénavant
l’équipe de l’ensemble des Montréalais,
puis celle de tout le Québec 11 . » (ill. 2)
La hockeyisation de la ville
au Canada : l’ancrage du
hockey dans l’espace urbain
d’un océan à l’autre
Autrefois limités à l’enceinte de l’aréna,
le hockey et ses rituels ont graduellement
pénétré l’espace urbain par des mécanismes
incitatifs de différents acteurs de la
sphère du hockey (tableau 2). Les villes
de l’Ouest canadien sont les premières à
avoir amorcé officieusement cette hockeyisation
de la ville. Ce phénomène, qui
n’était qu’anecdotique il y a quelques
années encore, est depuis devenu un
outil de promotion et d’identification
et un véritable enjeu d’aménagement. Il
y a un partage d’appropriations : le hockey
s’est dans un premier temps appuyé
sur la ville et la ville s’appuie maintenant
sur le hockey. Observons comment le
hockey s’est progressivement introduit
dans la ville 12 .
JSSAC | JSÉAC 34 > N o 1 > 2009 5

Jon at h a n Cha > essaY | essaI
The Red Mile de Calgary : le hockey
comme promoteur urbain ?
Le hockey dans l’Ouest canadien a conquis
l’espace urbain en 1985 et tout porte à
croire que le processus de hockeyisation
de la ville est un phénomène en croissance
(ill. 3-8). À l’occasion de la série opposant
son équipe aux Jets de Winnipeg, l’organisation
des Flames de Calgary invita
ses partisans à se vêtir du maillot rouge
ILL. 3. Sea of Red à l’intérieur du Pengrowth
Saddledome de Calgary. | Chad Persley, Calgary Flames
Ltd. Partnership, 2004.
de l’équipe décoré de son logo (le « C »)
comme marque d’encouragement. C’est
alors que s’amorça le « C » / Sea of Red,
aujourd’hui une composante majeure de
l’identité urbaine de Calgary. Après les
parties des Flames, les partisans, dont le
nombre atteignait régulièrement cent
mille personnes, envahissaient la 11 th Avenue
SW, connue alors comme l’« Electric
Avenue ». Ce phénomène de la marée
rouge se transporta sur la 17 th Avenue SW
ILL. 6. Rassemblement partisan sur l’Olympic Plaza de
Calgary. | Chad Persley, Calgary Flames Ltd. Partnership, 2004.
lors de la quête de la coupe Stanley en
2004. Désormais surnommée le « Mille
rouge » 13 , l’avenue est aujourd’hui indissociable
de l’image du hockey à Calgary
et est un symbole de la ville 14 . Les images
de cet espace public hockeyisé ont été
diffusées à l’échelle mondiale dans les
divers médias.
L’appropriation de cette voie publique au
centre de la ville a eu un impact important
sur le renouvellement identitaire
de l’espace urbain de Calgary. La hockeyisation
de la 17 th Avenue a en effet
amorcé un processus de patrimonialisation
de cette artère centrale, au point où
The Red Mile TM est depuis cinq ans une
marque déposée. À l’image du boulevard
Saint-Laurent à Montréal, désigné lieu
historique national par le gouvernement
du Canada, la 17 th Avenue est désormais
une entité connue puisant son image
de marque principalement dans l’intangible.
Aujourd’hui, elle est devenue un
monument de l’identité de Calgary et une
attraction de l’industrie touristique. La
société The Red Mile TM fait la promotion
de l’avenue :
You’ve heard about it on TV, you’ve read
about it in the papers, and you’ve seen it on
the internet. NOW, come and visit it 15 !
ILL. 4. Sea of Red à l’intérieur du Pengrowth
Saddledome de Calgary, 2004. | [www.theredmile.ca].
ILL. 7. Sea of Red à l’extérieur sur la 17 th Avenue de
Calgary, 2004. | [www.webshots.com].
With hundreds of local area merchants,
our world famous Calgary hospitality, and a
unique mix of historic and modern buildings,
The Red Mile TM is a must-see shopping and
tourism destination! […] the area continues
to remain vibrant as a tourism and shopping
destination so come see what else the mile
has to offer 16 .
ILL. 5. Le maire de Calgary, Dave Bronconier, et l’enseigne
de rue du Red Mile, 2004. | [www.theredmile.ca].
ILL. 8. Sea of Red à l’extérieur sur la 17 th Avenue de
Calgary, 2004. | [www.webshots.com].
Dans les orientations urbaines de The Red
Mile TM , la société propose l’installation de
webcaméras dans le but de diffuser en
direct en tout temps le bouillonnement
de la 17 th Avenue et d’en faire un lieu
de convergence des fans de hockey afin
6 JSSAC | JSÉAC 34 > N o 1 > 2009

Jon at h a n Cha > essaY | essaI
d’encourager et de célébrer leur équipe
sportive. Si elle s’appuie sur la hockeyisation
pour poursuivre le sens attribué à
cette avenue, elle veut également en tirer
profit pour attirer l’Autre et les autres,
ceux qui ne sont pas des adeptes de hockey
: « For those who have visited the
mile, you know that we aren’t just about
hockey; we are THE place to see and been
seen. » The Red Mile TM se consacre à la
promotion du quartier des affaires de la
17 th Avenue.
Dans la foulée de la vaste enquête (2005-
2006) intitulée « Imagine Calgary », visant
à savoir « What makes Calgary a good
place to live and what could make it better
in the future », le quotidien Calgary
Herald se demandait si « the Red Mile [has]
any relevance to urban design issues » 17 .
La réponse est certes oui, surtout lorsqu’il
est question de considérations d’assemblées
publiques, de citoyenneté, de civilité,
de célébration, de responsabilité, de
spontanéité et d’ambiance.
Mile, écrivait le quotidien 20 . Les journaux
ont largement valorisé l’appellation Red
Mile depuis quatre ans, au point où l’appellation
a été mentionnée des centaines
de fois. En 2008, on a installé une
immense sculpture de la coupe Stanley au
centre-ville.
Le Winnipeg White Out : le blizzard
manitobain
En réaction au « C » of Red, l’organisation
des Jets de Winnipeg de l’époque avait
répliqué en créant le Winnipeg White Out
et en appelant la population à ne porter
que des vêtements blancs lors des matchs
à domicile (ill. 9-10). L’effet était saisissant
: « Winnipeg White-Out, literally a
sea of 15,000 fans draped often in white
sheets, white towels and white body
paint, and always, in unrelenting pride.
If nothing more, the franchise attracted
hockey fans with co-ordination unmatched
by any other NHL city 21 . » Ce geste
signifiait l’appui et la solidarité par rapport
à l’équipe. La renommée des hivers
blancs à Winnipeg joua certes un rôle
dans le choix de la couleur. Cette tradition
amorcée en avril 1985 dépassa largement
les limites du Winnipeg Arena :
The tradition evolved and fans were no longer
simply wearing white at home games. When
the team was on the road, fans gathered
at various establishments, all wearing white
[…] It had struck a chord with the city and
camaraderie amongst all fans and the team
had been built 22 .
Pendant les séries éliminatoires, le cœur
de Winnipeg devenait le réceptacle de
cette foule blanche qui se réunissait à
l’angle de Portage Avenue et Main Street.
Cette tradition prit fin au moment du
déménagement de l’équipe à Phoenix.
Lors de la finale de la coupe Stanley en
2004, Tampa Bay créa une pâle copie du
Winnipeg White Out qui ne dura qu’une
seule saison 23 . Finalement, en 2008, les
Penguins de Pittsburgh, qui jouent au
Le conseil administratif de la Ville de
Calgary a d’ailleurs tenté de développer
une stratégie visant « [to strike] a
balance between residential livability,
public safety and the impact of bars along
streets such as 17 th Avenue and 1 st Street
S.W. » 18 . En 2005, la conseillère Madeleine
King a même créé « The 17 th Avenue Urban
Design » en rassemblant des architectes et
des paysagistes. Après des consultations
populaires, un aménagement du Red
Mile caractérisé par « a tree-lined boulevard
with street cafes and low-rise buildings
that combine condominiums and
retail shops, bordering a series of urban
parks » 19 fut proposé.
ILL. 9. White-Out à l’intérieur du Winnipeg
Arena. | Ken Giglioti, The Winnipeg Free Press.
ILL. 11. Célébrations partisanes sur le Blue Mile, la
Whyte Avenue à Edmonton. | Lyndon Gotmorewhiskey,
[Bluemile.ca], 2006.
Lors des célébrations entourant le centenaire
de l’Alberta, le Calgary Herald
présenta cent de ses pages couvertures
historiques. L’année 2004 est celle où Calgary
est devenue célèbre pour son Red
ILL. 10. White-Out à l’intérieur du Winnipeg
Arena. | Ken Giglioti, The Winnipeg Free Press.
ILL. 12. Célébrations partisanes à Edmonton. |
Andy Devlin et Edmonton Oilers Hockey Club, 2006.
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Jon at h a n Cha > essaY | essaI
Mellon Arena, communément surnommé
« l’igloo » en raison de sa forme et de sa
couleur, ont redonné vie à cette tradition
winnipegoise le 25 avril 2008, le temps
d’un match les opposant aux Rangers de
New York 24 . Ces trois exemples éphémères
sont des événements qui ont animé l’espace
urbain sans en affecter la forme ou
la dénomination. Ils représentent le stade
primitif de la hockeyisation.
The Blue Mile d’Edmonton : de l’espace
virtuel à l’espace public
ILL. 13. Lieu de rassemblement et drapeau à l’effigie
des Sénateurs sur la façade de l’hôtel de ville
à Ottawa. | Jonathan Cha, 2007.
ILL. 14. Enseigne de rue Sens Mile
à Ottawa.| Jonathan Cha, 2007.
Les Oilers d’Edmonton, dans leur course
pour la coupe Stanley en 2006, amorcèrent
un mouvement similaire à celui de
Calgary et de Winnipeg en promouvant
le port de gilets bleus lors des matchs
à domicile (ill. 11-12). Les médias d’Edmonton
surnommèrent la Whyte Avenue
« The Blue Mile », afin de témoigner
des rassemblements de partisans et de
l’appropriation d’une artère symboliquement
rattachée aux Oilers d’Edmonton
: « Thousands of fans marched up
and down the so-called ‘Blue Mile’ 25 . »
« Whyte Avenue is to become Edmonton’s
Blue Mile version of Calgary’s Red
Mile 26 . » Cette avenue est rapidement
devenue un lieu de rassemblement privilégié
dans la ville 27 . Plus qu’un site de
célébration du hockey, le Blue Mile est
désormais un lieu de festivités aux rituels
très particuliers ayant pour scène l’espace
public au cœur d’Edmonton 28 . L’effort
médiatique et le recours au Web 29 auront
contribué à cette nouvelle appropriation
de la Whyte Avenue d’Edmonton 30 .
Le Sens Mile d’Ottawa : l’effet domino
et la magie de Facebook
Le hockey gagna également la rue dans
la capitale nationale par la présence des
Sénateurs d’Ottawa en finale de la coupe
Stanley en 2007 (ill. 13-14). Critiquant le
manque d’enthousiasme et de manifestations
populaires dans la ville, Shane Currey,
un Ottavien de dix-neuf ans, lança sur
le site Facebook un appel à prendre la rue.
Un fan y affirmait : « Calgary did it in the
streets. Edmonton did it in the streets. We
want the nation to know we support our
team 31 . » Selon lui, Ottawa devait naturellement
prendre cette voie. Le groupe
Facebook « I Am an Ottawa Senators
Fan », qui comptait à ce moment plus de
quinze mille membres, fut une rampe de
lancement inouïe pour la création d’un
Sens Mile. Celui-ci est donc né virtuellement
le 15 mai 2007 grâce à l’initiative
d’une personne de rassembler la population
sur Elgin Street, à l’angle de McLaren
Street. Le 16 mai, l’information était
reprise dans les quotidiens d’Ottawa et de
Montréal et le processus de hockeyisation
s’entamait 32 . Deux jours plus tard, le sujet
gagna la mairie d’Ottawa. The Ottawa
Citizen rapportait que le maire Larry
O’Brien « might give the OK for a section
of Elgin Street to be designated the ‘Sens
Mile’ if the team were to advance to the
Stanley Cup final » 33 . La première grande
appropriation de la rue eut lieu le 19 mai
lorsque Ottawa élimina Buffalo : « Sens
Mile—an Elgin Street fan zone similar to
Calgary’s Red Mile and Edmonton’s Whyte
Avenue—was baptized yesterday 34 . » Le
28 mai, premier jour de la finale, la Ville
s’affairait à poser de nouvelles enseignes
de rue portant le nom Sens Mile sur Elgin
Street. En l’espace d’une semaine, le Sens
Mile était né et bien ancré dans la ville et
dans la conscience collective 35 .
Montréal et la vague
bleu-blanc-rouge
Un nouveau rituel est né en 2008 à Montréal
: le port du fanion sur les véhicules
(ill. 15). Déjà bien ancrée à Toronto, cette
coutume se propagea comme une traînée
de poudre durant les séries éliminatoires ;
cinq mille petits drapeaux étaient ainsi
vendus chaque jour pour un total de près
de deux cent mille. La région métropolitaine
se trouvait décorée de ce symbole
ambulant. À Montréal, la hockeyisation
ne se concentra pas en un seul lieu. Elle
se répandit à tout le centre-ville. Les rues
Crescent, de la Montagne, Drummond et
Sainte-Catherine affichaient leurs couleurs,
bleu-blanc-rouge, dans les vitrines
de boutiques de vêtements, les terrasses
de restaurants, les halls d’entrée et les
façades d’édifices, sur les lampadaires
et même sur les portes des casernes de
pompiers (ill. 16-22). Une vague tricolore
déferlait sur le centre-ville les jours
de match et se déversait sur la rue de
Lagauchetière, la rue Sainte-Catherine et
le boulevard René-Lévesque lors de victoires.
Au square Victoria, Guillaume Pharand
et Jean-Luc Lavallée, deux partisans
au talent de couturier, confectionnèrent
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Jon at h a n Cha > essaY | essaI
ILL. 15. Fanion des Canadiens de Montréal sur une
voiture. | Jonathan Cha, 2008.
ILL. 22. Page couverture du magazine Les Canadiens,
2002, vol. 16, no 1.
ILL. 16. Drapeaux des Canadiens de Montréal sur
un restaurant-terrasse de la rue de la
Montagne. | Jonathan Cha, 2008.
ILL. 19. Décoration aux couleurs des Canadiens de
Montréal sur des lampadaires de la rue
Crescent. | Jonathan Cha, 2008.
un énorme chandail rouge des Canadiens
et en revêtirent la statue de l’artiste Ju
Ming. Intitulée Taichi Single Whip, la
statue est devenue, le temps des séries
éliminatoires, un symbole du hockey, en
évoquant le flegme du gardien de but des
Canadiens.
Hockeytown, la défense du
titre de capitale du hockey
Les attributs d’une « ville de hockey »
ILL. 17. Façade du centre Eaton aux couleurs des
Canadiens de Montréal. | Jonathan Cha, 2008.
ILL. 18. Façade de la place Montréal Trust aux couleurs
des Canadiens de Montréal. | Jonathan Cha, 2008.
ILL. 20. Façade peinte aux couleurs des Canadiens
de Montréal de la caserne de pompiers n o 25
de la rue Drummond. | Jonathan Cha, 2008.
ILL. 21. Statue « Taichi Single Whip » hockeyisée en
gardien de but aux couleurs des Canadiens
de Montréal. | Robert Mailloux, La Presse, 29 avril 2008.
La question de ce que serait une « ville de
hockey » est débattue depuis des années
sans qu’un réel consensus existe. Le journaliste
Terry Frei tentait en 2006 de définir
les attributs d’une « ville de hockey » 36 .
Pour lui, il s’agit principalement de l’engouement
par la population dans la pratique
du sport (exprimé par la présence
de nombreuses patinoires dans la ville),
dans la connaissance et dans la diffusion
d’informations concernant le hockey 37 .
Mais les véritables « villes de hockey »
doivent susciter un intérêt généralisé dans
la population et cela se mesure principalement
par l’assistance aux matchs et par la
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Jon at h a n Cha > essaY | essaI
fidélité des partisans. Le hockey doit être
au cœur des préoccupations de la ville et
celle-ci, les séries éliminatoires venues,
doit se transformer, se hockeyiser aux couleurs
de l’équipe et laisser place à une succession
de rituels citoyens connue comme
« la fièvre des séries ». À ces attributs,
nous proposons d’en ajouter trois autres.
Dans une perspective historique, les équipes
doivent avoir une histoire parsemée
de périodes victorieuses ; l’engouement
et l’intérêt pour le hockey ne doivent pas
être un phénomène éphémère, mais doivent
perdurer d’année en année ; et à la
lecture du processus de hockeyisation de
la ville, une rue ou une place publique
doit être aménagée ou désignée pour
recevoir les manifestations diverses associées
au hockey.
Hockeytown, New York
Alors que l’espace urbain se transforme
aux couleurs des Flames à Calgary et
des Oilers à Edmonton, Montréal désire
également s’affirmer comme « LA ville
du hockey » et ainsi être en compétition
avec les villes s’étant approprié ce label
ou aspirant à le détenir. Par exemple, le
Minnesota, dont l’équipe du Wild évolue
à Saint-Paul, se proclame le State of Hockey
38 , pendant que The New York Times
élève la ville de Buffalo au titre de « ville
de hockey » en proposant qu’elle soit
« another hockeytown » 39 . Le ESPN The
Magazine qualifie quant à lui les Sabres
de Buffalo de « ultimate sports franchise,
ahead of even the Red Wings—standardbearers
for hockey success in the United
States » 40 .
in the Plaza » (rassemblement et visionnement
des matchs) sur la HSBC Plaza
(à l’angle des rues Perry et Illinois) aux
couleurs jaune et bleu semble s’inspirer
du modèle canadien. Cet événement
ressemble cependant plus aux fêtes
d’avant-match (tailgate parties) typiques
au football américain, qui se déroulent
sur le stationnement d’un stade, qu’à une
appropriation d’une portion de la ville,
telle que celle de la 17 th ou de la Whyte
Avenue.
Hockeytown, Michigan
Actuellement, une seule ville en Amérique
du Nord porte l’appellation de « ville
de hockey », soit Détroit (ill. 23). Les Red
Wings de Détroit forment la meilleure
équipe de tous les temps aux États-Unis
en ayant remporté à onze reprises la
coupe Stanley. En 1996, Détroit enregistra
Hockeytown, comme surnom donné
au Joe Louis Arena et à la franchise 42 .
Détroit est ainsi reconnue comme « LA
ville du hockey » : « There are a lot of
things Detroit is known for… but The
trademark of Hockeytown USA was
registered in ’96. Detroit is Hockeytown
USA—home of the Detroit Red Wings—
winners of 10 Stanley Cups 43 . » Le vouloir
de dénomination de « Hockeytown » peut
s’expliquer par l’atteinte des demi-finales
en 1987 et l’arrivée d’excellents joueurs
(Russian Five) au début des années 1990
qui relancèrent le club.
Cependant, malgré toute l’importance de
Détroit comme ville ambassadrice du hockey
aux États-Unis, cette nomination de
hockeytown peut en surprendre plus d’un.
Détroit est reconnue comme une ville de
sports et la ville de l’automobile. Si l’appellation
Motown lui est toute désignée, les
critiques fusent de toutes parts quant à sa
prétention d’être LA hockeytown. Autant
les joueurs que les médias nord-américains
remettent en question cette « autoproclamation
». De plus, depuis quelques années,
des centaines de billets n’arrivent pas à
trouver preneur lors des séries éliminatoires.
Le célèbre journaliste de The Gazette,
Red Fischer, écrivait à ce sujet : « We’re not
talking New Jersey here, where empty
seats have become a rule, rather than an
exception. We’re talking about Hockeytown,
U.S.A. The Detroit Red Wings, for
heaven’s sakes 44 ! » Les titres dans les journaux
sont évocateurs à cet égard : « Cup
Generates Very Little Buzz 45 », « Bye, Bye
Hockeytown? 46 », « A Central U.S. City That
Has the Unself-conscious Temerity To Label
Itself Hockeytown 47 ». Comme le souligne
Larry Wigge du Sporting News, « Where
is Hockeytown? Detroit isn’t the only city
that makes a strong claim to being the cen-
Le quotidien Buffalo News confirme la
« propagation d’une fièvre des séries »
en n’hésitant pas non plus à qualifier
Buffalo de vraie hockeytown 41 . L’emprise
urbaine du hockey à Buffalo ne peut se
comparer avec celle des villes de l’Ouest
canadien, mais l’organisation de « Party
ILL. 23. Logo Hockeytown, Détroit. | Detroit Red Wings.
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Jon at h a n Cha > essaY | essaI
ter of the ice universe—NHL 48 . » Le hockey
est aujourd’hui une marque de commerce
qui apporte de la notoriété. Les villes et
les partisans de hockey cherchent à se
démarquer et à se créer des rituels et des
appellations reconnus dans la ville afin de
marquer leur identité urbaine.
Hockeytown (province de Québec) :
Montréal, « LA ville de hockey »
En mars 1996, le musée McCord inaugurait
officiellement son exposition Montréal,
tout est hockey, racontant l’histoire
de ce sport hivernal qui comptait cette
année-là cent vingt ans d’histoire. Dans
un sondage populaire réalisé par la chaîne
TSN cherchant à savoir « Which is Hockeytown
of Canada? », Montréal se classa en
tête de peloton. Dans un autre sondage
réalisé cette fois auprès des joueurs des
trente équipes de la ligue pour le magazine
Sports Illustrated, les Montréalais ont
été déclarés, avec une confortable avance,
« les meilleurs fans de la LNH » (tableau 3)
(ill. 24). Ce sondage confirme également
la ferveur partisane des équipes canadiennes,
particulièrement dans l’ouest
du pays : cinq des six premiers rangs sont
occupés par des équipes canadiennes.
Tableau 3
Quelle équipe de la LNH possède les
meilleurs fans ?
1 Canadiens de Montréal 35 %
2 Wild du Minnesota 13 %
3 Flames de Calgary 11 %
4 Canucks de Vancouver 6 %
5 Oilers d’Edmonton 6 %
6 Maple Leafs de Toronto 5 %
7 Sharks de San Jose 5 %
8 Rangers de New York 4 %
9 Flyers de Philadelphie 4 %
10 Red Wings de Détroit 4 %
Source : Sports Illustrated, mars 2008.
Pour l’ancien joueur des Canadiens Guy
Lafleur, « Montréal est l’une des villes de
hockey les plus remarquables du monde.
ILL. 24. Page couverture « Complètement fans ! ». |
La Presse, 7 mars 2008.
ILL. 25. Le Cours Windsor, une nouvelle place publique
aménagée parallèlement à l’édification
du Centre Bell par Élaine Beauregard, architecte
paysagiste au sein de la firme Arbour,
Berthiaume et Beauregard. | Lepore, Gino (dir.)
(1996), Le magazine Centre Molson : Match inaugural, Édition
spéciale, p. 42.
Peut-être la plus exceptionnelle, en réalité.
Les partisans encouragent leur équipe
comme nulle part ailleurs et ils aident à
mousser la réputation de la ville partout
en Amérique du Nord 49 . » Montréal serait
la ville qui répond le plus aux attributs
pouvant mener à la désignation de « ville
de hockey ». C’est à Montréal que ce sport
a été inventé dans la seconde moitié du
dix-neuvième siècle et où « la première
véritable partie de hockey aurait eu lieu
le 3 mars 1875 au Victoria Skating Rink de
Montréal » 50 . C’est également à Montréal,
à l’hôtel Windsor, qu’est née la Ligue
nationale de Hockey le 26 novembre 1917.
Le Club de hockey Canadien est l’équipe
qui a remporté le plus de championnats
et de coupes Stanley (24). Elle est « la plus
grande équipe que l’histoire du hockey
ait connue 51 », elle est « la capitale mondiale
de hockey, […] la plus grande dynastie
52 ». Montréal compte sur le plus grand
amphithéâtre de toute la LNH. Au cours
des quatre dernières années de hockey,
près de deux cents parties ont été disputées
à guichet fermé. Les succès récents
et projetés de l’équipe rappellent son
passé glorieux et permettent à Montréal,
la Mecque du hockey professionnel 53 , de
s’approprier pleinement l’image de marque
de « ville de hockey ».
Le hockey a besoin d’une rue ou d’une
place pour se « manifester », un espace
urbain propre destiné à être hockeyisé.
À Montréal, la rue Sainte-Catherine,
de l’époque de l’aréna Westmount, de
l’aréna de Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, du
Forum ou maintenant du Centre Bell, est
toujours demeurée l’artère principale
des manifestations spontanées. Lors du
déménagement du Forum, le Club de hockey
Canadien a créé une nouvelle place
semi-publique, le Cours Windsor, prête à
accueillir des milliers de partisans, et proposé
une structure architecturale pouvant
servir d’écran géant pour la diffusion des
matchs à l’extérieur (ill. 25). C’est toutefois
et principalement l’étroite et peu
passante rue de Lagauchetière, agissant
comme parvis au Centre Bell, qui est le
théâtre des rassemblements partisans
après les victoires des Canadiens. Le chroniqueur
Bertrand Raymond du Journal de
Montréal suggérait même de modifier le
nom de cette rue en « place Maurice-Richard
» 54 . En octobre 2008, une nouvelle
place semi-publique attenante au Centre
Bell fut inaugurée, la place du Centenaire
(ill. 26). Commémorant les cent ans de
l’histoire du Club de hockey Canadien, elle
comprend quatre monuments à la gloire
d’anciens joueurs, quinze stèles commémorant
les joueurs dont le chandail fut
retiré et cent plaques au sol rappelant les
plus grands moments de l’histoire du club.
Le logo des Canadiens est omniprésent
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Jon at h a n Cha > essaY | essaI
ILL. 28. Piget, André (1996), Piget, Les grandes finales,
Laval, Éditions Mille-Îles, p. 7.
En 1993, à l’occasion des séries éliminatoires,
le quotidien La Presse engage le
caricaturiste André Piget pour représenter
la quête de la coupe Stanley des
Canadiens. Dès la première série opposant
les Canadiens aux Nordiques, Piget
évoque le symbole architectural dans le
duel Montréal-Québec (ill. 28-29). Ainsi, le
Stade olympique combat le château Frontenac,
les deux édifices revêtant le chandail
de leur équipe respective. Le stade
olympique deviendra un thème récurrent
de ses œuvres agissant comme symbole
de Montréal. Dans sa série contre New
York, les édifices phares de Manhattan
se mesureront aux joueurs des Canadiens.
Pour Piget, il est évident que le hockey
est plus qu’un sport ; il est l’expression de
sociétés urbaines rivalisant les unes avec
les autres.
ILL. 26. Brochure promotionnelle de la place
du centenaire distribuée au Centre Bell. |
Jonathan Cha, 2008.
ILL. 27. Magazine Les Canadiens, vol. 8, no 1, 1993.
ILL. 29. Piget, André (1996), Piget, Les grandes finales,
Laval, Éditions Mille-Îles, p. 22.
dans l’aménagement. Avant le projet,
cette place était le lieu de célébrations
d’avant-match des Canadiens, le Fan Jam.
Des milliers de partisans arborant les couleurs
bleu-blanc-rouge s’y rassemblent
lors des séries éliminatoires dans une
ambiance pour le moins survoltée.
Hockey et ville :
l’association du centre-ville
de Montréal au Club de
hockey Canadien
Diverses associations ville/hockey
Les débuts de la représentation de la ville
dans la mise en marché du hockey à Montréal
s’amorcent timidement à la fin des
années 1980 dans la revue officielle du
club de hockey montréalais intitulée Les
Canadiens 55 . Plusieurs joueurs de l’équipe
sont photographiés devant des édifices et
des paysages urbains évocateurs 56 (ill. 27).
Concernant la diffusion télévisuelle des
matchs de hockey, il est d’usage, peu
importe le réseau, de présenter des images
du skyline du centre-ville de la ville
hôtesse de la partie. Les présentations
récentes des matchs de hockey des Canadiens
du Réseau des sports (RDS) proposent
un montage visuel où la rondelle
traverse le centre-ville en se faufilant entre
les gratte-ciel pour finalement pénétrer la
ville par le toit du 1000, de la Gauchetière
et rejoindre la glace du Centre Bell. Ces
manifestations diverses renvoient des images
symboliques et le centre-ville, par ses
gratte-ciel, apparaît comme une marque
urbaine distinctive liée au hockey. C’est
ainsi que s’est orchestrée l’arrivée de la
ville comme support des représentations
du hockey à Montréal.
Le déménagement du Forum et l’avènement
du Centre Molson (1993-1996)
Le processus d’association entre ville (centre-ville
et architecture) et hockey est
entré dans une phase décisive en 1993
alors que s’amorçait la construction du
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Jon at h a n Cha > essaY | essaI
Cherchant à se rapprocher des fans à la
suite du lockout de la saison 2004-2005,
le Club de hockey Canadien a voulu développer
une relation plus directe avec ses
partisans tout en élargissant son public
cible. Le hockey allait surpasser l’image
sportive et désormais être représenté
comme une marque de l’identité monnouveau
forum. La première pelletée de
terre a eu lieu le 23 juin 1993 et l’inauguration
du Centre Molson le 16 mars
1996 57 . Il s’agit d’un projet majeur de revitalisation
urbaine au cœur du centre-ville.
Dès les premières esquisses, il importait
d’« intégrer cette structure de loisirs à la
trame urbaine » 58 .
Au défi initial s’ajoute celui d’intégrer le
nouveau temple des glorieux au centreville.
C’est un pôle d’attraction autour duquel
graviteront une foule d’activités, et d’autres
éléments vont s’y greffer 59 .
La revalorisation de l’un des plus prestigieux
îlots du centre-ville comprenant une gare
ferroviaire d’intérêt patrimonial. Outre la
construction d’un nouvel amphithéâtre de
21 500 sièges et la rénovation de la gare
historique, le projet comprend le raccord à
deux stations de métro, la création d’une
place publique, « Le Cours Windsor », un
terminus de trains de banlieue et un réseau
sophistiqué de communication 60 .
La centralité du site, le « centre du centre-ville
» 61 , la facilité d’accès, la création
d’un pôle d’attraction de la ville et le
rôle dans le développement urbain sont
les motifs, outre les besoins afférents au
Club de hockey, qui ont orienté les choix
conceptuels (ill. 30). La ville est donc plus
que jamais associée au hockey. « Situé au
cœur de la ville, à l’ouest du quadrilatère
délimité par les rues de la Gauchetière,
Saint-Antoine, Peel et de la Montagne, le
nouveau forum sera rapidement accessible
par l’autoroute Ville-Marie ou par les
grandes artères urbaines 62 . Bref, « tous les
chemins mènent au Centre Molson » 63 .
Pour le président des Compagnies Molson,
ce projet était considéré « comme
la pierre angulaire de la revitalisation
du centre-ville de Montréal, aux côtés
d’édifices récemment complétés et de
tours à bureaux qui se dresseront quand
ILL. 30. Lepore, Gino (dir.) (1996), Le magazine Centre
Molson : Match inaugural, Édition spéciale, p. 45.
le complexe aura été parachevé » 64 . Dans
ses documents publicitaires, la direction
du Canadien allie tradition et modernité
en parlant du nouveau temple du hockey.
« Se dressant entre les tours modernes du
centre-ville et l’historique gare Windsor,
le nouveau forum s’imposera rapidement
comme le point de mire de Montréal,
comme le reflet de notre juste fierté. Ce
chef-d’œuvre d’architecture urbaine […]
avec sa conception dynamique et contemporaine
[…] se marie à l’environnement et
au milieu urbain 65 » (ill. 31).
« La ville est hockey » :
représentation
architecturale de Montréal
dans la mise en marché
du hockey 66
ILL. 31. Le magazine Centre Molson : Match inaugural,
édition spéciale, 1996.
tréalaise. La ville et l’urbain allaient devenir
des outils de promotion du hockey et
des éléments de référence connus participant
à la relance du hockey (ill. 32). Après
la campagne publicitaire du « Partisan
heureux » en 2003-2004 et du « Tricolore
jusqu’au bout » en 2005-2006, la direction
marketing du Club de hockey Canadien
cherchait un slogan à la fois simple
et fort, tel « Quand c’est ok, c’est coke »
de Coca-Cola, qui allierait deux facettes
de Montréal, son cadre urbain et le hockey.
Elle était convaincue que l’identité
montréalaise allait de pair avec celle du
hockey. Redonner une image gagnante et
vibrante aux Canadiens allait se répercuter
directement sur la ville. Considérant Montréal
comme le seul marché francophone
de la LNH et le hockey comme valeur de
divertissement numéro un à Montréal et
au Québec, il importait pour la direction
marketing « de mettre de l’avant notre
culture, notre patrimoine ». Les objectifs
étaient de montrer que le hockey reprenait
sa place dans la ville, de faire ressortir
la passion pour le hockey et pour
les joueurs et de donner une publicité
de look trendy, jeune, dynamique, pour
JSSAC | JSÉAC 34 > N o 1 > 2009 13

Jon at h a n Cha > essaY | essaI
ILL. 32. Campagne publicitaire « La ville est hockey »,
2006-2007. | Le Club de hockey Canadien, inc.
ILL. 33. Panneau publicitaire « La ville
est hockey ». | Jonathan Cha, 2008.
ILL. 34. Campagne publicitaire « La ville est hockey »,
2006-2007. | Le Club de hockey Canadien, inc.
ILL. 34. Campagne publicitaire « La ville est hockey »,
2006-2007. | Le Club de hockey Canadien, inc.
sélectionnés par le directeur artistique
de l’équipe marketing. L’objectif ultime
de « La ville est hockey 68 » était d’affirmer
que « Le hockey c’est nous, Montréal,
c’est nous le Québec 69 ». La campagne fut
un réel succès : « La ville est hockey » est
devenue une expression largement répandue
dans le langage commun, les logos
des Canadiens, sous forme de maillots,
d’affiches, de drapeaux ou de produits
dérivés, se retrouvent partout dans la
ville et à l’extérieur de la ville. De nombreux
restaurants, boutiques, bâtiments
et même casernes de pompiers s’affichent
aux couleurs des Canadiens. En référence
aux appellations Hockeytown, Red Mile,
Blue Mile et Sens Mile, « La ville est hockey
» s’inscrit dans la recherche d’un qualificatif
qui serait propre à Montréal et
participe à désigner le phénomène de
hockeyisation en cours à Montréal.
« convertir » les jeunes en fans du Tricolore.
Les paroles de la publicité télévisuelle
étaient les suivantes :
Comme une onde de choc qui relie toute
la ville
Tous se préparent maintenant à vivre au
même rythme
L’équipe est fin prête
Le 7 e joueur est partout
La ville est hockey
Ce message publicitaire évoquait une
sensation se manifestant brusquement,
la fièvre du hockey, se propageant à
partir d’un point précis, le Centre Bell,
et générant une vibration à l’échelle de
la ville. Le hockey se présentait comme
un fait rassembleur et unificateur de la
ville et de sa population en élargissant
les frontières urbaines. Cette publicité,
largement diffusée, proposait des images
fortes fusionnant ville et hockey 67 . La campagne
publicitaire a été présentée avant
chacun des matchs sur le tableau d’affichage
électronique (écran géant) et projetée
à même la surface glacée, en plus
d’être diffusée en début de saison sur les
réseaux de télévision RDS et TVA, sur les
panneaux publicitaires de la compagnie
Astral placés en bordure des rues et des
autoroutes, sur les colonnes publicitaires
au centre-ville, dans les quotidiens Le
Journal de Montréal, The Gazette, Journal
du Métro, de même que dans les restaurants
La Cage aux Sports.
Les orientations de la campagne étaient
claires : peu importe le contexte, la fièvre
du hockey devait gagner toute la ville.
Ville et hockey allaient donc s’allier dans
cette promotion métropolitaine (ill. 33).
La publicité, graphiquement très expressive,
proposait des images de joueurs sur
fond de ville. Les joueurs en maillot rouge
apportaient mouvement et dynamisme
alors que les édifices en tons pâles se
détachaient d’un ciel bleu. Cette campagne
publicitaire visait à redonner du lustre
à l’organisation du Canadien en se servant
de symboles puissants, des édifices « marquants
» de Montréal minutieusement
Les représentations architecturales publicitaires
de la ville (ill. 34-35) se divisent
en trois catégories, les images de marque
de la métropole, les gratte-ciel du centreville
et le temple du hockey (tableau 4).
Les images de marque
Les images de marque se définissent par
le marché Bonsecours (1847), la porte
Roddick de l’Université McGill (1925), le
pont Jacques-Cartier (1930), le pavillon
central de l’Université de Montréal
(1943) et l’ancien pavillon américain, la
Biosphère (1967). Il s’agit de landmarks
qui caractérisent la société montréalaise.
Ils sont éloquents de la situation géographique
et territoriale montréalaise, alors
qu’ils se situent dans le Vieux-Montréal,
au centre-ville, sur le fleuve Saint-Laurent,
sur le mont Royal et sur l’île Sainte-Hélène
respectivement. Ils sont des symboles
localisés au centre de l’île de Montréal
qui se démarquent par leur détachement
dans le ciel ou leur isolement en raison
de leur emplacement. Les édifices choisis
14 JSSAC | JSÉAC 34 > N o 1 > 2009

Jon at h a n Cha > essaY | essaI
Tableau 4
Les représentations à Montréal de l’image « la ville est hockey »
HOCKEY
IMAGES DE MARQUE
expriment la diversité architecturale de la
ville en proposant notamment les styles
néo-classique, Art déco et moderne. Le
marché Bonsecours avec sa coupole, qui
représente certes le caractère ancien de
la métropole, n’en demeure pas moins
l’« ancêtre des grands immeubles multifonctionnels
montréalais » 70 . L’ancien
pavillon des États-Unis affirme pour sa
part le progrès et l’innovation techniques
propres à l’Exposition universelle Terre des
Hommes. À la manière de l’Expo 67, les
images de marque de Montréal incarnent
l’ouverture au monde, l’exportation des
modèles, le savoir-faire québécois, le dialogue
entre francophones et anglophones
et même le lien avec la banlieue.
Les gratte-ciel du centre-ville
Les huit gratte-ciel apparaissent comme
l’élément principal identifiant la ville, et
ce, dans un périmètre très restreint. Les
édifices représentés sont Place Ville-Marie
(1962), la tour BNP Paribas (1981), la tour
de la Banque Laurentienne (1984), la tour
KPMG (Maison des Coopérants / Place de
la Cathédrale) (1988), le 1501, McGill College
(1992), le 1000, de la Gauchetière
(1992), le 1250, boulevard René-Lévesque
REPRÉSENTATION DE L’IMAGE
IDENTITÉ URBAINE
LA VILLE
EST HOCKEY
ARCHITECTURE
GRATTE-CIEL
VILLE
TEMPLE DU HOCKEY
(IBM-Marathon) (1993) et la Cité du commerce
électronique (2003). La hauteur est
une composante majeure dans le choix
des édifices puisque quatre des plus hauts
gratte-ciel de la métropole s’y trouvent.
Place Ville-Marie y figure à titre de plus
haut point de la ville (dû à la topographie
ascendante du centre-ville, du fleuve
à la montagne), aux côtés des deux édifices
avec l’élévation la plus importante,
le 1000, de la Gauchetière (205 mètres)
et le 1250, René-Lévesque (199 mètres)
(ill. 36-37).
La localisation des gratte-ciel sélectionnés
pour la publicité suit deux axes principaux
évoquant bien la trame urbaine montréalaise.
L’axe est-ouest René-Lévesque–de
la Gauchetière et l’axe nord-sud McGill
College–University se partagent les objets
architecturaux en comptant chacun quatre
bâtiments. L’axe est-ouest exprime le
contexte immédiat du Centre Bell, le cœur
du hockey à Montréal. Quant au 1000, de
la Gauchetière, sa position sur la même
rue que le Centre Bell, sa patinoire intérieure
et son altitude en font le bâtimentvedette
associé au temple du hockey aux
côtés du 1250, René-Lévesque, qui, en
plus de son élégance romantique rappelant
le Chrysler Building, ouvre sa plaza
urbaine sur le Cours Windsor. Les parois
vitrées des gratte-ciel encadrent le Centre
Bell et lui confèrent une notoriété, tout
en évoquant un sentiment de pouvoir et
de puissance. L’axe nord-sud représente le
cœur symbolique du centre-ville montréalais
et sa voie institutionnelle de prestige.
Place Ville-Marie est le « symbole de la
ville moderne […] sa galerie marchande
[…] a été le point de départ du réseau
piétonnier souterrain de Montréal » 71 .
Le 1501, McGill College et la tour KPMG
sont des édifices phares du centre-ville
montréalais par leur forme insolite (couronnement
en « pyramide » et en « tête
de chat »), leur coloration, leur mise en
lumière et leur position centrale. Les gratte-ciel
évoquent donc les axes dominants
de la grille viaire, la centralité, l’entrée
dans la modernité de la ville, le pouvoir
institutionnel et la quête des sommets.
Fait encore plus important, la localisation
des édifices génère deux pôles majeurs
au centre-ville : le pôle central de la ville
orienté autour de Place Ville-Marie et le
pôle central du hockey orienté autour du
Centre Bell.
Le temple du hockey
La troisième catégorie ne compte qu’un
seul bâtiment, soit le nouveau forum,
le Centre Bell (1996). Une telle présence
vise sans conteste à asseoir la notoriété
de l’édifice, treize ans après son déménagement
du Forum. Les « fantômes »
du Forum n’ont pas encore trouvé leur
niche au Centre Bell et la population ne
lui accorde pas une valeur symbolique. La
publicisation de l’image du Centre Bell,
la nouvelle Mecque du hockey se posant
comme édifice incarnant ce sport et le
Canadien, contribue à alimenter l’imaginaire
à son égard. Le hockey traverse la
ville, mais il se joue au Centre Bell. Avec
le pont Jacques-Cartier, la Biosphère et
Place Ville-Marie, le Centre Bell est le bâti-
JSSAC | JSÉAC 34 > N o 1 > 2009 15

Jon at h a n Cha > essaY | essaI
ILL. 36. Campagne publicitaire « La ville est hockey »,
2006-2007. | Le Club de hockey Canadien, inc.
ILL. 37. Campagne publicitaire « La ville est hockey »,
2006-2007. | Le Club de hockey Canadien, inc.
ment le plus représenté dans les publicités
du Club de hockey Canadien. Le pont, le
dôme géodésique et la tour cruciforme
composent les symboles les plus puissants
de l’identité urbaine montréalaise et
affirment aux côtés des autres éléments
composant la publicité, au même titre
que le hockey, la centralité, le dynamisme
urbain, la richesse de la culture et la fierté
métropolitaine.
La ville vit au rythme du hockey et l’image
du hockey est désormais indissociable de
celle de la ville (ill. 38). Si l’histoire caractérise
le Club de hockey Canadien, c’est
plutôt la modernité architecturale qui
soutient la mission d’investir la ville. « La
ville est hockey », tout en s’appuyant
sur le cadre architectural du centre-ville
montréalais et en situant le cadre urbain
comme dominance de l’identité des Canadiens,
poursuit une quête plus profonde,
ILL. 38. Campagne publicitaire « La ville est hockey »,
2006-2007. | Le Club de hockey Canadien, inc.
ILL. 39. Le hockey à Montréal, symbole d’identité, de
fierté et de patriotisme. | Source et montage
Serge Chapleau, La Presse, 22 avril 2008.
celle du prestige, de la réussite et de la
performance (ill. 39). De Calgary à Montréal,
le hockey a pénétré l’espace urbain
et la sphère de l’aménagement. De l’appropriation
d’une rue ou d’une place
publique à sa dénomination distincte
(Red Mile, Blue Mile, Sens Mile), la hockeyisation
transforme la ville et associe
le hockey à un espace défini. À Montréal,
l’appellation « La ville est hockey » consacre
la liaison entre la ville et le hockey et
désigne la quête identitaire de singularisation
urbaine.
Notes
1. La recherche menant à l’association hockey
et ville a été réalisée entre 2004 et 2008. Des
journaux canadiens et étatsuniens provenant
d’une quinzaine de villes et de la documentation
publicitaire de la direction marketing du
Club de hockey Canadien constituent les principales
sources documentaires. Se sont ajoutées
des analyses de quelques sources Web,
notamment les systèmes « wiki » (Web 2.0),
les blogues et surtout les plateformes émergentes
de partage comme Facebook, sachant
qu’ils représentent le forum public majeur des
amateurs de hockey en Amérique du Nord.
2. Tire son origine du mot hockeyite, désignant
autrefois à la fois le sport et le joueur de hockey.
3. Forum des politiques publiques, 1999, La Ligue
nationale de hockey au Canada, octobre,
Ottawa, publications gouvernementales.
4. Id., p. 6.
5. Id., p. 26.
6. Id., p. 35.
7. Médaille d’or aux Jeux Olympiques (1998 et
2002) ; médaille d’or à la Coupe du monde
(2004) ; médaille d’or au Championnat du
monde de hockey (2003, 2004 et 2007) ;
médaille d’or au Championnat du monde
de hockey junior (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 et
2009) après avoir remporté les trois années
précédentes la médaille d’argent (2002, 2003,
2004) ; médaille d’or au Championnat du
monde de hockey des moins de 18 ans (2003
et 2008) ; médaille d’or aux Jeux olympiques
pour l’équipe féminine (2002 et 2006) ; et médaille
d’or au Championnat du monde pour
l’équipe féminine (de 1990 à 2004 et 2007).
8. Les municipalités gagnantes furent Salmon River,
Nouvelle-Écosse (2006), North Bay, Ontario
(2007), Roberval, Québec (2008) et Terrace,
Colombie-Britannique (2009).
9. Les arénas utilisés par les Canadiens sont les
suivants :
1909-1910 : Jubilee Arena (Sainte-Catherine
/ gare Moreau),
1910-1918 : Westmount Arena (Sainte-
Catherine / Wood),
1918-1919 : Jubilee Arena (Sainte-Catherine
/ gare Moreau),
1919-1926 : Aréna Mont-Royal (Mont-
Royal / Saint-Urbain),
1926-1996 : Forum (Sainte-Catherine /
Atwater),
1996-aujourd’hui : Centre Bell (de Lagauchetière
/ de la Montagne).
10. Black, François, 1997, Habitants et glorieux. Les
Canadiens de 1909 à 1960, Laval, Les Éditions
Mille-Îles, p. 57.
11. Id., p. 79.
16 JSSAC | JSÉAC 34 > N o 1 > 2009

Jon at h a n Cha > essaY | essaI
12. Ce phénomène, au-delà des considérations
sportives et partisanes, soulève de nombreuses
questions en termes d’urbanisme, dont
la gestion du bruit, la sécurité urbaine, l’accessibilité
aux sites publics, l’impact sur le
transport, les aménagements touristiques et
les installations pour les rassemblements. Le
hockey est devenu un enjeu d’identité urbaine
et d’aménagement.
13. Par le maire de Calgary le 30 mai 2004. (Eckler,
Rebecca, 2004, « A Whole Lotta Love on
Calgary’s Red Mile », National Post, 31 mai,
p. A1.)
14. « À 13 h, sur la grande place du party, la désormais
mythique 17 e Avenue, celle des bars, des
restos et des terrasses, la foule commençait
à s’amener. La rue est fermée à la circulation
sur 1 mille après les matchs, et on a baptisé
l’endroit le Red Mile. » (Boisvert, Yves, 2004,
« La Coupe revient à Calgary… puis repart »,
La Presse, dimanche 6 juin, p. A1.)
15. Voir [www.theredmile.ca].
16. Id.
17. « Eighteen thousand people have provided
input to key questions. Apparently, one of
the common themes that has been expressed
is that ‘people want more community events
and festivals and recognize these types of activities
as being critical to creating community
vibrancy and vitality.’ » (Burgener, Peter, 2006,
« Red Mile Opportunity for Community », Calgary
Herald, 4 mai, p. B4.)
18. Derworiz, Colette, 2005, « Council Seeks Balance
on Red Mile: Aldermen Will Debate
Proposal for 17 th Avenue », Calgary Herald,
29 novembre, p. B7.
19. Myers, Sean, 2006, « Planners Share Vision of
‘people’s’ Red Mile », Calgary Herald, 11 janvier,
p. B5.
20. Marr, Norma et Wendy Spivak, 2005, « 100
Years of History », Calgary Herald, 1 er septembre,
p. A15.
21. Leipsic, Barry J., 2004, « Go Jets, go! », The
National Post, 31 mars, p. A19.
22. Maniago, Stephanie, 2007, « A Call to Action
– Believe in Blue », [Canucks.com], 28 avril.
23. Taylor, Scott, 2004, « Tampa’s ‘White Out’ Pales
Next to Original », Winnipeg Free Press,
4 juin, p. C3.
24. Cette initiative de l’organisation, qui reprend
l’appellation « White Out », a été lancée par
une capsule vidéo sur Facebook et sur le site
Web de l’équipe le 24 avril 2008. L’organisation
a fourni un T-shirt et une serviette à tous
les spectateurs.
25. The Canadian Press, 2006, « Sixth News
Watch », 11 juin.
26. Macafee, Michelle, 2006, « Game 1 Loss Leads
to Quiet Night on Edmonton’s Trendy Whyte
Avenue », The Canadian Press, 6 juin.
27. La création de la toile [Bluemile.ca] a participé
à la formation de cette identité par la diffusion
d’images explicites des activités ayant
cours sur la Whyte Avenue.
28. Une journaliste de Calgary a même remis en
cause l’authenticité du Blue Mile d’Edmonton
en comparaison du Red Mile de Calgary :
« The Whyte Mile. The Blue Mile. The Oil Slick.
The Copper Kilometre. Any way you slice it,
though, it’s no Red Mile ». (Fortney, Valerie,
2006, « Inside the Oil Slick: It May Not Be the
Red Mile, but This Is the Place To Be », Calgary
Herald, 12 mai, p. A3.)
29. [BlueMile.ca].
30. Le Red Mile de Calgary et le Blue Mile d’Edmonton
ont maintenant leur entrée sur Wikipédia.
31. Desaulniers, Darren, 2007, « ‘I’m so Fantastically,
Unbelievably Happy’; Fist-pumping,
Flag-waving Fans Pour into the Streets To Celebrate
the Sens », The Ottawa Citizen, 20 mai,
p. D6.
32. Brodie, Rob, 2007, « Vivement la fête chez les
amateurs. Un groupe désire organiser des rassemblements
après les victoires », (The Ottawa
Sun) Le Journal de Montréal, 16 juin, p. 133 ;
et Brodie, Rob, 2007, « Shooting for Mile High.
Fans Invited to Elgin St. Playoff Party Zone »,
The Ottawa Sun, 16 juin.
33. Desaulniers, op. cit.
34. Deachman, Bruce, 2007, « Welcome to ‘Hockey
Town’; Moments after the Senators Won
a Berth in the Stanley Cup Final, Thousands
of Ottawa Fans Spilled Out into the Streets
To Baptize Sens Mile », The Ottawa Citizen,
20 mai, p. A3.
35. Sadava, Mike, 2007, « Sens Fever Brings Back
Memories of Oilers Run; but so Far Capital
Crowds Are Having Peaceful Fun », The Edmonton
Journal, 26 mai, p. B3.
36. Frei, Terry, 2006, « Qu’est-ce qu’une ville de
hockey ? », vendredi 1 er septembre, [RDS.ca/
hockey], consulté le 7 mai 2007.
37. Les amateurs doivent avoir des connaissances
de l’histoire des joueurs de l’équipe et des espoirs
de l’organisation, suivre les activités de
l’ensemble des équipes de la LNH, connaître la
nationalité des joueurs et avoir également une
connaissance approfondie des règlements.
38. « After all, Minnesota does call itself the State
of Hockey. » (Menendez, Jenn, 2007, « Whitehead’s
Mother-in-law Dies in Car Crash »,
Portland Press Herald, 6 avril, p. D7.) « The
self-proclaimed State of Hockey. » (Lopez,
Aaron, 2007, « Sauer Not Griping About Big
Workload », Rocky Mountain News, 10 mars,
p. 6.)
39. Higgins, Matt, 2007, « Another Hockeytown »,
The New York Times Late Edition, 4 mai,
p. 6.
40. Cité dans ibid.
41. Herrmann, Mark, 2007, « Hockey Fever Breaks
Out All Over Buffalo », Buffalo News, 29 avril,
p. B6.
42. [http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hockeytown],
consulté le 7 mai 2007 ; et Greenland, Paul,
1996, The Detroit Red Wings: Hockeytown,
Sagamore Pub Llc.
43. [http://www.usacitiesonline.com/micountydetroit.htm],
consulté le 7 mai 2007.
44. Fischer, Red, 2007, « Thousands of Empty
Seats in Hockeytown a Direct Result of Overpriced
Playoff Tickets », The Gazette, samedi
28 avril.
45. Houston, William, 2007, « Cup Generates Very
Little Buzz », The Globe and Mail, 25 mai,
p. S1.
46. Sharp, Drew, 2006, « Bye, Bye Hockeytown?:
With the Detroit Red Wings Going Through a
Rebuilding Period, Fan Enthusiasm Is Waning
and the Playoffs Are No Longer a Sure Thing »,
(Detroit Free Press), The National Post, 7 octobre,
p. FW9.
47. MacKinnon, John, 2007, « Senators Can Be Canada’s
Team, Too; A Transplanted Easterner
Tells Western Canadians the National Capital
Has its Fair Share of Hockey Culture, Too »,
(The Edmonton Journal), The Ottawa Citizen,
22 mai, p. B2.
48. Wigge, Larry, 2002, « Where is Hockeytown?
Detroit Isn’t the Only City That Makes a Strong
Claim To Being the Center of the Ice Universe
– NHL », NHL Sporting News, 7 janvier,
[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1208/
is_01_226/ai_81790628], consulté le 7 mai
2007.
49. Lafleur, Guy, 2008, « Une victoire entachée »,
Le Journal de Montréal, 26 avril, p. 106.
50. Black, p. 19.
51. Id.
JSSAC | JSÉAC 34 > N o 1 > 2009 17

Jon at h a n Cha > essaY | essaI
52. « Montréal était devenue la ‘capitale mondiale
du hockey’. » (Fischler, Stan et Maurice
Richard, 1971, Les Canadiens sont là ! La plus
grande dynastie du hockey, Scarborough,
Prentice-Hall of Canada Ltd., p. 3.)
53. Pierre Bourque, cité dans Lepore, Gino (dir.)
(1996), Le magazine Centre Molson : Match
inaugural, Édition spéciale, p. 7.
54. Raymond, Bertand, 2006, « La rue Maurice-Richard
? Si le Rocket revenait au Centre Bell… »,
Le Journal de Montréal, 7 décembre.
55. Publiée à raison de cinq à sept exemplaires
par année depuis la saison 1985-1986, la revue
porte désormais le nom Canadiens.
56. En 1988, Stéphane Richer est photographié
au centre-ville devant la sculpture La foule illuminée
sur l’avenue McGill College. L’année
suivante, Russ Courtnall est photographié
en divers endroits dans le Vieux-Montréal,
notamment devant la Tour de l’Horloge. En
1991, Mathieu Schneider est présenté sur un
panneau « arrêt stop », une particularité bien
montréalaise, de même que devant un gratte-ciel.
Puis en 1992, c’est au tour de Vincent
Damphousse d’être photographié avec les enseignes
de l’avenue Atwater et de la rue Sainte-Catherine,
de même que sur le belvédère
du mont Royal avec vue sur les gratte-ciel du
centre-ville.
Un remerciement particulier à Jonathan Prunier
et à Mathieu Lapointe.
67. Elle s’est poursuivie dans les saisons 2007-2008
et 2008-2009.
68. L’expression et la dénomination « La ville est
hockey », deux ans et demie après le lancement
de la campagne publicitaire, sont désormais
bien ancrées dans l’identité montréalaise.
L’appellation est constamment reprise dans
les médias, et pas seulement ceux traitant de
sports. Une émission spéciale ayant débuté en
avril 2008 sur la chaîne spécialisée RIS s’intitulait
d’ailleurs La ville est hockey.
69. Une portion de l’information recueillie sur la
campagne « La ville est hockey » a été obtenue
lors d’une rencontre téléphonique avec
Jonathan Prunier de la direction marketing du
Club de hockey Canadien le 12 janvier 2007.
70. Gauthier, Raymonde et Pierre-Richard Bisson,
1990, L’architecture de Montréal, Montréal,
Libre Expression, p. 149.
71. Id., p. 144.
57. Le projet a été conçu par le Consortium Daniel
Arbour & Associés/IBI et l’architecture signée
Lemay & associés et LeMoyne, Lapointe, Magne.
58. Lepore, p. 45.
59. Id., p. 22.
60. Id., p. 37.
61. Id., p. 45.
62. Document publicitaire pour les détenteurs de
billet de saison intitulé Forum (Club de hockey
Canadien, 1996, p. 2).
63. Lepore, p. 45.
64. Eric Molson, président du Conseil des Compagnies
Molson, cité dans Goyens, Chrystian,
Allan Turowetz et Jean-Luc Duguay, 1996, Le
Forum de Montréal. La fierté pour toujours.
1924-1996, Westmount, Les éditions Effix inc.,
p. 210.
65. Document publicitaire pour les détenteurs de
billet de saison intitulé Forum (Club de hockey
Canadien, 1996, p. 1.)
66. Cette portion de la recherche a été rendue
possible grâce à la collaboration de la direction
marketing du Club de hockey Canadien.
18 JSSAC | JSÉAC 34 > N o 1 > 2009

essay | essai
‘Parisian Gothic’:
Interpretations of Gothic in three Victorian
Buildings in Paris, Ontario
Professor Malcolm Thurlby teaches medieval
art, architecture, and Canadian architecture in
>Ma l c o l m Th u r l b y
the Department of Visual Arts, York University.
His latest book, Romanesque Architecture and
Sculpture in Wales, was published by Logaston
Press, Almeley (Herefordshire), in June 2006.
He is currently finishing a book entitled
Romanesque Gloucestershire: Architecture,
Sculpture and Painting.
FIG. 1. Paris (ON), St. James’s Anglican Church, exterior from SE, nave 1839, chancel 1863-1865. | Malcolm Thurlby
In the history of architecture in Canada,
Paris, Ontario, is known chiefly for its
nineteenth-century cobblestone buildings
and the truly monumental Richardsonian
Romanesque First Presbyterian Church
(1893) designed by the Chatham-based
architect T.J. Rutley. 2 Yet Paris is also remarkable
for three Victorian Gothic buildings
which are the focus of this paper. The
nave of St. James’s Anglican Church (1839)
is a fine example of the early phase of the
Gothic Revival in which pointed arches
pierce the walls of a rectangular box of the
eighteenth-century classicising tradition
established by the English architect James
Gibbs (1682-1754). The chancel of St. James’s
Anglican (1863-1865) bears witness to the
revolution in Gothic church design brought
about by the Cambridge Camden Society—
Ecclesiological Society after 1846—and The
Oxford Society for Promoting the Study of
Gothic Architecture. Most unusually and
spectacularly, there is the civic Gothic of
the Town Hall (1853-1854), which boasts a
magnificent six-bay open-timber roof on
the second-floor Assembly Room, at a time
when civic Gothic architecture was in its infancy
in England. The Town Hall is the work
of the little-known local architect John
Maxwell (1803-1889), who also designed
Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church in
the town (1857). Financial constraints at
the time meant that Maxwell’s church
was left unfinished until 1880-1881, when
additions and modifications were made by
the Brantford architect, John Turner (1806-
1887). Turner’s work deviates significantly
from Maxwell’s prescription and therefore
the church is a fascinating barometer of
the impact and modification of the True
Principles of Medieval Gothic advocated by
Augustus Welby Pugin (1812-1852).
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FIG. 2. Paris (ON), St. James’s Anglican Church, interior to E. | Malcolm Thurlby
FIG. 3. Paris (ON), St. James’s Anglican Church, interior from chancel. | Malcolm Thurlby
St. James’s Anglican Church
The church stands at the junction of
Grand River Street South and Burwell
Street, on land given by Hiram “King”
Capron (1796-1872), founder of Paris
(1829), and his wife. The nave was built
in 1839 by Levi Boughton, a mason who
moved to Paris in 1838 from Normandale,
New York, and introduced the
cobblestone-faced masonry technique
to the village of Paris (fig. 1). Cobblestone
buildings are extensive in upper
New York State and the technique may
be traced to the county of Sussex in
southern England, as at St. Andrew’s,
Hove, Brighton (1833). 3 The description
of St. James’s church given in the 1883
History of the County of Brant, Ontario
is remarkably well informed in architectural
terms:
The roof is flat, the windows are of the
kind designated by architectural experts
“Carpenter’s Gothic,” and the west end is
surmounted by one of those nondescript
belfries, terminated by a tin-covered spirelet
so often seen in country churches in Canada,
and whose real origin is in the renaissance
style imported into Lower Canada by the
French in the eighteenth century.
[The account continues] In 1865, at a cost
of about $1,000, a chancel was added
through the exertions of Dr. Townley,
and by the beneficence of Mrs. Dickson
of Paris. The chancel presents a marked
contrast to the rest of the church, being
a genuine Gothic of the “early English,” or
“first pointed” style. The roof is of open
work, of dark-stained timber. The east
window is a triplet, each light bordered
with stained glass, of which also there
are four vesica-shaped medallions bearing
the four Evangelistic symbols, and in the
centre an Agnus Dei supporting a banner
with the cross, “displayed.” 4
It is also recorded that “In the basement
a well attended Sunday school is held,
numbering 100 pupils.” 5
The description shows an acute awareness
of the change in the character of
ecclesiastical Gothic architecture in the
quarter century that elapsed between
the construction of the nave and chancel.
The nave is a Gibbsian box with a
low-pitched roof and a flat ceiling with
a centrally-placed medallion adorned
with rich acanthus foliage and a modified
Vitruvian-scroll frame (figs. 2-3). 6
Above the western bay of the nave
there is a square tower, originally with
single pointed arches on each side
(fig. 4), which is surmounted by an octagonal
belfry with a pointed opening
on each side, and a spire (figs. 1 and
4). A late nineteenth-century photograph
shows a “widow’s walk” at the
top of the tower (fig. 4), as in St. John’s
Anglican Church, Ancaster (ON), 1824. 7
While medieval architectural precedent
may be found for the Y tracery of the
windows, as in the southwest chapel of
Lincoln Cathedral (circa 1220), the use
of the pronounced wooden frame with
Y tracery has rather more in common
with the eighteenth-century Gothic
tradition of Batty Langley (1696-1751). 8
It is unlikely that the 1839 church had a
separate chancel because in 1860, Reverend
Townley started a Chancel and
Sunday School Fund with the view to
erecting these additions to the church. 9
In 1863-1865 the present chancel was
erected with the Sunday school in the
basement and a vestry to the north and
organ room to the south (figs. 1-4). The
1863-1865 addition is a fine example
of the impact of ecclesiology in Anglican
church architecture in Ontario. On
the nave and chancel, the Cambridge
Camden Society stated that:
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Malcolm Thurlby > essaY | essaI
This division, essential in the interior, is not
always to be traced in the exterior. It is far
better indeed, generally speaking, that it
should be marked in both; and to this end
the breadth of the Chancel should be a little
less than that of the Nave; a difference of
four or five feet will be quite sufficient. The
height of the Chancel is usually less, in the
same proportion. […]
The comparative size of Chancel and Nave
is a point which, within certain limitations,
must be left to taste. Yet, as a general
rule, the Chancel should be not less than
the third, or more than the half, of the whole
length of the church. 10
The new chancel is “correctly” constructed
in local fieldstone with a steeply pitched,
open timber roof and triple lancet windows
in the east wall of the chancel to represent
the Trinity: “[t]hree lancets are the
most usually adopted; these, it need not
be said, symbolise the HOLY TRINITY.” 11
Moreover, the chancel is raised three steps
above the floor of the nave—the Camden
Society prescribed that the chancel “should
be raised at least two steps at the Chancel
arch” 12 —and the altar against the east
wall of the chancel is elevated further two
steps. 13 The Camden Society also recommended
that the vestry “may be thrown
out, as was often done, on the north or
south side of the Chancel.” 14 Be that as it
may, the inclusion of the Sunday school
in the basement is not part of Camdenian
doctrine. Instead, it is inherited from
a non-conformist tradition in which it was
common to include Sunday school rooms
as part of a full basement. 15
FIG. 4. Paris (ON), Town Hall and St. James’s Anglican Church. | Paris Museum and Archives
Analogous additions of a “correct” chancel
in Anglican churches in Ontario may
be seen at St. Mary’s, Picton; 16 St. Mark’s,
Barriefield; Holy Trinity, Hawkesbury; 17
and Christ Church, Holland Landing,
and a similar arrangement is recorded at
St. John’s, Ancaster. 18
FIG. 5. Paris Town Hall, exterior
from NW. | Malcolm Thurlby
FIG. 6. Paris Town Hall, exterior from NW (Paris Museum
and Archives postcard). | Malcolm Thurlby
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FIG. 7. Paris Town Hall, basement, interior to E. | Malcolm Thurlby
FIG. 8. Paris Town Hall, interior, blocked E doorway. | Malcolm Thurlby
FIG. 9. Paris Town Hall, ground floor, interior to E. | Malcolm Thurlby
FIG. 10. Paris Town Hall, ground floor, interior to N. | Malcolm Thurlby
Town Hall and Market
Located at 13 Burwell Street across the
road and to the southwest of St. James’s
Anglican Church, the Paris Town Hall is a
building of great significance in the history
of civic Gothic architecture (figs. 4-6).
In sharp contrast to the eighteenth-century
Gothic tradition of the Anglican
church nave, the Town Hall incorporates
details from original medieval exemplars,
and shows that the architect, John Maxwell,
was up to date with contemporary
secular Gothic architecture in Britain.
History
A committee to report upon a suitable site
for a Town Hall was formed on February 7,
1853. 19 On February 21, it was announced
that there was a proposal for a site suitable
for the Town Hall and Market “from
the proprietors of Lot No. 7 and half of
No. 6.” 20 John Maxwell is recorded as the
architect, 21 and Gardner and Strickland,
contractors, tendered for £1957 “the
building to be finished on the first January
next.” 22 At the Council Meeting of June 23,
1853, it was moved: “That By Law to raise
by way of loan the sum of Two Thousand
Five Hundred Pounds payable in Twelve
years for the purpose of purchasing a site
and erecting a Town Hall and Market and
other Public buildings do now pass.” 23
The motion was carried. On December 19,
1853, a by-law was passed “to raise by way
of Loan the sum of £900 for the purpose of
finishing the Town Hall and Market and for
the purchase of a fire engine.” 24 According
to the Brant County Gazetteer and Directory,
the cost of the building was about
twelve thousand dollars. 25
The Architect
John Maxwell was born on May 24, 1803,
at Kilmadock, Perth, Scotland. 26 In 1836
he is recorded as a member of the first
Brantford Fire Company. His residence
(built 1837-1840) is located at 81 Albion
Street, Brantford. 27 He appears in the first
assessment roll of Brantford, September 4,
1847, as a builder and overseer of streets
and walks. 28 The designation “builder”
does not seem to carry a negative connotation,
because John Turner, the wellknown
and prolific Brantford architect
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Malcolm Thurlby > essaY | essaI
of the nineteenth-century, is also listed
as a builder. The 1862 Business Directory
lists John Maxwell under “Carpenters
and Builders.” The 1869-1870 Brant
County Gazetteer and Directory lists him
as a joiner with a home on Albion. 29 He
registers as a “Provincial Land Surveyor”
on January 23, 1849, and later advertises
himself as a “Surveyor & Architect,” in
Hamilton (ON). 30 He is listed in the 1851
Census of the Village of Paris as a civil
engineer, born in Scotland, age 37, with
a one-and-a-half storey frame office, and
of Roman Catholic religion. Also listed are
his wife, Canadian born, age thirty-four,
and children, Robert age eleven, Francis
age eight, May age six, and Joseph age
four. 31 On October 24, 1851, John Maxwell
places an advertisement in the Paris Star
and Great Western Advocate as civil engineer,
architect, provincial land surveyor,
Upper Village Paris. 32 Research to date has
revealed nothing of Maxwell’s training.
FIG. 11. Paris Town Hall, Council Meeting with Andrew H. Baird, mayor 1877-1879 and 1896 (Paris Museum
and Archives). | Malcolm Thurlby
Description
The Market House and Town Hall as it
is described in the eighteen-page Specifications
written by John Maxwell, has
a rectangular plan on an east-west axis
with north and south wings and a tower
in the northwest angle for the north
wing and the hall. 33 It has two-and-ahalf
storeys with a partial basement in
which the eastern two thirds are divided
into six equal aisles by squared wooden
columns (fig. 7). This area served as
the “lower market” and was entered
through a four-centred brick arch at the
east end, which is now blocked (fig. 8).
The western third of the basement included
prisoners’ cells. The ground floor
is divided longitudinally into three aisles
with wooden columns which served as
the market hall, with the council chamber
and Magistrate’s and Treasurer’s offices
at the west end (figs. 9-10). The archival
photograph shows the original Gothic
FIG. 12. Paris Town Hall, ground floor,
vault. | Malcolm Thurlby
fenestration (fig. 11). The vault adjoined
the Treasurer’s office immediately to the
east of the doorway to the tower (figs. 10
and 12). The stairs from the ground floor
to the hall are located in the west wing.
FIG. 13. Paris Town Hall, Assembly Room,
interior to E. | Malcolm Thurlby
The upper story with its magnificent open
timber roof served as the Assembly Room
(fig. 13). The lower section of the basement
walls are constructed in stone while
the superstructure is of brick with stone
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Malcolm Thurlby > essaY | essaI
FIG. 14. Paris Town Hall, exterior facade,
N wing. | Malcolm Thurlby
FIG. 15. Paris Town Hall, exterior, W doorway, detail. | Malcolm Thurlby
dressings. On the ground floor the walls
of the council room and offices were plastered
but the brickwork of the market
was left exposed. Moulded bricks articulate
the doorways and windows, while
wood is used for the tracery of the pointed
windows of the four facades of the
building. The corners of the building are
articulated with stepped angle buttresses
with stone pinnacles and weatherings.
A late nineteenth-century photograph
shows that the octagonal clasping buttresses
of the wings were topped with
crenellated turrets (fig. 4).
The Architectural Context
By the 1850s Gothic had become the
preferred style for church architecture
in Ontario, but this was certainly not the
case with secular public architecture. In
the civic realm, the classical tradition prevailed
with ultimate reference to Ancient
Greece and Rome, often filtered through
Renaissance, Baroque and/or Neoclassical
intermediaries. Examples abound: George
Browne’s Kingston City Hall (1841-1844), 34
the Dundas Town Hall and Market by
Francis Hawkins (1848-1849), St. Catharines
Town Hall by Kivas Tully (1848-1851), 35
Guelph Town Hall by William Thomas, 36
Napanee Town Hall and Market by Edward
Horsey of Kingston (1856), 37 Bath
Town Hall (1866, architect unknown), 38
and Victoria Hall in Cobourg by Kivas Tully
(1856-1860). 39 The unusual choice of the
Gothic style for the Paris Town Hall is reported
in an 1854 newspaper article:
There is also a very substantial and excellent
Market House and Town Hall, but the
style is very remarkable being so strongly
ecclesiastical that any stranger ill-informed
to the contrary would at once pronounce
it a church. It seems strange to find the
tower of this costly edifice used perchance
for hunters’ stalls, and its chancel devoted
to the dispensing of beef and mutton.
But tastes differ, and if the Parisians are
satisfied, that is the main thing. 40
Yet by 1859 Gothic was the chosen style
for the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa. 41
While Gothic was never destined to supplant
the classical tradition for monumental
public buildings in Canada, it is
clear that the Paris Town Hall marks a significant
moment in the history of Gothic
architecture in that country. Indeed, we
shall see that John Maxwell was remarkably
well informed on contemporary British
practice and theory concerning Gothic
architecture.
Gothic was not without precedent for
public buildings in Ontario. In the first
place there is the Middlesex County Building,
London (ON) (1827-1831), built to the
design of John Ewart, with additions. 42
Something similar is seen in Thomas
Young’s Wellington District Courthouse,
Guelph (1837-1844 with additions). 43 Both
buildings belong to an eighteenth-century
Castellated Gothic tradition, which
paid little or no attention to the study
of Medieval Gothic architecture. John
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Maxwell’s approach to the design of the
Paris Town Hall was quite different. He
abandoned romantic eighteenth-century
Gothicism in favour of precise reference to
medieval architectural precedent through
the medium of illustrations of details in
the architectural press.
The choice of the Gothic style for the
Paris Town Hall has been seen as a way of
distinguishing it from the Greek Revival
mansions of the town’s mill owners. 44
This may have been a factor and it also
sets apart the Paris Town Hall from earlier
and near-contemporary town and
city halls in Ontario and government
buildings elsewhere in Canada. Gothic
may also have been perceived as quintessentially
English. Hiram Capron, founder
of Paris, was born in Leicester, Vermont,
but renounced his American citizenship
in 1823 and swore allegiance to the
Crown. 45 There was also a strong desire
amongst the “upper crust” of Paris to
adopt the etiquette of British society. 46
In light of this it seems appropriate to
seek British associations for the Paris
Town Hall and what better precedent
could there be for a Gothic public building
than the Houses of Parliament in
London? In 1834 fire gutted the Houses
of Parliament. Rebuilding started in 1840
with Sir Charles Barry as the architect
and Augustus Welby Pugin providing the
Gothic detailing. 47 Surprisingly this did
not give rise to a glut of Gothic government
architecture. In Remarks On Secular
And Domestic Architecture: Present And
Future published in 1857, George Gilbert
Scott wrote:
Few things surprise me more than the
neglect which pointed architecture has
met with among the builders of town-halls.
Next to churches, the finest of medieval
structures existing are, perhaps, some
of the town-halls of Flanders, Germany,
France, and some of the free cities of Italy;
FIG. 16. Oxford, Merton College, doorway, after
John Henry Parker. | Malcolm Thurlby
FIG. 18. Adderbury (Oxfordshire), St. Mary,
nave roof, after Matthew Holbeche
Bloxam. | Malcolm Thurlby
yet scarcely an attempt has been made to
revive these noble buildings in England, and
town-halls are continually being erected in
our provincial towns in styles as thoroughly
unsuitable as can be conceived, and at a
cost which would, in good hands and in a
right style, have enabled them to vie with
the glories of Brussels, Louvain or Ypres. 48
There is a tradition of Medieval Gothic
guildhalls in England as at St. Mary’s
Guildhall, Coventry (1340-1342, enlarged
FIG. 17. Paris Town Hall, Assembly
Room roof. | Malcolm Thurlby
FIG. 19. Devizes (Wiltshire), St. Mary, and other
Perpendicular windows, after John Henry
Parker. | Malcolm Thurlby
1394-1414). 49 The original masonry of
the hall of the London Guildhall is the
work of John Croxton (circa 1411-circa
1440), which formerly had an elaborate
wooden roof over the hall as at the
Paris Town Hall. 50 The Gothic tradition
continued in the 1788 south façade of
the London Guildhall by George Dance
the Younger, albeit spiced with some
Indian references. 51 Then of the Bristol
Guildhall, 1844, H.S. Goodhart-Rendell
remarked that,
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Malcolm Thurlby > essaY | essaI
FIG. 20. Paris Town Hall, W window. | Malcolm Thurlby
FIG. 21. Norwich Cathedral, presbytery window,
after John Henry Parker. | Malcolm Thurlby
although far clumsier in detail and
arrangement, [it] resembles essentially the
Houses of Parliament in the manner of its
compromise between Gothic and Classic. This
is the earliest neo-Gothic town hall of which
I have found any record, and, if any others
were built before the sixties of the century
they were inconspicuous and uninfluential. I
should be very much surprised to learn of any
in whose design Pugin’s True Principles had
been regarded, although in matters of detail
they might mimic his practice. 52
FIG. 22. Paris, Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church,
interior to E, John Maxwell (1857), clerestory
by John Turner (1881).
FIG. 23. Paris, Sacred Heart, N (S) aisle
window. | Malcolm Thurlby
Aside from guildhalls, the large rectangular
hall with an elaborate open-timber
roof finds a great pedigree in English
medieval halls. Most famous is the Great
Hall of Westminster Palace, roof for Richard
II (1394-1402), and another fine example
is Edward IV’s Great Hall at Eltham
Palace of the 1470s. John Maxwell’s Paris
Town Hall does not presage George Gilbert
Scott’s references to Belgian Gothic
with centrally placed façade towers, as in
Scott’s Hamburg Town Hall, 1856. 53 The
tower of the Paris Town Hall is a monumental
beacon of government just as in
the London Houses of Parliament. It provides
greater height than any classicising
dome or puny tower like St. Catharine’s
Town Hall. Monumental towers are not
part of an English medieval guildhall tradition;
there is one centrally placed above
the façade at Bristol (1844), but it rises
just one storey above the walls of the hall.
The height at Paris Town Hall reads more
like a reflection of Italian Gothic architecture.
The famous English Victorian art
and architecture critic, John Ruskin (1819-
1900), eulogized on Giotto’s campanile of
Florence Cathedral and was enamoured
with the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence of
which the tower is of mighty height. 54
Be that as it may, other than the clasping
octagonal buttress on the campanile
of Florence Cathedral, the details of the
Paris Town Hall tower do not depend on
Italian exemplars, yet the inclusion of
such a monumental tower may well owe
something to Ruskin’s love of this feature.
The connection is difficult to prove but at
least we may associate Maxwell’s use of
Gothic with Ruskin’s view of the Nature
of Gothic for the architecture of Northern
nations. Ruskin proposed that “Gothic is
not only the best, but the only rational
architecture, as being that which can fit
itself most easily to all services, vulgar or
noble.” 55 Following Augustus Welby Pugin’s
True Principles, albeit without credit,
John Ruskin explained: “there is in cold
countries exposed to rain and snow, only
one advisable form for the roof-mask, and
that is the gable, for this alone will throw
off both rain and snow from all parts of
its surface as speedily as possible. Snow
can lodge on the top of a dome, not on
the ridge of a gable.” 56 It would be hard
to imagine anything more appropriate for
the climate of Upper Canada. Moreover,
Ruskin’s pointed-arch-and-gable definition
of Gothic fulfilled with the roof of
the Paris Town Hall. 57
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Malcolm Thurlby > essaY | essaI
FIG. 24. Pugin, True Principles, masonry and window
joints. | Malcolm Thurlby
FIG. 25. Kingsthorpe (Northamptonshire), window,
after John Henry Parker. | Malcolm Thurlby
FIG. 26. Filby (Norfolk), interior to E, after
John Henry Parker. | Malcolm Thurlby
On matters of detail, the octagonal clasping
buttresses at the angles of the wings
and the tower of the Paris Town Hall find
parallel on the tower of the London Houses
of Parliament and on countless English
Perpendicular church towers. The octagonal
plan is also used for the angle turrets
of the gatehouse of St. James’s Palace,
London, constructed between 1532 and
1540 for King Henry VIII, which building
also provides a source for the brick masonry
and square-headed windows of the
Paris Town Hall (figs. 5 and 14).
Many of the details of the Paris Town Hall
can be traced to English medieval sources
published in the architectural press from
the late 1820s through the early 1850s.
The rectangular moulded frame for the
doorway derives from Perpendicular and
Tudor Gothic precedent and may be paralleled
with the north doorway to Merton
College Chapel, Oxford, illustrated in John
Henry Parker’s Glossary and his Introduction
to the Study of Gothic Architecture,
in which there are also trefoil cusps in the
spandrels (figs. 15-16). 58 The roof design
with the combination of braces to form
a pointed arch beneath a tie beam with
a king post, principal rafters and diagonal
struts with tracery on the principal
rafters and struts, is closely allied to the
nave roof of St. Mary’s Church, Adderbury
(Oxfordshire), illustrated in Bloxam’s
Principles of Gothic Ecclesiastical Architecture
(figs. 17-18). 59 The three-light Perpendicular
windows of the north and south
fronts are a simplified version of one in
St. Mary’s, Devizes, Wiltshire, illustrated
in Parker’s Glossary (figs. 14 and 19). 60
For the east and west windows of the
assembly hall, Parker’s Glossary does not
provide a precise model, but the fusion of
the dagger with the mullions and supermullions
may be seen as a combination
of the Devizes window with a clerestory
window from the presbytery of Norwich
Cathedral (figs. 19-21). 61
Comparison with Scott’s Civic Gothic may
suggest that Maxwell was old-fashioned
in the use of Tudor Gothic. Yet, it should
be emphasized that Scott’s row of eight
terraced houses in the Broad Sanctuary,
next to Westminster Abbey, illustrated
in The Builder, 1854, 62 has both pointed
and square-headed windows and stepped
buttresses as in the Paris Town Hall. Moreover,
the articulation of the central pavilion
with octagonal turrets capped with
crenellations is similar to the facades of
the north and south wings of the Paris
Town Hall. Thus, at the very time Maxwell
designed the Paris Town Hall, so Gilbert
Scott used the very same Tudor Gothic
motifs in his Broad Sanctuary design.
The Paris Town Hall was constructed at
a time of outstanding growth and ambition
in the community. The Great Western
Railway Station in Paris opened on
December 15, 1853. 63 On March 4, 1854,
the Brantford to Paris section of the Buf-
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Malcolm Thurlby > essaY | essaI
FIG. 27. Paris, Sacred Heart, N (S) aisle
window. | Malcolm Thurlby
FIG. 28. Paris, Sacred Heart, N (S) aisle window, detail. | Malcolm Thurlby
falo, Brantford and Goderich Railway was
opened and the following month the two
railway lines connected at Paris Junction. 64
The grand scale and soaring tower of the
Town Hall are a monument to the great
civic pride of Paris in the 1850s.
Sacred Heart Roman
Catholic Church,
Sacred Heart Roman Catholic church
stands at the southeast corner of Main
and Washington Streets, and mass was
celebrated for the first time in the church
on Christmas Day 1857. The fabric was then
incomplete and remained so until 1881,
when various additions and modifications
were finished to the design of John Turner,
architect of Brantford (fig. 22). The sanctuary
was subsequently modified in 1912.
Fortunately, we have a detailed description
of the church, both in its original and
in its 1881 forms. Comparison between the
two accounts is most instructive. The account
of the 1857 church tells us that:
[The church] is after a design by Mr. John
Maxwell, of Paris, and is calculated to contain
about 500 persons. It is a substantial
stone structure without any of the sham
embellishment and showy deceptions so
common in American churches. It has been
fashioned after the model of the ancient,
modest country churches of England,
though still much wanting, no doubt, in the
best of these edifices. Reality has however
been aimed at throughout. The Design is in
the late Decorated style, and comprises
chancel, nave clerestory, and aisles, steeple
and porch, together with cellar apartments
and flues suitable for hot air apparatus. The
nave piers are of cut stone, with bases and
moulded capitals; the window mullions and
side-mouldings, their tracery and internal
finishings, are of the same material, as
are also seven doorways of the building,
and some other minor parts. The nave
and chancel arches have, for the sake of
economy, been constructed of moulded
bricks, for the manufacture of which some
clays in this district are peculiarly well
adapted. These bricks are of an excellent
and enduring color, are of solid texture, and
easily cut when necessary. They will not be
exposed to wet, and constitute a finish nearly
as cheap, and much superior in beauty and
durability, to stucco sham-work. The small
cruciform windows of the clerestory have
not yet been put in, but may be inserted for
small cost, at some future day. The roof is
thoroughly open throughout, with moulded
rafters, principals, wall-plates, too.
It is not contemplated to finish the steeple
at the present time, although about £150
has already been expended on its basement
apartment and the part of the steeple built
above ground—some 25 feet in height.
The expense as yet incurred upon the
building is about £1250, a price which is
generally considered by competent judges
to be exceedingly low, and no contractors
have been ruined by the job, as the work has
been almost entirely done by piece-work and
days’ wages. 65
28
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Malcolm Thurlby > essaY | essaI
FIG. 29. Paris, Sacred Heart, interior to E, pre-1912 (Paris Museum and Archives). | Malcolm Thurlby
The description of the church is remarkably
well informed on the architectural architectural science.” 67 Frank Wills (1822-
by the untutored as the most learned in
theory of the time as witnessed by such 1857), another strong proponent of Pugin,
remarks as none of “the sham embellishment
and showy deceptions so common tecture. 68 He maintained that “[t]he great
was a forceful advocate of reality in archi-
in American churches,” and “[i]t has been secret of beauty of the ancient churches
fashioned after the model of the ancient, is their reality,” and warned against “the
modest country churches of England,” plus pernicious influence of sham.” 69
references to reality aimed at throughout,
late Decorated design, nave piers of cut Just as the Paris Town Hall, Maxwell’s
stone, window tracery and side mouldings church of the Sacred Heart makes precise
reference to medieval architectural
of stone, brick for the nave and chancel
arches “much superior in beauty and durability,
to stucco sham-work”; and the standing of Pugin’s True Principles. 70 Pu-
sources and displays a profound under-
open timber roof. It is tempting to suggest
that the description was written by the Roman Catholic churches in Ontario
gin’s influence was strangely lacking in
John Maxwell himself in that it reflects before the arrival of Joseph Connolly
Augustus Welby Pugin’s True Principles (1840-1904) in Toronto in 1873. 71 We may
as advocated by William Hay in an article contrast John Turner’s Roman Catholic
in the Anglo-American Magazine, published
in Toronto. 66 Hay further praised and St. Joseph in Stratford (1867), both
churches of St. Basil in Brantford (1867)
the “ancient village churches of England” of which conform to the standard threeaisle
lath-and-plaster vaulted interior like
and pronounced that “[t]here is a beauty
about those venerable fabrics, not easily Santa Maria-sopra-Minerva, Rome, which
described, but which is recognised as well was the norm throughout Ontario.
The aisle windows of Sacred Heart are
excellent examples of Pugin’s advocacy of
“Ancient Irregular Joints,” as opposed to
“Modern Regular Joints,” as illustrated in
True Principles (figs. 23-24). They also have
Decorated two-light flowing tracery, based
on real medieval models as at Kingsthorpe
(Northamptonshire), illustrated in Parker’s
Glossary (figs. 23 and 25). 72 The majority
of windows in Ontario churches at this
time have wooden frames and tracery,
and therefore the “reality” of Maxwell’s
use of stone is quite exceptional. Similarly,
the stone columns may be contrasted
with the wooden columns in imitation
of stone in the nearby Roman Catholic
church of St. Basil in Brantford. The octagonal
columns with moulded capitals and
two-order chamfered arches for the nave
arcades at Sacred Heart are common in
English parish churches of the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries and exemplars
would have been available to Maxwell in
books like Brandon’s Parish Churches. 73 Filby
(Norfolk) nave has octagonal columns
and two-light aisle windows with flowing
tracery (figs. 22 and 26). Also at Filby, the
small quatrefoil clerestory windows may
have inspired the proposed “cruciform”
clerestory windows in Sacred Heart.
The description praises the durability and
colour of the brick used for the chancel
arch and nave arcade and adds that this is
“much superior in beauty and durability,
to stucco sham-work.” This suggests that
the brickwork was exposed, a feature that
conforms to a High Victorian aesthetic as
advocated by George Edmund Street for
“town churches.” 74
In the easternmost window of the north
nave aisle, the stained glass was a “Gift of
J. Maxwell” (figs. 27-28). Like Maxwell’s
architectural details, the design of the glass
follows medieval precedent in incorporating
stiff-leaf and vine scrolls from Early English
and Decorated sources respectively.
JSSAC | JSÉAC 34 > N o 1 > 2009
29

Malcolm Thurlby > essaY | essaI
Sacred Heart church was completed by
Brantford architect, John Turner, and was
dedicated on Sunday, February 6, 1881. 75
The report of the dedication includes a
description of the building:
The R.C. Church at Paris has, during the
past season, undergone many changes. A
spire 110 feet has been erected. The roof
has been raised 8 feet, and 4 handsome
gothic windows placed in each side of the
clear story. The whole of the roofs and spire
are slated, the walls on the inside are newly
plastered and blocked, in imitation of well
bonded masonry. The chancel and vestry to
the rear, 18 x 40, are built to correspond
with the stonework of the church. The
chancel on the inside is very handsomely
finished—gothic dudoing—grained ceiling,
coloured blue, with large stucco mouldings
on each angle. The altar is of excellent
design, about 11 feet wide by 24 feet high.
The whole of the work is well executed. Cost
about $7,000. 76
The History of the County of Brant, Ontario
(1883) reports:
The Catholic Church was the pioneer church
of Paris, and can boast of an edifice which
far surpasses all the ecclesiastical buildings,
and is in truth the architectural glory of this
part of the town. It is located on the corner
of Washington and Main Streets, and was
first used for Divine service in 1857. 77
[The 1883 account continues:] The church
is a fine specimen of decorated [sic] Gothic;
the tower is lofty, with a very beautiful
spire, surmounted by a cross of gold. The
building is constructed of a very rich field
stone, to which time is likely to add fresh
beauty and depth of colour. The coping
and caps for buttresses are of the best
cut stone from Ohio. The interior of this
church is very striking. The spirit of true
Gothic art is carried out in the minutest
detail; everything is real; there are no
trashy ornaments, no painted woodwork to
resemble stone. On each side are transepts
separated from the body of the nave by five
massive pillars of cut stone surmounted by
arches, which give the effect of distance
to this beautifully proportional church and
sanctuary. The roof of the nave is open
work, on each side, the light falls through
the stained glass of the clerestory windows
[…] The nave and transepts are seated with
oakwood; the windows all of stained glass,
are for the most part gifts. The mullions and
tracings, which are modified, are chastened
examples of the decorative [sic] style, and
all of cut stone.
The tower of this church is fifteen feet
square, and the spire a hundred and ten
feet high. The nave is ninety feet by fortyfive,
the chancel and sanctuary twentyfour
feet by twenty, and beyond this,
communicating with the priest’s house, a
vestry eighteen feet by fifteen. The roof is
of slate. The altar is on festive occasions
decorated with handsome gilt candlesticks.
It is surmounted with an elaborately-carved
Gothic reredos, containing in the centre a
tabernacle or pyx for the Holy Sacrament,
before which the perpetual lamp is burning;
also above this a gilt crucifix of singular
beauty, and four niches containing figures
of the four Evangelists, each with the
appropriate symbol—the Sacrificial Ox of
St. Luke, the Human Figure which marks
the Evangelist of the Incarnation, the Lion
of St. Mark, The Eagle of St. John. At the
north or “Gospel” side is an oil painting, the
work of a French artist, representing the
baptism of Our Saviour. There are two side
chapels; that to the south, of St. Joseph,
that to the north, of the Blessed Virgin,
whose image represents a face and figure
of ideal purity and benignity. The transept
walls are decorated with a cheap but not
inartistic series of pictures of the Stations
of the Cross. The baptismal font is of white
marble, carved in imitation of an ancient
font at Oxford. The entire cost of the
building was $20,000, mainly raised by the
energy of Father Dowling. It was dedicated
to the Sacred Heart of the Redeemer, in
February, 1881, by Bishop Crinnon, who
then appointed Father Dowling to be Vicar-
General of the Diocese.
While the masonry of Turner’s additions
to the fabric conform to Maxwell’s standards,
it is clear that Pugin’s principles
are diminished with Turner. The plaster
was blocked in imitation of masonry, the
very sort of sham abhorred by Maxwell
the “realist.” The clerestory windows
have wooden tracery rather than stone
used for the aisle windows. The chancel
arch is enriched with plaster capitals and
mouldings and an old photograph preserved
in the Paris Museum and Archives,
taken before the 1912 remodelling of the
chancel, shows that John Turner opted
for a quadripartite rib vault in imitation
of stone and round clerestory windows
(fig. 29). The High Gothic reredos, as described
in 1883, is also seen in the pre-
1912 photograph. It was removed after
the Second Vatican Council (1965).
Conclusion
St. James’s Anglican Church, the Town
Hall, and Sacred Heart Roman Catholic
Church in Paris serve as excellent barometers
of changing attitudes towards Gothic
Revival architecture in Victorian Ontario.
The Town Hall and Sacred Heart introduce
the previously unpublished work of the
architect John Maxwell and amply demonstrate
the great impact of current British
architectural theory in the work of this
local practitioner in the 1850s.
notes
1. I should like to thank David Powell for suggesting
Paris Town Hall as a research topic. I
am deeply indebted to John Runnquist, owner
of Paris Town Hall, for providing unlimited access
to the building, permission to photograph
30
JSSAC | JSÉAC 34 > N o 1 > 2009

Malcolm Thurlby > essaY | essaI
it in detail, and for sharing his considerable
knowledge of its history and structure. Bob
Hasler, president of Paris Museum and Archives,
has been an enthusiastic supporter
of the research for this project and a brilliant
guide to the material in his care. Ruth Lefler
kindly drew my attention to aspects of the
history of Paris and Brant County associated
with my research. With characteristic generosity,
Robert G. Hill has provided references to
John Maxwell from his Biographical Dictionary
of Architects in Canada. Rob Hamilton has
also assisted with research related to Maxwell.
Father Michael Bennett kindly facilitated photography
at Sacred Heart Roman Catholic
Church, as did Brian Edwards at St. James’s
Anglican Church.
2. MacRae, Marion and Anthony Adamson, 1963,
The Ancestral Roof: The Domestic Architecture
of Upper Canada, Toronto, Clarke, Irwin &
Co. Ltd., p. 140-141; Byers, Mary and Margaret
McBurney, 1982, The Governor’s Road: Early
Buildings and Families from Mississauga to
London, Toronto, University of Toronto Press,
p. 215-233; Ashenberg, Katherine, 1996, Going
to Town: Architectural Walking Tours in
Southern Ontario, Toronto, Macfarlane Walter
and Ross, p. 89-108; Chapple, Nina Perkins,
2006, A Heritage in Stone: Buildings of the
Niagara Peninsula, Fergus and Elora, Guelph.
Region of Waterloo, Cambridge, Paris, Ancaster-Dundas,
Hamilton and St. Mary’s, Toronto,
James Lorimer and Company Ltd., p. 75-85.
On Paris Presbyterian Church, see Iron, Candace,
2005, “Thomas J. Rutley: A Presbyterian
Church Designer,” Journal of the Society for
the Study of Architecture in Canada, vol. 30,
no. 2, p. 16-26.
3. MacRae, Marion and Anthony Adamson,
1975, Hallowed Walls: Church Architecture of
Upper Canada, Toronto, Clarke, Irwin & Co.
Ltd., p. 263-264; Smith, Carl Frederick, 1944,
Cobblestone Architecture, Rochester (NY),
Great Lakes Press; Freeman, Rich and Sue
Freeman, Cobblestone Quest: Road Tours of
New York’s Historic Buildings, Englewood (FL),
Footprint Press Inc.
4. The History of the County of Brant, Ontario,
Toronto, Warner, Beers & Co., 1883, p. 480-
481.
5. Id., p. 481.
6. According to James Neilson (ed.) (St. James’
Anglican Church, Paris, Ontario, 150 th Anniversary
1838-1989, unpaginated), the plaster
ceiling of the nave replaced an arched ceiling
in 1872, at which time a gallery was removed
from the nave and a centre aisle put in.
7. Iron, Candace and Malcolm Thurlby, 2007,
St. John’s Anglican Church, Ancaster: An Architectural
History, [http://www.raisethehammer.
org/index.asp?id=672], figs. 1- 2.
8. Langley, Batty and Thomas Langley, [1742,
Architecture, Restored, and Improved, by A
Great Variety of Grand and useful Designs, Entirely
New, In the Gothic Mode for the Ornamenting
of Buildings and Gardens, London],
reprinted in 2003 as Gothic Architecture, Mineoloa
(NY), Dover Publications, Inc., pl. LIX.
9. Neilson, op. cit.
10. A Few Words to Church Builders, p. 6; reprinted
in Christopher Webster, (ed.), 2003,
“Temples… Worthy of His Presence”: Early
Publications of the Cambridge Camden Society,
Reading, Spire Books, p. 138.
11. A Few Words to Church Builders, p. 13, #27;
Webster, p. 145.
12. A Few Words to Church Builders, p. 5, #6; p.
10, #16; p. 11, #18; Webster, p. 137, 142-143.
13. A Few Words to Church Builders, p. 12; Webster,
p. 144.
14. A Few Words to Church Builders, p. 24, #50;
Webster, p. 156.
15. Westfall, William and Malcolm Thurlby, 1990,
“Church Architecture and Urban Space: The
Development of Ecclesiastical Forms in Nineteenth-Century
Ontario,” Old Ontario: Essays
in Honour of J.M.C. Careless, In David Keane
and Colin Read (ed.), Toronto and London,
Dundurn Press, p. 118-147, at p. 129-131.
16. Thurlby, Malcolm, 1986, “Nineteenth-Century
Churches in Ontario: A Study in the Meaning
of Style,” Historic Kingston, vol. 35, p. 96-
118.
17. Bennett, Vicki, 1997, Sacred Space and Structural
Style: The Embodiment of Socio-Religious
Ideology, Ottawa, University of Ottawa Press,
p. 172-174.
18. Iron and Thurlby, 2007.
19. Ontario Archives, Minutes of Council of the
Village of Paris, meeting of February 7, 1853.
Copies of the Minutes are also kept at the Paris
Museum and Archives.
20. Id., meeting of February 21, 1853.
21. Id., meeting of April 18, 1853.
22. Id., meeting of May 23, 1853.
23. Id., meeting of June 23, 1853.
24. Id., meeting of December 19, 1853.
25. [http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~forontario/g-paris.htm].
26 . [http://www.interment.net/data/canada/
ontario/brant/brantford/greenwood/green_
mn.htm].
27. [http://mail.brantford.ca/inventory.nsf].
28. [ h t t p : / / w w w . r o o t s w e b . a n c e s t r y .
com/~onbrant/voters.htm]; Reville, F. Douglas,
1920, History of the County of Brant, vol.
I, Brantford, The Hurley Printing Company,
Limited, p. 107-108, 113.
29. [http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~forontario/g-t-brant3.htm].
30. The Journal & Express [Hamilton], July 16 1850,
p. 1. Thanks to Robert G. Hill for this reference.
31. V illage of Paris , 1851 Census, p. 35,
lines 9-14.
32. Paris Star Centennial Issue, June 28, 1956, for
reprint of Paris Star and Great Western Advocate,
Wednesday, February 11, 1852, p. 1,
for the continuation of the Maxwell advertisement.
33. The Specifications are preserved in the Paris
Museum and Archives.
34. MacRae, Marion and Anthony Adamson, 1983,
Cornerstones of Order: Courthouses and Town
Halls of Ontario, 1784-1914, Toronto, Clarke
Irwin, p. 77-86.
35. Id., p. 138-141.
36. Id., p. 147-148.
37. Id., p. 165-166.
38. Id., p. 166-167.
39. Id., p. 150-152.
40. The Times [London, Ontario], October 13, 1854,
p. 2. I owe this reference to John Runnquist.
41. Young, Carolyn, 1995, The Glory of Ottawa:
Canada’s First Parliament Building, Montreal
and Kingston, McGill-Queen’s University Press;
Thurlby, Malcolm, 1988, “Ottawa Gothic,”
Rotunda, vol. 21, no. 1, p. 24-31.
42. MacRae and Adamson, 1983, p. 92-98, 267;
Brosseau, Mathilde, 1980, Gothic Revival in
Canadian Architecture, Ottawa, Parks Canada,
p. 12, fig. 28; Kalman, Harold, 1994, A History
of Canadian Architecture, 2 vols., Toronto, Oxford
University Press, p. 274-275.
43. MacRae and Adamson, 1983, p. 99-108.
44. Id., 1983, p. 168-169.
45. Smith, Donald A., 1956, At the Forks of the
Grand 1793-1920: 20 Historical Essays on Paris,
Ontario, vol. 1, Paris, Paris Centennial Committee,
p. 32; [http://www.parishistoricalsociety.
com/history.html].
JSSAC | JSÉAC 34 > N o 1 > 2009
31

Malcolm Thurlby > essaY | essaI
46. Smith, Donald A. 1980. At the Forks of the
Grand 1793-1920: 20 Historical Essays on Paris,
Ontario, vol. 2, Paris, Paris Centennial Committee,
p. 142-145.
47. Port, M.H. 1976. The Houses of Parliament,
New Haven and London, Yale University
Press.
48. Scott, George Gilbert. 1857, Remarks on Secular
and Domestic Architecture: Present and
Future, London, John Murray, p. 198.
49. On the origin of guildhalls, see Turner, T. Hudson,
and John Henry Parker, 1851-1859, Some
Account of Domestic Architecture in England
[of the Middle Ages], Oxford, John Henry Parker,
3 vols. in 4, vol. II, p. 176-177.
50. Hudson and Parker, vol. II, p. 179-80; vol. III,
p. 281-282; Pevsner, Nikolaus, 1973 [3 rd ed., rev.
by Bridget Cherry], The Buildings of England,
I, The Cities of London and Westminster, Harmondsworth,
Penguin Books Ltd., p. 191.
51. Stroud, Dorothy, 1971, George Dance Architect,
1741-1825, London, Faber and Faber,
p. 118-122, pl. 37 A and B.
52. Goodhart-Rendell, H.S., 1964, “Victorian Public
Buildings,” In Peter Ferriday, (ed.), Victorian
Architecture, Philadelphia and New York, J.B.
Lippincott Company, p. 87-101, at p. 91.
53. The Builder, February 2, 1856, reproduced in
Young, Carolyn, 1995, The Glory of Ottawa…,
fig. 13.
54. Ruskin, John, [1849] rev. ed. 1907, The Seven
Lamps of Architecture, London, J.M. Dent &
Sons Ltd., p. 75-76 and 149.
55. Ruskin, John, 1981, The Stones of Venice, Jan
Morris (ed.), Boston and Toronto, Little, Brown
and Company, p. 123.
56. Id., p. 134.
57. Id., p. 135-136.
58. Parker, John Henry, 1850, 5 th ed. enlarged, A
Glossary of Terms used in Grecian, Roman, Italian,
and Gothic Architecture, 3 vols., Oxford,
John Henry Parker/London, John Bogue, vol. II,
pl. 81; Parker, John Henry, 1849, An Introduction
to the Study of Gothic Architecture, London,
James Parker and Co., fig. 154.
59. Bloxam, Matthew Holbeche, 1829, The Principles
of Gothic Ecclesiastical Architecture,
London, W. Kent and Co., ill. p. 227 and 229.
60. Parker, 1850, pl. 253.
61. Parker, 1850, pl. 252.
62. The Builder, vol. 10, May 8, 1852, p. 289; The
Builder, 12, 1854, 115 ill.; Muthesius, Stefan,
1972, The High Victorian Movement in Architecture,
London, Routledge and Kegan Paul,
p. 172, pl. 128.
63. Hasler, Robert Lewis Rashleigh, 2000, Paris
Junction, Paris Station (1848-1900); “The Hey
Day of the Dream Era,” Paris (ON), Somerset
House Publishing, p. 12.
64. Hasler, p. 12-13.
65. The Mirror [Toronto], January 15, 1858, p. 3. I
owe this reference to Robert G. Hill.
66. Hay, William, [1853, “The Late Mr. Pugin and
the Revival of Christian Architecture,” Anglo-
American Magazine, vol. II, p. 70-73], reprinted
in Simmins, Geoffrey (ed.), Documents in Canadian
Architecture, 1992, Peterborough (ON),
Broadview Press.
67. Hay, William, “Ecclesiastical Architecture: Village
Churches,” Anglo-American Magazine,
vol. 4 (1854), p. 20-22; [http://www.archive.
org/stream/angloamericanma00unkngoog].
68. Wills, Frank, 1848, “Reality in Church Architecture,”
New York Ecclesiologist (October),
p. 8-12, [http://anglicanhistory.org/ecclesiologist/ny/1.html];
Wills, Frank, 1850, Ancient
English Ecclesiastical Architecture and its
Principles Applied to the Wants of the Church
at the Present Day, New York, Stanford and
Swords, p. 83-92.
69. Wills, 1850, p. 89, 91.
70. Pugin, Augustus Welby, 1841, True Principles
of Pointed or Christian Architecture, London,
John Weale.
71. On Joseph Connolly, see Thurlby, Malcolm,
2005, “Joseph Connolly in the Roman Catholic
Archdiocese of Kingston, Ontario,” Journal of
the Society for the Study of Architecture in
Canada, vol. 30, p. 25-38, with full bibliography.
72. Pugin, True Principles… pl. 2; Parker, 1850,
vol. III, pl. 236.
73. Brandon, Raphael and J. Arthur Brandon,
1846, Parish Churches, London, George Bell.
74. Street, George Edmund, 1850, “On the Proper
Characteristics of a Town Church,” The Ecclesiologist,
vol. XI, p. 227-233.
75. “Paris, Church Dedication,” The Daily Expositor
[Brantford], February 9, 1881, p. 2; The
Weekly Expositor [Brantford], February 11,
1881, p. 1.
76. Ibid.
77. The History of the County of Brant, Ontario,
p. 479.
32
JSSAC | JSÉAC 34 > N o 1 > 2009

ANALYSis | ANALYSe
The Small House in Print
Promoting the Modern Home to Post-war Canadians
through Pattern Books, Journals, and Magazines 1
George Thomas Kapelos is associate professor
and past chair, Department of Architectural Science,
Ryerson University (Toronto). He was president of
>Ge o r g e Th o m a s
Kap e l o s
the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada
(1980-1982) and member of the executive (vicepresident
and secretary) (1977-1980). In 2008
he was named a fellow of the Royal Architectural
Institute of Canada (FRAIC). His publications include
“Looking and Seeing: Concrete and the Education
of the Architect,” In Graeme Stewart and Michael
McClelland (eds.), TOBrut, Toronto, Coach House
Press, 2007, p. 54-55; “Finding Beauty: Toronto’s
Clean & Beautiful City Initiative,” ISoCaRP 3, Journal
of the International Society of City and Regional
Planners, 2007, p. 45-62; and Course Studies –
Tracking Ontario’s Thames: An Exploration of the
River, London, Museum London, 2001.
The May 1962 cover of the Canadian
Homes and Gardens (CH&G) magazine
presents an enticing image. Entitled “The
Poolside Life,” the cover story depicts a
scene of nonchalant typicality in the West
Vancouver family home of Art and Patti
Philips and their four children: suburban,
leisured, carefree, and completely modern
(fig. 1). 2 The ease with which the magazine
presented this as a matter-of-fact,
everyday occurrence signalled a cultural
shift. A scant decade and a half before,
Canada had been facing an unprecedented
housing crisis. Returning veterans
were pressing for jobs; there were severe
housing shortages across the country; and
the infrastructure to accommodate new
communities and the anticipated population
surge was non-existent. In 1946,
veterans staged a peaceful but pointed
occupation of the old Hotel Vancouver.
Led by a Canadian Legion sergeant-atarms
and climaxing two years of public
agitation over the lack of housing, that
event drew national attention to the
country’s housing needs. 3 Vancouver’s
protesting veterans could hardly have
imagined the idyllic future life, as pictured
in the glossy pages of the magazine,
that lay before them.
FIG. 1. “The Poolside Life,” CH&G, May 1962, cover.
Shortly after the article appeared, the
CH&G ceased publication, 4 but the
impact of its imagery and messages was
apparent everywhere. Across the country,
modern, single-family homes of contemporary
design had become the norm.
How did this dramatic change happen
so quickly? What precipitated such widespread
acceptance of a new style of living?
How had the unimaginable become
the quotidian?
JSSAC | JSÉAC 34 > N o 1 > 2009 > 33-60
33

George Th o m a s Kapelos > ANALYSis | ANALYSe
This paper explores the interrelationship
between Canadian housing production
and architectural print media in Englishlanguage
Canada in the decade following
the end of the Second World War. It
explores how print media and concomitant
professional and government institutions
operated to influence widespread
consumer adoption of a modern architectural
design vocabulary that became
the norm for single-family housing of
the late 1940s, 1950s, and beyond. The
paper also describes how the professional
architectural press of the 1940s promoted
modernism, mostly to architects. Simultaneously,
it explores how the content of
shelter magazines, focusing on the home
and homeowner, popularized modern
housing in a way that enabled homebuyers
to identify with this new architecture
and feel comfortable with it.
While the interplay between popular and
professional press is not uniquely Canadian,
this paper contends that the strong
presence of the state, in this case the Central
(later Canada) Mortgage and Housing
Corporation (CMHC), in the promotion
and design of single-family housing is
noteworthy. Through the agency of the
CMHC, builders were drawn to build modern
houses, and consumers were led to see
these as the preferred choice for living. By
operating both to guarantee financing for
new housing and to produce pattern books
of commissioned modern house designs
that would readily be amenable to financing,
the CMHC created an environment
whereby this new housing mode was not
only sanctioned, but became widely desirable
and prevalent. But the state could not
have effected this without the participation
of the professions, the press, and the
buying public. The convergence of professions,
media, and national institution to
bring about this new form of housing is
an important yet unrecognized moment
in Canada’s architectural history.
The significant number of houses built
during that period, and their continued
existence, altered the Canadian housing
landscape dramatically and created
a new model for the ideal home. Many
Canadians grew up in houses built in
the period just after the Second World
War when returning veterans drove the
demand for affordable, first-time homes.
These small modern dwellings, emblematic
of a time of exponential growth and
rising expectations, have a special place
in the history of Canadian communities,
establishing the standard for suburban
living in the years following the war.
The period 1946-1956, the first ten years
of the CMHC, heralded the 1957 inception
of the Canadian Housing Design
Council, established to give a higher
profile to housing design and ultimately
wresting CMHC’s leadership on housing
design. 5 In that same decade following
the end of the Second World War, the
CMHC made available over five hundred
plans for small house types (and during
that period the definition of the “small”
house grew from under one thousand
square feet to close to two thousand
square feet). Through its regional centres
and local offices, the CMHC distributed
these plans as well as advice to potential
homeowners and builders.
As a result, Canada’s post-war suburbs are
well stocked with CMHC-derived house
designs. While it is difficult to know the
exact number of single-family dwellings
produced by this means, based on housing
starts during that time period and the
value of mortgages financed, an estimate
of approximately one million two hundred
thousand would be reasonable. 6 Many of
these houses, albeit changed and modified
over time, still serve their inhabitants
and form the majority of housing stock in
the older, near-in suburbs of all Canadian
cities. Their continued value is further
reflected in 2002 initiatives by the CMHC
to encourage the renewal of these houses
through improvements, as identified in
two of their reports which focus on continued
rehabilitation (figs. 2-3). 7 In fact,
these houses comprise the largest stock of
architectural heritage from the post-war,
modern period. They are undervalued
and their conservation remains ignored
and neglected.
The significance of CMHC’s designs is
twofold: first, the emphasis on quality
design, fostered by CMHC’s commissioning
of young architectural talent
to produce plans and prototypes, and,
secondly, the proliferation of new technologies
and materials introduced into
the housing market. Yet, while the CMHC
was active in promoting the design of
small, efficiently-arranged and architecturally-considered
houses, it is not
solely responsible for the widespread
acceptance among average Canadians.
Professional publications, initially the
Journal of the Royal Architectural Institute
of Canada (JRAIC) and latterly the
fledgling Canadian Architect (CA) magazine,
kept the idea of high design for the
modern house in the eye of the architect,
and the architect’s client, whether
a single-family homeowner or a builderdeveloper.
Builders and manufacturers
were also shaping the housing market
in the post-war period, while capitalizing
on the demand for housing and home
equipment and furnishings. They captured
consumers with an attractive and
unprecedented array of materials, goods,
and equipment that would be at home
in these new, modern houses. 8
It is the popular shelter magazine, and
for readers in English-speaking Canada
for the purposes of this investigation it is
one magazine, the CH&G, which played
a pivotal role in disseminating information
on the new house. This publication,
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George Th o m a s Kapelos > ANALYSis | ANALYSe
unique in English Canada during the period,
established norms of acceptability for
these houses, provided standards for their
occupancy and, most critically, promoted
their comfort and liveability. Supported
by a private sector anxious to meet the
demands of a growing housing market,
government agency, professional journal,
and popular magazine came together to
shape design expectations and ultimately
the proliferation of a certain form of postwar
single-family dwelling.
The ‘Flow’ of Mass Culture
This essay is framed by explorations of
contemporary popular culture and the
expression of this culture, especially
through the magazine. 9 Maria Tippett
argues that, for Canadians, particularly
those in English-speaking Canada prior
to 1945, the making of culture was
achieved through a combination of local
initiative and government intervention
at the national level. 10 Until the 1960s
and the writings of Marshall McLuhan 11
and other critics, popular media have not
been recognized as important agents in
cultural production. Addressing the question
of contemporary culture, Raymond
Williams identifies a ‘sociology of culture,’
which points to the informing spirit
of a way of life, “manifest over a whole
range of cultural activities.” 12 Culture, he
believes, in its broadest sense, embodies
all forms of practice and production,
which converge to create a “signifying
system through which social order is
communicated, reproduced, experienced
and explored.” 13 The approach
to culture includes not only traditional
arts and forms of intellectual production
such as those explored by Maria
Tippett and others, but also, according
to Raymond Williams, “all of the signifying
practices from language through
the arts and philosophy to journalism,
fashion and advertising.” 14 He offers
FIG. 2. Many of the houses built as a result of CMHC programs
still serve their inhabitants, although with
changes and modifications, and form the majority of
housing stock in the older, near-in suburbs of all Canadian
cities. Their continued value is further reflected
in recent initiatives by the CMHC to encourage the
renewal of these houses through improvements, as
identified in two 2002 reports by the CMHC which
focus on their continued rehabilitation and upkeep.
CMHC, 2002, Renovating Distinctive Homes:
1½ Storey Post-War Homes, Ottawa, Canada
Mortgage and Housing Corporation, cover.
cautionary advice about the effects of
studying individual threads of a subject,
instead of the subject in its entirety and
recommends that scholars study the flow
of material instead of “the discrete single
work, [because scholars are] in danger of
narrowing [the] notion of text too much
[…] and by doing so missing the normal
characteristic of mass culture […] one of
‘flow.’” 15 According to Raymond Williams,
convergence is essential for an understanding
of the ‘sociology of culture.’
One important vehicle for cultural expression
is the magazine, which as early as the
1890s had become the de facto arbiter of
the evolving social order and has recently
become a source for scholarly study of contemporary
culture. 16 Valerie J. Korinek has
applied Raymond Williams’s notions of flow
in the popular press in her investigation of
FIG. 3. CMHC, 2002, Renovating Distinctive Homes:
One Storey Houses of the ’60s and ’70s,
Ottawa, Canada Mortgage and Housing
Corporation, cover.
Chatelaine magazine and its impact on
the lives of Canadian women. 17 Her analysis
builds on that author’s idea of the flow
of mass culture; 18 she examines a twentyyear
period of Chatelaine, systematically
analyzing content to identify themes and
prevalent ideas, in order to understand
interrelationships and linkages. 19
Utilizing that approach to explore the
post-war house as an element of cultural
expression and applying Raymond
Williams’s ideas of convergence requires
a multi-faceted analysis, including an
exploration of specific cultural institutions,
professional journals, and popular
media. As well, the analysis requires
an understanding of both the material
means of cultural production (architects
in practice and the CMHC) and the resultant
forms of culture—in this case the
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George Th o m a s Kapelos > ANALYSis | ANALYSe
post-war single-family house. By means
of a close reading of two periodicals and
CMHC house plan books over the period
of the greatest flux in the Canadian housing
marketplace, that being the decade
following the close of the Second World
War, we begin to comprehend how the
landscape of new housing, built mostly
on the edge of Canadian urban areas, can
be understood and evaluated.
Before addressing the dialectic of the
modern house as an instrument of
social change and as an aesthetic ideal,
we must first understand the interplay
among Canada’s pre-eminent agent
of housing production: the CMHC, the
agents and institutions of architectural
design, notably the architectural profession
represented through the pages of
the JRAIC, the agents of popular taste
and consumption, as depicted in the
popular shelter press, especially the
CH&G magazine, the most widely read
and popular English-language publication
of its kind during the period, 20
and the consumer, whose predilections
and inclinations had been pent up during
years of economic depression and
the ensuing war. We must also understand
how the shelter magazine and its
readers (mostly female) moderated the
dialectic of the modern house, making
it palatable for mass consumption.
In addition, the CMHC’s model house
plans, initially selected by means of a
competitive process, gained widespread
acceptance through their regular publication
in pattern books. By examining
the English-language Canadian professional
press and how it viewed and promoted
the small, modern, single-family
house, particularly through publishing
the work of young Canadian architects,
we can explore the interpretation and
adaptation of the modern single-family
home by the public. In particular, the
CH&G was a primary source of information
on housing and popular culture for
the period of the magazine’s life, from
1924 to 1962. 21 Throughout that period
of social-aesthetic transformation, the
consumer remains a constant, both as
target and participant. 22
While the CMHC was the engine that
produced house designs and financed
their construction through mortgage
support, the architectural profession
readily engaged with the CMHC, creating
high-level design output. However,
it was the magazine and the way it was
conceived, read, and interpreted that
became the vehicle of normalization and
cultural acceptance for the new modern
small house, legitimizing it, moderating
and tempering its impact, providing information
on its liveability, and showing the
way for its acceptance by the post-war
consumer. It is the flow of these forces
and the convergence of disparate components
into the form of contemporary,
modern houses that created the dominant
fabric of the post-war Canadian suburban
landscape and material culture,
which persist today. 23
The Modern Single-family
House: the “Quiet Revolution”
in Residential Design
In 1934, following an extensive tour of
new European housing, Catherine Bauer
presented a summary of what she called
“modern housing” across the continent.
In her opinion, “‘modern housing’
[…] has certain qualities and embodies
certain method and purposes, which
distinguish it sharply from the typical
residential environment of the past
century.” 24 A number of case studies
detailed the basic principles or “vital
standards” of European housing, which
she listed. Measured against these standards,
she was impressed by what she
identified as “not reform, but new form”
signified by a “really positive and creative
effort toward modern architecture.” 25
She was unequivocal in her advocacy for
this new form: “One of the most hopeful
facts about both modern housing and
modern architecture is that they are not
a separate subject.” 26
Catherine Bauer was predominantly preoccupied
with multiple housing, which
she believed would be the best way of
providing housing in contemporary society;
however, she did believe that the
single-family dwelling would persist as
a type. Turn-of-the-century progressivism,
she conceded, “can be found in the
typical suburban house of a progressive
and fairly wealthy American of the period.”
Such houses reflected the “vague
idea that good taste had something to
do with simplicity” and that there was
“a snobbism in favour of sunlight and
against useless objects.” 27
Catherine Bauer’s advocacy of modern
housing rested on social and technical
reform and her energies were focused
at the level of policy and government
agency. Others took a different tack,
primarily through the agency of the
press, to engender positive popular feelings
about the new forms of architecture.
English architect and critic Francis
Reginald Stevens Yorke became a champion
of modernism and brought its message
to a wider audience of architects
and patrons in Britain in the 1930s and
1940s. As the author of The Modern
House, first published in London in 1934,
and the founding secretary of the Modern
Architecture Research Group (MARS)
in Britain, he popularized modernity in
the United Kingdom, particularly its
appropriateness for the villa, or singlefamily
house. Yorke continued to write
about the house, updating it for postwar
readers. 28 Francis R.S. Yorke’s writings
for a number of British architectural
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George Th o m a s Kapelos > ANALYSis | ANALYSe
journals in the 1930s and 1940s brought
him into close contact with practising
architects. He understood that architects
who wished to explore new forms
of architecture could not use large commissions
as the focus for experimentation:
“Since the architect can gain real
experience of new construction only in
actually building work, he is most likely
to find in the villa the most easily accessible
unit for research.” 29
Born into the British upper class, but
not into wealth, and trained in architecture,
Francis R.S. Yorke turned to
writing as a means of economic survival
and “proving his credentials as a
modernist.” 30 Serving for many as the
first introduction to European Modernism,
The Modern House was drawn from
his contributions to the leading magazines
and reviews of the day, including
The Architectural Record, Architecture
Design and Construction, Building,
The Master Builder, and L’Architecture
d’aujourd’hui. 31 The Modern House was
so easily written and laid out, as Jeremy
Melvin stated, that “an impoverished,
inexperienced architect could turn to
The Modern House as a source book,
almost a religious text.” 32 Throughout
the 1930s Yorke continued as the advocate
of modernity through his own columns
in periodicals such as Architects’
Journal and Architectural Review.
Catherine Bauer and Francis R.S. Yorke
represented the two poles within which
the debate on modernism was framed:
the progressive and populist sentiment,
which argued for modern housing as a
social necessity, and the aesthetic experiment,
which saw it as a design expression
of the zeitgeist [spirit of the age]. Translated
into the North American context,
this dialectic was labelled as revolutionary
in both spatial and social terms. Typical
is the 1951 introduction to The Modern
House Today, written for American
readers by Katherine Morrow Ford and
Thomas H. Creighton:
A quiet revolution has taken place in
residential design in the last decade (which
deserved to be documented rather fully;
revolution, not evolution, because the
wrench has been violent, if usually polite)
[…] The revolt has done this: it has swept
away the need for thinking in static terms
of tightly enclosed, inward looking rooms;
and it has substituted the privilege of using
free, open, outward-looking space. This has
implied both a technical and an emotional
readjustment. 33
Through the designs of architects practising
in the USA, such as Hugh Stubbins,
Marcel Breuer, and Philip Johnson,
Katherine Morrow Ford and Thomas H.
Creighton detailed that revolution with
ample evidence, depicting eighty-five
residential designs of the period. The
houses were comfortable, spacious, open,
light-filled, and clearly contemporary in
approach and appearance. Nevertheless,
even though well underway, the revolution
remained to them incomprehensible.
“The odd thing about this revolution,”
they mused, “is that it has not been
widely or generally understood, despite
increasing attention to its results on the
part of the consumer press and […] the
professional journals.” 34
Their views were typical of post-war
writings on the architecture of domestic
space. They exuberantly promoted
a new form of housing that was taking
hold in the post-war marketplace
in North America in a long-anticipated
revolution. Nevertheless, in spite of
their acknowledgement of the role mass
media was playing in popularizing this
new form of design, they did not see
how the popular press was interpreting
and shaping public acceptance.
The Magazine, the (Female)
Reader, and the Advance
of the Modern Agenda:
Modernity or ‘Modified’
Modern?
The late nineteenth century witnessed
the publication of an unprecedented
number of mass-circulation titles in the
English-speaking world, which included
magazines whose primary concern and
focus was domesticity. 35 While the relationship
of the popular press to modernity
in general goes beyond the scope of
this investigation, certain aspects of the
topic are relevant here. Several genres of
magazines intersected in the domain of
interior design, including women’s consumer
titles, professional art and architecture
journals, and trade journals for
the building and furniture industries. 36
In the first half of the twentieth century,
a specific kind of journal evolved, which
mediated between the architectural profession,
predominantly male, and a clientele,
which was understood to be largely
female and credited with “the active role
in ‘producing’ the domestic interior as a
complex designed project.” 37
Throughout the twentieth century and
on national and international scales,
the magazine brought the representation
of designed objects into the reader’s
physical environment. Indeed, the popular
magazine became not only the means
for readers to engage with contemporary
ideas, but also the embodiment of
modernity, “a complex object, in many
respects the epitome of Baudelairean
modernity: ephemeral, fleeting and
contingent.” 38 Through reading about the
modern in architecture and design, the
consumer was primed and predisposed to
new modes of form and design. During
periods when resources were few, magazines
suggested that actual consumption
may not be necessary: modernity could
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George Th o m a s Kapelos > ANALYSis | ANALYSe
be performed simply by reading about
that consumption. 39
Canada was no exception. In 1958, in
a brief from the CMHC to the United
Nations on the state of housing in Canada,
an anonymous writer described the relationship
between the female consumer,
the magazine, and norms and attitudes
toward housing design in Canada:
[A]s hired domestic help is more expensive
and less tractable than mechanical aids
in household operation, housewives are
left alone to manage their domains with
machines and their infant children with
difficulty […] Norms of taste and behaviour
in Canadian residential areas, certainly
in suburban areas, are heavily influenced
by Canadian and American advertisers
of consumer goods and the leadership
given editorially in the weekly and monthly
magazines of this Continent. 40
A number of critics have extensively reevaluated
these norms of taste and behaviour,
which are integral to the creation of
the domestic realm, and have placed a
particular focus on the post-war suburb,
the interrelationship of media and magazine
reader, and the roles played by each
to shape the post-war suburban environment.
Men and women played multiple
roles in this world; the dynamics between
media images and reality as it was lived
were complex; and the impact on postwar
culture, although profound, was
neither straightforward nor predictable.
Recent scholarship has focused on the
interrelationship between designer, typically
the male architect, and his androgynous,
hermaphrodite client: the male
husband-client (wage earner and de facto
mortgage-reducer), and the female wifeclient
(homemaker and de facto domestic
stabilizer). Feminist research has focused
on the latter: the woman as reader, client,
and consumer. A summary of this research
follows, to shed light on the complexities
and nuances in the creation of the modern,
domestic realm.
Modernism anticipated an increased
participation of women in the design of
the modern home. The MARS group, for
example, included the appointment of
Elizabeth Denby as a housing consultant,
whose role was to effect the improvement
of domestic facilities. Her focus, however,
remained on spaces identified traditionally
as the domain of the female, most
notably the kitchen. 41 Rhodri Windsor
Liscombe suggests that such spaces were
a “‘fe-maled’ surrogate to male agency
and preference,” as kitchen designs were
instigated predominantly by male architects
who mobilized a knowledge base
derived primarily from male performance
in industry and the military. 42 Veronica
Strong-Boag confirms the gendered realm
of the suburb, which, she believes, supported
the notion that “women’s basic
satisfactions came through service to
others in the domestic sphere.” 43
But did women accept what the designers
were bringing upon them, and did they act
with one accord? Not necessarily. Joy Parr’s
study of Canadian homemakers, designers,
and manufacturers exposes the struggle
between designer and client in the first
two decades after the Second World
War. 44 The domestic ideal envisioned by
the designer did not always reflect the
realm of the housewife. Post-war women
did not blindly embrace modern tenets of
purity of form, functionalism, and machine
aesthetic, especially as they impacted the
kitchen, living room, and other spaces of
the domestic interior. Joy Parr suggests
that many women read the small scale
and practical plainness of modern, postwar
housing as cottage-like rather than
contemporary. Women, she contends, subverted
the modern ideal, and created their
own interpretation of modernity.
Throughout that period, the magazine
played an important and consistent role
in the life of the homemaker 45 and in the
establishment of norms and behaviours. 46
Valerie J. Korinek’s close reading of Chatelaine,
a publication of the Maclean Hunter
group that also produced the CH&G,
reveals that the magazine provided many
women an opportunity to challenge prevalent
assumptions about the home, their
roles in the family, and expected norms of
appropriate behaviour. 47 Rhodri Windsor
Liscombe’s analysis of Western Homes and
Living (WH&L), a popular shelter magazine
published in Vancouver for a western
Canadian audience, explores paternalistic
attitudes and the modernist domestic
agenda which he contends entrapped
women. 48 Valerie J. Korinek does not focus
in any detail on the relationship between
reader and specifics of the domestic interior.
Rather, her discussion centres on the
magazine’s social realm, its profound influence
on readers, and its importance in
shaping the feminist agenda of the 1950s
and 1960s. Women readers, she reveals,
were not mute or passive in their acceptance
of views presented by the magazine.
Chatelaine was widely and continuously
read, even when readers disagreed with
editorial stances, and its pages provided a
forum not only for information but also as
a basis for communication among women
across Canada. Women were active participants
in the shaping and reshaping of the
modernist agenda to fit their own particular
conditions.
The modernity of the house, anticipated
by Francis R.S. Yorke, advocated by Catherine
Bauer, and promoted by magazine
editors, did not go unchallenged and,
more importantly, was often transgressed
to suit the circumstances of the homebuyer
and homemaker. Joy Parr’s presentation
of the transgressive reading of modernity
takes shape in her discussion of the
furniture industry. In the chapter entitled
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George Th o m a s Kapelos > ANALYSis | ANALYSe
“Maple as Modern,” she contends that
modernism was not an aesthetic project,
but one of reconciliation and accommodation,
between the forces of the world of
the 1950s and the needs to address the
diverse pulls of family, financial exigency,
and comfort. By example, the restyling of
maple furniture in the late 1940s and 1950s
was a response to the conditions of the
modern home and family. It was “readily
recognizable, relatively invulnerable, and
inherently companionable.” 49 Rather than
being simply about change, modernism
was about making change amenable.
That kind of re-adaptation of modernity
is given a specific definition by David
Smiley in his exploration of the interrelationship
between ideas of the home and
the cultural apparatus through which the
home was represented. He identifies an
ambiguous relationship between popular
magazines and architectural journals
in their representation of modernity. 50 In
his survey of New York’s domestic culture
in the period immediately following the
Second World War, like Joy Parr, he identifies
two overlapping views of domestic
modernism, one based on aesthetic
production and the other socially driven.
The former, which he calls “productionbased
modernism,” looked to technology
to solve the housing problem. The latter,
or “socially-derived modernism,” believed
that modern living could be achieved in
a house of either traditional or modern
appearance. Socially-derived modernism,
David Smiley contends, stressed a life of
convenience and flexibility that was freed
of the aesthetic rigors of high modernism.
He labels that approach “modified modernism”
or “a new style from which bits
and pieces could be selected and combined
with other styles.” 51 Images of new
ways of living circulated by both popular
and professional magazine resulted in a
reformulation of the idea of the modern
house as “a sum of attributes and experiences—a
flexible space, a view through
an expanse of glass, efficient storage.”
Spurred by the domestic consumption
industry, the resulting “modified modern”
created “an elastic conception of
modernity that made it the functional
equivalent of a process of selection.” 52
In effect, the housing consumer was
allowed to choose aspects of modernity,
without necessarily having to ascribe
to the entire ideal. These “modernisms”
propelled the single-family home to the
centre of a post-war cultural debate, rendering
moot any single idea of how the
house should look. At the same time, the
potential for a multiplicity of forms and
ideas to coexist within the idea of the
modern house provided unprecedented
opportunities for architects and housing
providers to develop houses in a myriad
of forms and functional arrangements
to satisfy the growing demands of firsttime
homebuyers. It is in this milieu that
the activities of the CMHC can best be
explored and understood.
The State and Housing
Production in Canada
after 1945 53
With the end of the Second World War,
attention focused on the urgent issue of
housing. In 1947 the Canadian Welfare
Council summarized the situation:
The future health, vigour and stability of the
nation will depend greatly upon the housing
conditions under which the people live and
raise their children […] The opportunity
for every Canadian family to enjoy a
decent house and a healthy neighbourhood
environment should be a primary objective
of national policy. 54
The government acted quickly to address
the anticipated demands of Canadians
for new housing. In 1946 the CMHC was
established and charged with a number
of responsibilities including the administration
of the National Housing Act 1944,
whose mandate was both monetary and
social. 55 The CMHC enabled financing of
housing, including loans to prospective
homeowners and builders, and guarantees
to institutions and local governments
to support housing initiatives. A small
component focused on housing research
and community planning. 56
The subsequent impact of governmentsponsored
CMHC activity on the Canadian
housing industry has been well documented.
57 Its influence on the architectural
profession and design community
was to encourage design innovation to
facilitate housing production and provide
cost-saving opportunities in new housing.
58 While scant attention has yet to be
paid to the cultural value of the CMHC’s
activities on the design professions and to
Canadian design culture in general, 59 the
breadth of the CMHC’s agenda, embracing
design, pragmatic and socially idealistic
(and echoing the dialectic posed by
Bauer and Yorke), is suggested by David
Mansur, first president of the CMHC, in his
introduction to the CMHC’s first national
design competition: “Home building signifies
many things—a lasting source of
happiness, a kindly environment in which
to raise children, a closer tie with community
life, a new stake in the land.” 60
Almost immediately after its formation,
the CMHC expanded one aspect of its mandate
to embrace the promotion of contemporary
housing design with an emphasis
on the single-family home, a specific activity
that continued to the early 1970s. The
CMHC’s organizational model, supporting
that mandate, consisted of a centralized
administration with decentralized regional
offices and local branch offices. The latter
served local and regional constituencies,
providing information for prospective
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George Th o m a s Kapelos > ANALYSis | ANALYSe
work with community media and builders
to spread the word to consumers, suppliers,
and homebuilders.
The 1946 Canadian Small House
Competition
FIG. 4. CMHC, 1947, 67 Homes for Canadians: Attractive
House Plans designed especially for Canadian
requirements including prize winners
of the Canadian Small House Competition,
Ottawa, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation,
February, cover.
homebuyers, builders, and lending institutions.
The central administration, located
in Ottawa, had among its many responsibilities
the Housing Research and Community
Planning Group (HR&CPG), which
was charged with technical investigations,
planning research grants, educational
grants, and housing design.
Two architects figured prominently in that
group at its inception: Frank Nicolls (until
1946) and Sam Gitterman, who became
chief architect of the CMHC in 1946 and
continued on as senior advisor until 1965.
Sam Gitterman had graduated from the
McGill School of Architecture in 1935 and
had worked in the offices of Max Kalman
in Montreal before joining the Dominion
Housing Administration in the late 1930s.
Frank Nicolls was an American-trained
architect who had previously worked
for the US Federal Housing Administration.
Both came to their job primed with
FIG. 5. Canadian Small House Competition, Ontario Region,
second prize, J.C. Parkin, Toronto. The comment reads
“This design was carefully considered for first place
but the plumbing arrangements and the small size
of the kitchen and its general design characteristics
relegated it to second place. It has a very compact
and functional plan.”
Results of the 1946 Small House Design Competition,
published in JRAIC, January 1947, p. 14.
ambitions to meet the new agendas of
housing. According to Gitterman, Nicolls
“was enthusiastic about house design,
and some of the designs [they] worked
on in those days were the genesis of the
CMHC house-design program.” 61
The CMHC’s organizational structure paralleled
the development and promotion
of contemporary housing design at both
national and local levels. In Ottawa, at
the centralized national office, the idea
of promoting high standards of housing
design took shape. In 1948 approximately
seventy-seven thousand dollars were
devoted to “architectural investigations.”
By 1965 the CMHC was spending approximately
one and a half million dollars for
similar work, this time under the rubric
of “housing research and community
planning.” 62 While the central administration
addressed housing at a conceptual
level, it was left to the local agencies to
In 1946, in response to the pressing need
for post-war single-family housing, the
CMHC together with the Royal Architectural
Institute of Canada (RAIC) developed
an innovative program: the first “small
house competition […] to obtain housing
plans suitable to the varying needs
of Canada’s major regions.” 63 In addition
to the central problem stated by the competition
brief, the design of an affordable
house for a veteran and his family as well
as criteria of professionalism and cost, the
competition addressed geographic variations,
with prizes awarded to entries on a
regional basis. The program for this house
was not new, following that of the ‘Type
C’ house promoted by Wartime Housing
Limited (WHL), established to meet wartime
housing needs. 64
The importance both the CMHC and
the RAIC placed on that competition
is reflected in the composition of the
competition jury, which included individuals
prominent in Canadian architectural
circles. Professional advisor Harold
Lawson (Montreal) guided a jury consisting
of Humphrey Carver (Toronto),
Ernest Cormier (Montreal), L.R. Fairn
(Nova Scotia), William Gardiner (Vancouver),
L.J. Green (Winnipeg), Monica
McQueen (Winnipeg), and Bruce Riddell
(Hamilton), as well as Ernest Ingles
(London, Ontario), representing the
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. The
judges expressed the desire to promote
“novel and interesting designs for future
house construction.” 65 An astonishing
three hundred and thirty-one entries
were received and thirty-seven prizes
awarded. The winning entries supported
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George Th o m a s Kapelos > ANALYSis | ANALYSe
novelty and the jury report commented:
“it is apparent that we are moving away
from what is generally considered to be
a house of orthodox appearance.” 66 In
their choice of winning schemes, the jury
made it clear that the design of the small
house in the post-war years was clearly
the responsibility of the architect. The
jury believed that, given this competition,
“it would be possible to draw in the
practising architectural firms in greater
numbers.” 67 With regard to affordability
and build-ability, the jury reassured
the CMHC that “few of the best designs
would require careful supervision and
skilful craftsmanship for execution.” 68
The CMHC published the results of the
competition in early 1947, along with the
jury report and thirty other house plans,
in 67 Homes for Canadians (fig. 4). The
media was quick to report on the competition.
The January 1947 JRAIC published
the results, including the jury report and
images of all houses, nineteen pages of
house descriptions, and drawings and verbatim
texts of competition entries (fig. 5).
In February 1947, the CH&G similarly featured
the housing competition. “Canada’s
Prize-winning Houses” was the lead on a
six-page spread that featured one house
from each region (fig. 6).
While the housing competition clearly
generated considerable response from
the design community and design press,
the level of media reportage was, at best,
cut-and-paste. Nonetheless, the report
signalled the emerging synergy between
the official agency for housing in Canada
and housing’s unofficial promoters, the
professional journals and glossy magazines,
that would continue well into the
next decade. The national housing body
and popular press came to rely upon each
other, working together to make the idea
of the affordable, straightforward modern
house a practical reality for Canadians.
FIG. 6. Pictured here is the first prize for the Maritimes region by architects G. Burniston and J. Storey, Toronto. The editors
wrote: “Whether you plan to build soon or not, you as a homeowner will be interested in the results of Canada’s
first postwar architectural competition […] The plans make interesting study as they represent […] current thinking
on better small house design.” The article also featured a number of prize-winning designs and reproduced verbatim
from the competition results.
“Canada’s Prize-Winning Houses,” CH&G, February 1947.
CMHC Pattern Books and Guides
to Housing Design
With the success of the first housing
design competition, the CMHC turned
to the production of pattern books, an
established format for the rapid dissemination
of architectural ideas, in order
to place house designs in the hands of
builders and prospective home owners. 69
As with earlier books of house designs,
the CMHC produced a series of booklets
illustrating houses for which working
drawings would be available, in a service
made “through the co-operation of
Canadian architects.” 70 Produced on a
regular basis in English and French, these
books were distributed free of charge
through CMHC regional offices. The
range of house designs all conformed to
building standards for houses financed
under the National Housing Act 1944. To
ensure quality control, the Corporation
made working drawings available for
purchase to builders and prospective
homebuyers.
To keep up with the demand for new
house designs and to continue to expand
the availability of house plans and styles,
the CMHC invited architects to participate
in the project. From designs submitted by
architects, the Corporation selected those
it considered most suitable and paid a fee
of one thousand dollars to the architect
for a complete set of working drawings
developed from an accepted design. For
that sum, the Corporation purchased
rights to the use of the drawing with the
architect’s name remaining on all published
forms of the drawings. Further,
the architect retained ownership of the
copyright of each design sold publicly and
received a royalty of three dollars from
the Corporation for each set of working
drawings sold (fig. 7).
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FIG. 7. Original working drawings, ink on vellum, house 294, designed by Affleck, Desbarats,
Dimakopoulos, Lebensold, Michaud and Sise (Montreal), 1958, as sold to builders and
homebuyers by CMHC. This is a typical example of the architectural plans prepared in
English and French and sold to builders and prospective home owners for $10 per set.
Gitterman, S.A., 1986, “An Old Challenge” in Housing a Nation…, Ottawa,
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
FIG. 8. This publication was the first of many regular pattern books produced by the CMHC
from the late 1940s into the 1970s.
CMHC, 1949, Small House Designs: Bungalows, Ottawa, Canada Mortgage
and Housing Corporation, cover
To assess designs submitted, the CMHC
established a selection committee, comprised
of a representative of the RAIC as
well as the CMHC chief architect, members
of the Advisory Group, and two
other persons from the CMHC’s Housing
Design and Information divisions.
Architects were required to present their
sketch designs on standard letter-size
paper, including plans and elevations,
and, to ensure anonymity and permit a
blind review, the name of the design firm
was omitted from submissions, except for
cover documentation.
Each design presented in the housing
books usually showed plans, elevations,
and a perspective drawing. Other information
included CMHC designation number,
name and locale of architect, house
type, and square footage. Booklets of
house plans were published regularly as
follows (fig. 8): 71
• 1947 67 Homes for Canadians;
• 1949 Small House Designs
– Bungalows;
• 1949 West Coast Designs; 72
• 1952 Small House Designs:
Bungalows,
1 ½ Storey,
2 Storey;
• 1954 Small House Designs;
• 1954 DND [Department of
National Defence] Small House
Designs;
• 1957 Small House Designs;
• 1958 Small House Designs;
• 1965 Small House Designs;
• 1971 House Designs.
The CMHC also produced a range of supportive
material, aimed at the architect,
planner, builder, developer, and client, as
well as a series of technical papers they
had presented at conferences and forums
on housing in Canada. Technical papers
included: 73
• 1954 Principles of Small House
Grouping;
• 1964 Choosing a House Design
(updated in 1972).
Other publications available offered
information directed at the consumer on
how to read house plans, and considerations
for prospective homeowners on
selecting the house design best suited to
their needs (fig. 9).
It is estimated that from its inception
until the program was discontinued in
the 1970s, the CMHC House Plan Division
provided Canadian first-time homebuyers
with approximately five hundred different
house designs to choose from, all of
which met national housing standards and
were therefore eligible for low-interest,
low-cost financing. While new plans were
continually being added, the majority of
plans were based on designs produced in
the initial decade of the program.
The process of soliciting designs from
architects was a major boon to the profession,
particularly for young architects,
as the commissioning and royalty process
provided both one-time and ongoing
income, as well as the opportunity to
have commissioned work built and an
exposure to a national audience. A review
of names of those involved in the pro-
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FIG. 9. The CMHC regularly issued publications offering assistance to the consumer on considerations
for selecting the house design best suited to their needs.
CMHC, 1954, “How To Read Floor Plan Sketches,” Choosing a House Design,
Ottawa, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, p. 8.
FIG. 10. Designs 49-20 and 49-40. House forms continued in a mix of traditional and contemporary.
CMHC designs 1949-20 and 1949-40 demonstrate a marked contrast While
both are one-storey two-bedroom bungalows, design 1949-20 shows a gable-roofed
massing, with traditional vertical openings and an octagonal window lighting the vestibule.
Design 1949-40, by contrast, is much bolder with flat roof, horizontal windows,
and large overhanging eaves.
CMHC, 1949, Small House Designs – Bungalows, Ottawa, Canada Mortgage
and Housing Corporation.
cess reveals a roster of architects whose
careers would flourish into the later decades
of the twentieth century. According
to Sam Gitterman, “architects were commissioned
to prepare plans, which sold
for ten dollars each in those days, mainly
to people who wanted to build their own
small houses. Sales were so brisk some of
the architects made a substantial amount
of money from their modest royalties.” 74
The CMHC: Setting a ‘Modern’ Agenda
The CMHC’s praise of contemporary
design, as voiced by the first design
jury, resulted in a shift from traditional
to non-traditional designs for housing. In
keeping with David Smiley’s proposition
of a ‘modified modern,’ house forms
continued in a mix of traditional and
contemporary. CMHC designs 1949-20
and 1949-40 demonstrate a marked
contrast (fig. 10). While both are onestorey
two-bedroom bungalows, design
1949-20 shows a gable-roofed massing,
with traditional vertical openings and
an octagonal window lighting the vestibule.
Design 1949-40, by contrast, is
much bolder with flat roof, horizontal
windows, and large overhanging eaves.
Traditional designs persisted, and were
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FIG. 12. CMHC, 1949, West Coast Designs, Ottawa,
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation,
cover.
FIG. 13. Bird’s eye view. House BC-1, Fred Brodie, architect,
Vancouver, 1178 square feet.
CMHC, 1949, West Coast Designs, Canada
Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Ottawa.
FIG. 11. Design 54-316, Henry Fliess, architect, Toronto, 1345
square feet.
CMHC, 1954, Small House Designs / Two-storey
and 1½-storey houses, Ottawa, Canada
Mortgage and Housing Corporation, p. 34.
always popular in the marketplace, but
contemporary designs continued to
make inroads.
While the CMHC actively promoted modernity,
the homebuilding industry took a
more conservative approach. Established
in 1943, the National Home Builders Association
(NHBA), in questions of style and
the appropriateness of the modern for
their anticipated post-war clientele, professed
the belief that average Canadians
wanted traditional materials and forms for
their housing. Modernity, they believed,
was relegated to the equipment and
technology of the home, which included
labour-saving devices and new materials.
75 Although that attitude persisted,
as the demand for housing continued to
grow, experimentation occurred. New
developments such as Wildwood in Winnipeg,
Applewood Acres west of Metropolitan
Toronto, and Don Mills in Toronto,
comprised a number of dwelling types,
FIG. 14. Design 58-294, Affleck, Desbarats, Dimakopoulos, Lebensold, Michaud and Sise (Montreal), 870 square feet.
CMHC, 1958, Small House Designs, Ottawa, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
responding to the new design model. 76 By
1954, in CMHC literature, the traditional
house remained only in form. Design
54-316, by architect Henry Fliess (Toronto),
presents a one-and-a-half-storey threebedroom
house, with a modest free plan
of space flowing between living-dining
room and kitchen (fig. 11).
Also influential was the CMHC’s consideration
of regionalism in housing design,
with a particular emphasis on contemporary,
modern forms. In 1949 the CMHC produced
West Coast House Designs (fig. 12).
Prepared by Zoltan Kiss in consultation
with Fred Lasserre, director of the School
of Architecture at the University of British
Columbia, the publication featured the
works of twelve Vancouver and Victoria
architects, including Ralph Cole, Semmens
and Simpson, and Jocelyn Davidson. Plan
BC-1, designed by architect Fred Brodie,
presents a one-level, one thousand one
hundred and seventy-eight square foot,
three-bedroom bungalow, complete with
carport. The accompanying perspective
line illustration depicts the building in a
quintessential west coast setting, with
forested slopes and mountain views in
the distance (fig. 13).
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The roster of architects whose designs
were purchased and promoted by the
CMHC underscores the extent of the
close relationship between the CMHC
and the profession. The 1958 publication
of Small House Designs contained fiftytwo
plans, arranged by type (bungalow,
split-level, two-storey), number of bedrooms,
and area. Plan 58-294, prepared
by architects Affleck, Desbarats, Dimakopoulos,
Lebensold, Michaud and Sise
(Montreal), is typical of the house plans
developed for 1958: dimension twentynine
by thirty feet, with an attached
carport, the gable-fronted house was
raised off the ground providing space in
the future for a living room in the basement.
Three bedrooms occupied the rear
of the house, while the front was shared
by entry, living-dining, and open kitchen.
Services of stair, bathroom, and heating
occupied the centre of the plan (fig. 14).
The plans demonstrate a subtle shift in
space planning from the earlier CMHC
house plans: more square footage, the
integration of car and house, and greater
separation between parent and children’s
bedrooms, and indicate an easing in tight
space-to-cost restrictions and greater
availability of consumer financing.
By the late 1950s, the tentative relationship
between the profession and
the CMHC, initiated in 1946 particularly
through the RAIC, had solidified. Not only
did the CMHC provide newly-established
architects with commissions and ongoing
royalties, its promotion of modern designs,
innovation in construction, and use of new
materials ensured that the housing market
would be notable for progressive, forward-looking
thought and action. What
was the impetus of this ideology? How did
the CMHC come to embrace this approach?
Who championed this change, both within
the professions and the general public?
The answer can be found in the professional
and popular press of the day.
The Magazine
and Canadian Housing
Production after 1945
In tone, editorial content, and presentation,
the JRAIC and CH&G were influential
in promoting the modern house in the
decade following the Second World War.
While the professional journal served to
disseminate ideas to current practitioners,
the popular press was critical in making
this new form of housing acceptable and
even desirable.
The Journal of the Royal Architectural
Institute of Canada: Modern Housing
as a Social Necessity and Design
Imperative
The linkage between the CMHC and
the profession was particularly effected
through a close relationship with the
RAIC. The RAIC participated actively
in the selection of house designs and
architects, and Institute members profited
from the selection of their designs
for inclusion in the CMHC plan booklets.
This close partnership between the government
bureaucracy involved with housing
production and professional architect
was mutually advantageous, although,
within the profession, the ways in which
the challenges were to be addressed were
debated extensively. The variety of opinions
and approaches initially advocated
by post-war architects represented the
split in the profession, between avantgarde
and more conservative elements.
By the end of the 1950s, however, modern
forms and ideas prevailed, particularly as
a new generation of architects, trained
with modern sensibilities, entered the
profession in large numbers. 77
Between 1945 and 1960, the JRAIC
devoted approximately ten percent of
its editorial space to various aspects of
housing, including editorials on housing
design, feature articles on new house
designs, and discussions about products
unique to housing. Typically one issue per
year was devoted to the subject, with an
emphasis initially on single-family housing
and then later in the 1950s on related
issues, such as community planning and
high-rise construction. 78
In an editorial in the September 1946
issue of the JRAIC, Charles David, RAIC
president, proclaimed that “housing
is Canada’s primary post-war building
problem […] It is the responsibility of
Canadian architects to demonstrate to
the public any solution of this problem
that is practicable and possible.” 79
While the need for housing was clear,
the form that the new housing would
take was not. Writing in the July 1945
JRAIC, Joseph Hudnut, dean of Harvard’s
Graduate School of Design, made a case
that the modern house must acknowledge
precedence and, most importantly,
not impose the wills of technology and
structure on the inhabitant or, in his
words, “the wonder and drama of our
inventions.” 80 He trod carefully, neither
opposing contemporary house design
nor advocating for it. Rather, he relied
upon the insistence that the contemporary
house embraced the possibilities of
interior and exterior space: “of all the
inventions of modern architecture, the
new space is, it seems to me, the most
likely to attain a deep eloquence.” 81
Joseph Hudnut’s equivocation is reflected
in the pages of the JRAIC where the
debate between the avant- and the rearguard
played itself out in the first years
after the war. Initially, most houses featured
in the JRAIC were traditional in
form and plan. Typical is the house of
A.R. Ferguson located in Gravenhurst
(Ontario) and designed by Page and
Steele Architects, published in the July
1945 JRAIC (fig. 15). Overall the form is
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FIG. 15. House of A.R. Ferguson, Gravenhurst,
Ontario, Page and Steele Architects. | JRAIC,
July 1945, p. 142.
FIG. 16. Rich’s Progressive Architecture Competition: A Realistic House for a Family in Georgia. Watson Balharrie,
Ottawa, second prizewinner. | JRAIC, July 1946, p. 164-165.
neo-colonial, with trim eaves, a central
chimney dominating the composition,
but in a modern approach to the interior,
with a flow of space between living and
dining areas. One year later, the JRAIC
featured an award-winning entry from a
competition in the USA for the design of
a house for a man with three thousand
dollars annual income, co-sponsored by
Progressive Architecture magazine and
the Rich Company, a Georgia department
store. The design of Watson Balharrie,
Ottawa, second prizewinner, featured a
two-volume flat-roofed structure, with a
separation of living and sleeping areas
and an outdoor room (fig. 16).
But changes were coming quickly. By
1947, Joseph Hudnut’s argument about
the new space of the house found evidence
in the published “House in Rosedale”
by architect Gordon Adamson,
with landscape by the Howard and Lorrie
Dunnington-Grubb (fig. 17). With a lowpitched
hipped roof, this Toronto house
was organized around a living-dining
room that extended along the back of
the house and opened directly into the
garden at the rear, making indoor and
outdoor living rooms into one continuous
space. In June 1947, the entire issue
of the JRAIC, dedicated to “Domestic
Architecture in British Columbia”
(fig. 18), promoted contemporary design,
highlighting climatic conditions and site
opportunities that made the new indooroutdoor
living spaces featured in these
houses unique to their setting and locale.
Fifteen houses were presented, many
designed by young architects for their
families. The published “House of Mr.
and Mrs. R.A.D. Berwick, West Vancouver”
is typical, where the young Berwick
demonstrates his use of new materials,
engagement with the site, and overall
promotion of modern tenets for the
single-family house (fig. 19). Without
a doubt, this issue of the JRAIC, which
featured the unique possibilities of west
coast design, played an important role in
encouraging the CMHC to issue its West
Coast Designs booklet two years later.
Compared to CH&G and other popular
magazines of the day, the JRAIC’s reportage
of the small house remained
restrained and focused on issues of tectonics,
design, and siting (fig. 20). As predicted
by Francis R.S. Yorke, magazines
such as the JRAIC increasingly became
the vehicle where young professionals,
eager to make their names, sought publication
of their houses. The August 1956
JRAIC featured two works by architects
for their families: the Earnest J. Smith
House (Winnipeg) and the Roy Jessiman
House (West Vancouver) (figs. 21-22).
The November 1952 JRAIC featured as its
cover story a house designed by architect
A.J. (Jim) Donohue for Mr. J.S. Kennedy
in Edmonton (figs. 23-25). 82 Increasingly,
in these articles, text was minimal
and the printed image prominent, with
black-and-white photographs depicting
the interior of the houses, and drawing
attention to the relationship of spaces,
the use of materials, and the range of
modern furnishings appropriate to these
modern houses. Photographs were in
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FIG. 17. “House in Rosedale,” Gordon Adamson, architect,
Howard and Lorrie Dunnington-Grubb,
Landscape Architect. | JRAIC, March 1947, p. 83.
FIG. 18. “Domestic Architecture in British Columbia,”
cover. | JRAIC, June 1947.
FIG. 19. “House of Mr. and Mrs R.A.D. Berwick, West
Vancouver. R.A.D. Berwick, architect.” | JRAIC,
June 1947, p. 181.
the architectural mode, rarely showing
people in spaces, to ensure that the
reader’s eye remained focused on form,
space, and materiality.
The JRAIC made efforts to address the
questions of the architectural interior.
The August 1947 Journal (fig. 26) invited
H.D. Deacon, manager of the Simpson’s
Department Store Interior Decorating
Department in Toronto, to contribute to
the magazine. Deacon pinpointed the
issue of the
perennial problem of architect-interior
decorator relations […] A great many
architects still look upon an interior
decorator as someone who will either
persuade their clients to buy a lot of
elaborate and unsuitable antique furniture
or else as a person who will embellish the
place to such an extent as to leave it looking
like the backdrop to an indecent ballet. 83
What followed were a number of pages
featuring installations of furniture in contemporary
houses. In most depictions, the
house interiors took advantage of traditional
furniture displayed in updated settings.
In one instance only plan and image
were coordinated, although no discussion
took place to demonstrate the means by
which interior furnishings supported the
architectural idea (fig. 27).
The Canadian Homes and Gardens
Magazine: Modifying the Modern for
the Canadian Consumer
While the CMHC was actively promoting
housing design across Canada, and the
professional press reported on the design
activities of architects eager to present
their modern schemes to their peers, it
was in the popular press that full expression
of the possibility that the new and
modern, single-family house was explored
and eventually made accessible and real.
The representation of new affordable
forms of housing in popular press showed
the relationship between mass media and
housing production, and the importance
FIG. 20. In the period between 1945 and 1960, the
JRAIC devoted approximately 10% of its
editorial space to some aspects of housing,
including editorials on housing design, feature
articles on new house designs, and discussions
about products unique to housing.
Typically one issue per year was devoted
to housing, with an emphasis initially on
single-family housing and then later in the
1950s on related issues, such as community
planning and high-rise construction. | JRAIC,
September, 1952, cover.
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FIG. 21. House of Earnest J. Smith, architect, Winnipeg.
Exterior and interior views. | JRAIC, August 1956,
p. 301.
FIG. 22. House of Roy Jessiman, architect, West
Vancouver. Ground floor plan and garden
elevation. | JRAIC, August 1956, p. 300.
FIG. 23. J.S. Kennedy House, Edmonton, A.J. Donohue,
architect. | JRAIC, November 1952, cover.
FIG. 24. J.S. Kennedy House, Edmonton, A.J. Donohue,
architect. Views of dressing room and master
bedroom, and dining room. | JRAIC, November
1952, p. 336.
FIG. 25. J.S. Kennedy House, Edmonton, A.J. Donohue,
architect. Views of living room and entry,
and patio off dining room. | JRAIC, November
1952, p. 337.
FIG. 26. “Interior Features: Residential,” JRAIC, June
1947, cover.
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FIG. 27. “Live,” “Cook,” Suggestions on Interior Design, presented by H.D. Deacon, manager, Simpson’s Department
Store Interior Decorating Department (Toronto). | JRAIC, August 1947, p. 267, 274.
FIG. 28. This article included two houses by James Murray
and one by Henry Fliess, which both appeared previously
in CMHC house plan pattern books.
“Good Architecture Comes to the Builder’s
House,” CH&G, November 1954, p. 68.
that post-war shelter magazines played
in selling the virtues of single-family,
suburban living to the average Canadian,
thereby establishing this mode as the
Canadian norm and standard.
This impact of the popular press is best
illustrated by the CH&G, Canada’s primary,
national English-language popular
shelter magazine published by Maclean
Hunter in Toronto. After Chatelaine, a
sister publication at Maclean Hunter, the
CH&G had the largest circulation of any
magazine of its type in English-speaking
Canada. In 1951 the CH&G reached one
hundred thousand households or approximately
two percent of Canada’s population.
84 While such circulation numbers are
not reliable indicators of a magazine’s
readership (magazine circulation and
readership numbers are not necessarily
linked), within English-speaking Canada
the CH&G had a significant share of readers
of shelter magazines. 85
Founded in 1924 by Senator Rupert
Davies, owner of the Kingston British
Whig and father to author Robertson
Davies, the CH&G was originally designed
to capture a range of women readers,
reaching five thousand subscribers in
its first year. In 1925, J.B. Maclean purchased
the CH&G. The publishers chose
not only to keep the magazine but to
expand their reach to women readers
by creating Mayfair magazine in 1927
and purchasing Chatelaine magazine in
1928. Mayfair was “intended to interpret
the life and interests of Canadians
in their most gracious moods.” 86 The
CH&G spoke to women about their
everyday living environments, while
Chatelaine addressed a wider range of
women’s matters, including health and
family, as well as the home. 87 It was
this trio of “women’s magazines” that
directed and reflected the thoughts
and desires of a generation of Canadian
women through depression, war, and
into the post-war era. In 1951, the CH&G
absorbed another consumer magazine,
Your House and Garden, becoming the
pre-eminent beacon for the promotion
to English-speaking readers in Canada
of modern housing in the 1950s and
early 1960s. 88
The war had not been kind to Canadian
consumer magazines and in 1945,
with circulation flagging, Jean McKinley
replaced the magazine’s long-time
editor, J. Herbert Hodgins. Under this
new lead, the CH&G was reconfigured to
cash in on the post-war housing boom.
John Caulfield Smith was appointed
architectural editor and attention
focused on house planning, design, and
education, directed at new consumers
and the post-war boom. From the end
of the Second World War to its demise in
1962, the CH&G stood out as the champion
for single-family housing that was
sensible, practical, and modern.
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In contrast to the JRAIC, the CH&G
avoided discussing political and production
issues of housing. 89 It rather found its
focus in three very distinct areas: helping
the consumer gain confidence about making
the right housing choices under the
rubric of “planning and budget,” helping
the consumer make decisions about house
design (“design”), and guiding the consumer
in the more traditional area of the
magazine, the choice of interior furnishings
and fittings that would be in keeping
with planning, budget, and design
(“the home”). In essence and using current
terminology, the CH&G presented an
approach to housing as “lifestyle.”
FIG. 29. This article reproduced CMHC design 58-294, by Affleck, Desbarats, Dimakopoulos, Lebensold, Michaud and Sise, Architects
(Montreal), which had appeared in the 1958 CMHC publication, Small House Design.
“Five Designs for the Forgotten Buyer,” CH&G, February 1959.
FIG. 30. “Planning the Small Home.” CH&G, May 1944,
cover.
FIG. 31. The editors write, “Economy is built into this lowcost
home, yet there’s ample small-family space
in its layout. And you’ve a choice of plan, with or
without basement.”
“A Two-plan Family House,” CH&G, November
1952.
The Maclean Hunter machinery did not
rely on the CMHC material for magazine
editorial content. While many of the architects
who sold plans to the CMHC were
also featured in the pages of the CH&G,
only three instances correlate CMHC plans
and houses featured in the CH&G. First
was a report on the 1947 competition,
which produced images from the competition
that were also reproduced identically
in the JRAIC. Second, the November
1954 report in the CH&G, “Good architecture
comes to the builder’s house,”
included two houses by James Murray
and one by Henry Fliess, which had both
appeared previously in the CMHC annual
house plans (fig. 28). Third, one house,
which appeared in the 1958 CMHC publication
Small House Design as House 294,
designed by Affleck, Desbarats, Dimakopoulos,
Lebensold, Michaud and Sise
(Montreal), appeared in the February
1959 CH&G (fig. 29). The article focused on
housing for “house hunters in the lower
income range” and provided examples
of housing for “forgotten buyers,” those
families with an average annual income
of four thousand six hundred dollars. 90
While few direct linkages are in evidence,
it was by indirect means that the CH&G
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George Th o m a s Kapelos > ANALYSis | ANALYSe
FIG. 32. Two plan options were presented, which allowed for two or three bedrooms, with or without basement.
“A Two-Plan Family House,” CH&G, November 1952.
became a successful agent in providing
the means for new consumers to see themselves
as actual owners and occupiers of
the new form of housing being promoted
by government and the professions, and
the concomitant lifestyle it offered. That
connection was accomplished through corollary
advice on planning, budgeting, and
home furnishing, advice whose content
and tone moderated as the consumer’s
anxieties shifted from finding basic housing
to creating a welcoming domestic
environment in the new home.
Given the scarcity of resources at the
end of the war and the consumer mindset
from the Depression of the 1930s,
the CH&G initially advocated that readers
take the time to plan their houses.
Typical is the cover story from the May
1944 issue entitled “Planning the Small
Home,” which lays out the possibilities
of housing in a post-war Canada (fig. 30).
Readers are drawn to consider the dreams
of Canadian servicemen, writing to their
wives and sweethearts at home:
What I want when I get back is a little home
somewhere outside the city where we can
raise our own fruit and vegetables […] We
don’t want anything big […] let’s keep it small
and simple enough to enable you to look after
the youngsters […] a house where we can
have more fun that we’ve ever had before. 91
The composite picture presented by the
CH&G is low-density, suburban, owneroccupied,
modestly-priced (estimated at
four thousand five hundred dollars for the
Toronto area), built with technologicallyadvanced
materials and methods (such as
dry construction and fibre board), free of
decorative treatment, and designed to
be energy conscious. The interior is presented
in what the magazine termed “the
contemporary idiom.” “Amazing, isn’t it,
how many attractive convenient groupings
can be fitted into the living-dining
area of this compact cottage,” the editors
proclaim. 92 The interior has a complete
colour scheme, is fully furnished, and merchandizes
design features, such as “dishes
in Swedish design,” all presented through
sketches prepared by the Interior Decorating
Bureau of Eaton’s College Street Store
in Toronto.
The theme of planning for efficient
design continued for the next ten years.
Articles such as “A Two Plan Family
House” offered two floor plans, a halfdozen
economy features, and a number
of space-saving ideas, including the possibility
of a basement for storage and
FIG. 33. Bird’s eye perspective and plan. A CH&G Select
Home (no. 4) by Vancouver designer E.J. Watkins is
featured. “The house provides 1380 square feet in
an efficient, compact layout, including a central utility
room, lit by clerestory windows.”
“This House Gets Extra Space Without a
Basement,” CH&G, June 1956.
built-in storage spaces (figs. 31-32). 93 In
“This House Gets Extra Space without a
Basement,” a CH&G Select Home (no. 4)
featured work by Vancouver designer
E.J. Watkins. The revolutionary idea of
a house with no basement allowed for
one thousand three hundred and eighty
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George Th o m a s Kapelos > ANALYSis | ANALYSe
FIG. 34. The article proclaims: “With its good-sized rooms,
its built ins and its feelings of warmth, this home is
a good example of contemporary Canadian design
tailored to fit family needs.”
“Good Use of Space Here,” CH&G, December
1951, p. 34.
square feet in an efficient, compact layout,
including a central utility room, lit by
clerestory windows (fig. 33). 94
As houses using modern plans were built,
the CH&G was able to present completed
schemes that had only been envisioned in
1944. In “Good Use of Space Here,” R.D.
Steers’s house near Ottawa (Victor Belcourt,
architect) explicitly connected the
application of modern design principles
to the realization of the ideal lifestyle
(fig. 34):
With a young son of seven, Mr. Steers’ love
of gardening and Mrs Steers’ fondness for
the outdoors, a move to the country was
only natural […] Three miles from downtown
Ottawa […] they found a beautiful two-acre
lot with a view of the Rideau River. A glance
at the plans and photographs […] shows
how [the architect] used the sloping site and
view to establish an open type of planning so
appropriate to family life today. 95
FIG. 35. Designed by William Lyon Somerville, the house design
was based—according to the editors—on the
elements of a home “our readers have asked about
and suggested most frequently.”
The “Help-less House for a Family of Four,”
CH&G, February 1945, cover.
The magazine’s formula for directing
their reader to the contemporary, and
thereby directing tastes and preferences,
was created by means of clever engagement
with the client at the level of planning
and design. In February 1945, as the
outcome of the Second World War was
becoming certain, the magazine looked
brightly into the future. The “Help-less
House for a Family of Four,” designed by
architect William Lyon Somerville, was
based, according to the editors, on the elements
of a home “our readers have asked
about and suggested most frequently” 96
(figs. 35-36). The scheme was presented as
a montage, which included the following
wish list from magazine readers:
• it satisfies the desires of a couple in
Vancouver for an “open plan for the livingdining
area,”
• for a family of four in Ontario we designed
for their two children a bedroom that could
easily be divided in two,
FIG. 36. “This is the House That You Built,” CH&G,
February 1945, p. 17.
• this fell in with the wishes of a family
near Montreal who wanted the same
construction for bedroom-into-guest
rooms,
• a returned soldier caused us to decide how
to make the living room turn its back on
the north wind and provide large doubleglazed
windows to give the always-outdoor
feeling,
• and so it went,
• the house was a cross section of what are
readers are asking for. 97
The editors ingeniously presented the
plans as a kit of parts, with cut-outs for
readers to assemble. “In presenting this
home,” they asserted, “it occurred to
us that you would have fun putting it
together” 98 (figs. 37A-E). The project continued
to be featured in the magazine into
the spring of 1945. A ready-made landscape
plan, designed by Frances Steinhoff
from the Canadian Society of Landscape
Architects (CSLA), was added to the kit
of parts, along with two alternative suggestions
for interior decorating by the
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George Th o m a s Kapelos > ANALYSis | ANALYSe
T. Eaton Company and Robert Simpson
Company (figs. 38-39).
The CH&G kept pace with the shifts in the
consumer’s mindset following the end of
the Second World War. Anxieties around
finding housing gave way to detailed
attention on the design of the domestic
realm. By 1948 Canadian housing production
had begun in earnest. According to
Clayton Research Associates,
the production of single-family homes
expanded rapidly in the early post-war
years and reached nearly 83,000 units in
1948, more than double the number three
years earlier. More than three out of four
homes built in the late 1940s were singlefamily
units (almost all were single-detached
homes). The number of single family starts
declined in 1951 to 59,000 units, but then
recorded solid year-over-year gains reaching
86,000 units by 1954. 99
Aimed at the women of the house and
detailing how a family could realize its
housing dreams, the pages of the CH&G
FIG. 37. Instructions and four pages of cut-outs.
“How to Assemble the ‘Help-less’ House,” CH&G, February 1945, p. 20, 22-24.
reflected the rush to build. One of the
most telling articles produced by the
CH&G during the initial years after the
war was “How the Morrisons Manage:
to budget, build and furnish,” an April
1948 cover story in the same helpful
tone as the “Help-less house,” but with
a pragmatic focus on budget, construction,
and implementation (fig. 40). 100 In
collaboration with architect E.C.S. Cox
and the Housing Research Section of
the Manufacturer’s Life Insurance Company,
the editors of the CH&G discussed
costs, construction, materials, space
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George Th o m a s Kapelos > ANALYSis | ANALYSe
FIG. 38. “Garden for the ‘Help-less’ House,” CH&G, March 1945.
FIG. 41. “How the Morrisons Manage... To Budget,
Build and Furnish,” CH&G, April 1948, p. 31.
tic skill in a fully-equipped up-to-date
kitchen; she listens to her husband’s relay
of the affairs of commerce in an end-ofday
living room chat; she undertakes the
rituals or the boudoir and prepares for
bed (figs. 42A-C). This article was published
just as the first batch of plans of
newly-designed homes was being made
available across Canada by the CMHC
through its regional and branch offices
in 1948.
FIG. 39. “Interiors for the ‘Help-less’ House,” CH&G,
May 1945.
had a complete breakdown of costs for
furniture, appliances, and finishes, and
even suggested the ways in which the
fictitious Mrs. Morrison would realize the
dreams of a modern housewife in her
own home: she demonstrates her domesplanning,
interiors, and by means of a
clever correlation between oblique plan
and photograph, translated layout into
reality (fig. 41). The focus was liveability,
with particular attention paid to the
woman of the house. Each room also
FIG. 40. “How the Morrisons Manage… To Budget,
Build and Furnish,” CH&G, April 1948, cover.
A second and equally important aspect
of the CH&G editorial philosophy was the
sensitization of the consumer toward the
new architectural form, modernism, as it
was being developed in schemes promulgated
by the CMHC and explored in the
professional journals. In the pages of the
CH&G, the modification of modernism, as
suggested by David Smiley and Joy Parr,
is clear. “How New is Modern?” proposes
to “set the picture straight” by advocating
that “modern is a state of mind.” Modern
is transmuted into “the desire to get the
maximum value and satisfaction in house
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FIG. 42. By correlating oblique plan and photograph, the editors translate layout into reality. The focus is liveability, with particular attention paid to the woman of the house. Each room also has a complete
breakdown of costs for furniture, appliances, and finishes, and even suggests the ways in which the fictitious Mrs. Morrison would realize the dreams of a modern housewife in her own home.
“How the Morrisons Manage... To Budget, Build and Furnish,” CH&G, April 1948, p. 24, 26, 27.
building by using the best materials and
methods available regardless of period” 101
(fig. 43). Plans and elevations showing
what would soon become the suburban
norm of a two- or three-bedroom house
with attached garage support this formfollows-function
argument: “The house is
a splendid example of modern design. The
predominant impression is one of horizontality,
and the low-pitched roof with its
overhanging eaves plays an important part
in creating this effect.” 102
However, just as the architectural profession
struggled to fully embrace the modern
as witnessed in the pages of the JRAIC,
the CH&G continued the debate between
traditional and modern maintaining the
issue’s currency. In May 1950, two houses
are compared: “The Brooks-Hills Wanted
Traditional,” designed by architect
W.G. Armstrong, is contrasted with “The
Yolles Proved a Point,” designed by architect
Samuel Devor (figs. 44-45). Typically,
the CH&G takes a moderating stance,
claiming that “[the juxtaposition] proves
our contentions that modern design can fit
into a traditional setting without offending
either the eye or the neighbours.” 103
From Magazine Reader to
Post-war Homeowner
Within five years of the first house plans
being made available through CMHC
offices, Canadians were well entrenched
in their new homes. Based on census data,
four hundred and fifty-eight thousand
single-family units were added to the
stock of Canadian housing in the period
1941-1951, and an additional seven hundred
and twenty-four thousand units
were added in the period 1951-1961. 104
Self-confident acceptance quickly overtook
the tentative presentations of the
late 1940s and first years of the 1950s.
How is one to understand the role that the
CH&G, as a representation of the popular
press, played in the transformation of the
Canadian housing landscape? The CH&G
led readers to make logical choices, which
were clearly in tune with the spirit of the
times. Joy Parr’s assertion that the domestic
ideal of the designer differed significantly
from the reality of the homemaker
and homeowner drove the CH&G’s editorial
stance that modernism complements
contemporary family living.
Let us consider again the J.S. Kennedy
House (Edmonton) designed by A.J. Donohue
architect and featured in the November
1952 JRAIC. In the professional
journal the house is depicted uncluttered,
un-peopled, almost un-inhabited. Four
months later in May 1953, the CH&G features
the same house, full of life, occupied
the Kennedys, a typical post-war family
(figs. 46A-B). Readers are told that “the
Kennedys of Edmonton love their long,
low one-level home which proves you can
be cosy with contemporary design […]
[Their] children take their friends through
[the house], proudly.” 105 The starkness of
modernity is transmuted by these assertions
and the vision of liveability and the
practical logic they portray. To the editors
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George Th o m a s Kapelos > ANALYSis | ANALYSe
FIG. 43. This articles proposes to “set the picture straight”
by advocating that “modern is a state of mind. It’s
the desire to get the maximum value and satisfaction
in house building by using the best materials
and methods available regardless of period.”
“How New is Modern?” CH&G, January
1948, p. 36.
FIG. 44. Designed by architect W.G. Armstrong, the Brooks-
Hill house is contrasted with the Yolles house,
designed by architect Samuel Devor.
“The Brooks-Hills Wanted Traditional,”
CH&G, May 1950, p. 42.
FIG.45. The Yolles House, designed by architect Samuel
Devor, is juxtaposed with the Brooks-Hill house.
Typically, CH&G presented a moderate view, claiming
that “[the juxtaposition] proves our contentions that
modern design can fit into a traditional setting without
offending either the eye or the neighbours.”
“The Yolles Proved a Point,” CH&G, May 1950, p. 43.
of the CH&G, modernity is no longer simply
an issue of design, but one of comfort
and good sense.
The CH&G cover story of May 1962 relates
how this new ethos is now integral to the
life of Art and Patti Phillips:
Art Phillips, a young Vancouver investment
banker, has worn out three swim suits in the
two summers since the pool was installed
in their West Vancouver home […] Often in
summer [the family] barbeques their meals
on the patio adjoining the pool. Sunday
dinner is sometimes a carefree expedition
to a drive-in for hamburgers and chips […]
With both his house and family outdoororiented,
[the] Phillips’ western version of
The Poolside Life is very pleasant and very
In living indeed. 106
By means of these and other attractive
real-life portraits of modernity in everyday
use, and affirmations of its desirability,
ordinary Canadians are encouraged
not merely to accept, but to embrace
modern design.
Conclusions
Printed material found in pattern books,
professional journals, and shelter magazines
of the day demonstrates how distinct
agents interacted in concert to create a
flow of forces directed at realizing the
suburban, single-family ideal for post-war
Canadian consumers.
As the state proponent of the Canadian
post-war housing industry, the CMHC
acted on behalf of lenders, builders,
government financiers, designers, and
consumers to present affordable housing.
With literature geared to the consumer,
easy to comprehend, free of charge, and
guaranteed to provide subsidized mort-
gage financing, the CMHC guided consumers
in making the right choices and
presented confident direction to new
homebuyers.
As an official voice of the profession, the
JRAIC promoted innovation, disseminated
new ideas, and showcased the talent of
young architects across the country. By
advocating for the architect’s role in
solving the country’s housing needs and
then demonstrating how home-grown
talent could successfully step up to the
challenge, the JRAIC succeeded in confirming
the value of modernity in architecture
and architectural training in the
building of post-war Canada. Further,
by advocating that the small, affordable
house was an appropriate venue for the
architect’s attention, the JRAIC raised the
design standard for the new housing and
reinforced the value of good architectural
design in the domestic sphere.
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It is possible that modern, single-family
housing could have been effectively realized
without the popular press standing
at the ready to mediate between the
housing industry and design profession,
and providing subtle direction to the consumer.
The fact remains that the CH&G
successfully promoted innovation in
design and empowered female readers in
making housing decisions. The magazine
promoted consumer education, advocated
for the equal voice of all members
of the family, including the mother and
child, as consumers. Further, it reinforced
other values such as the centrality of the
home in Canadian life, home ownership,
pride of domicile, and material consumption
as positive and necessary components
of post-war life. The breezy and helpful
manner in which content was presented
made this material accessible, and always
with a mind to the main reader, the
female mother-housewife, whose role in
the domestic sphere was deemed dominant,
and in the designed sphere certainly
equal to that of the male father-breadwinner,
and whose participation was key
to the successful construction of post-war
domestic life.
The magazine reflected changing attitudes
to the place of contemporary
design in everyday life. The architectdesigned,
affordable, single-family home
brought the exemplary to the quotidian.
The accoutrements of design, such
as furnishings and décor, and lifestyle,
including appliances, outdoor spaces
and automobiles, were an extension of
the well-designed household. All these
attitudes, implied by CMHC’s pattern
books and filtered through the professional
journal, saw their clearest and
most accessible exploration in the pages
of the CH&G.
Recent feminist analyses of the domestic
and suburban experience have informed
FIG. 46. This article features the J.S. Kennedy House, Edmonton, A.J. Donohue, architect. Readers are told: “the Kennedys […] love
their long, low one-level home which proves you can be cosy with contemporary design […] [Their] children take their friends
through [the house], proudly.” The starkness of modernity is now downplayed in favour of its liveability and sensibility.
CH&G, May 1953, p. 46-47.
an understanding of the complexities of
this environment and the particularities
of the Canadian experience of the postwar
community, particularly the suburb.
Literature in design, housing construction,
and economic development, however,
has largely ignored the centrality
of women in decision-making and their
role, albeit indirect, in shaping the housing
market.
Reading within the pages of specific
media of the day, and across the types
of publications available, allows for a
greater understanding of the forces at
work in the shaping of Canada’s postwar
suburbs. The terrain remains largely
unexplored. Considering that so much
of Canada’s modern heritage continues
on the near-periphery of Canada’s urban
areas, and that this environment shaped
a large majority of Canadians born after
the Second World War, this is a subject
that merits further exploration and
understanding.
Notes
1. This research was originally presented as a
paper at the Annual Meeting of the Society
for the Study of Architecture in Lethbridge,
Alberta, in June 2005. The author wishes
to express his appreciation to the following:
Stalin Boctor, dean, Ryerson University
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and
Science, who provided funds for research
support and travel to the SSAC Conference;
Robert Dirstein, director, Office of Research
Services, Ryerson University, whose office
provided research assistance funding;
John Fraser, master, Massey College, who
provided the author, as senior fellow-inresidence,
space to research and write during
post-administrative leave in 2007-2008;
research assistants Janice Quieta and Kelvin
Lee, students in the Department of Architectural
Science, Ryerson University; Zita
Murphy, Ryerson University Library, staff
of the CMHC Information Centre, Ottawa,
and Metro Reference Library, Toronto, and
Shore + Moffat Library, Daniels Faculty of
Architecture, Landscape, and Design, University
of Toronto, for providing generous
access to their collections; and the following
individuals: Ivor Shapiro, Ryerson School
of Journalism, Rhodri Windsor Liscombe,
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George Th o m a s Kapelos > ANALYSis | ANALYSe
Department of Art History, Visual Art and
Theory, University of British Columbia, Jill
Wade, Open Learning Agency, Thompson
Rivers University, Shelagh Wilkinson, professor
emerita, School of Women’s Studies,
York University, Pamela Kapelos Fitzgerald
and Wanda Nowakowska, who each provided
the author in their own unique ways
with thoughtful comments, editorial assistance,
and considerable encouragement in
the preparation of this manuscript. Thank
you.
2. “The Poolside Life,” CH&G, May 1962,
cover.
3. Wade, Jill, 1986, “‘A Palace for the Public’:
Housing Reform and the 1946 Occupation
of the Old Hotel Vancouver,” BC Studies,
nos. 69-70, spring-summer, p. 288-310.
4. The last issue of the CH&G appeared in July
1962; in its latter years the magazine had
been renamed Canadian Homes.
5. For a full description of the activities of the
CMHC with regard to housing policy, see
Anderson, George, 1992, Housing Policy
in Canada, Vancouver, Centre for Human
Settlements, University of British Columbia.
6. In the period 1954-1960, the CMHC administered
approximately 340,000 National Housing
Act (NHA) Insured Loans and 620,000
conventional loans.
7. Two recent publications highlight an awareness
of the retention of this housing stock:
CMHC, 2002, Renovating Distinctive Homes:
1 ½ Storey Post-War Homes and Renovating
Distinctive Homes: One-Storey Houses of the
’60s and ’70s, Ottawa, Canada Mortgage
and Housing Corporation.
8. For a description of the context for the
development of post-war housing in Canada,
see Denhez, Marc, 1994, The Canadian
Home. From Cave to Electronic Cocoon,
Toronto, Dundern Press, p. 79-126.
9. Although the radio was widely accessible
to Canadian homes, it is outside the scope
of this investigation. Television did not
appear in Canadian households until the
mid-1950s.
10. Tippett, Maria, 1990, Making Culture:
English-Canadian Institutions and the Arts
Before the Massey Commission, Toronto,
University of Toronto Press, p. 36. Tippett’s
investigation focuses on the creative and
performing arts in Canada.
11. See McLuhan, Marshall, 1962, The Gutenberg
Galaxy: the Making of Typographic
Man, Toronto, University of Toronto Press;
and Cavell, Richard, 2002, McLuhan in Space:
a Cultural Geography, Toronto, University
of Toronto Press.
12. Williams, Raymond, 1981, Culture, Cambridge,
Fontana Paperback, p. 10.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. Id., p. 13.
16. For an extensive exploration of the role that
the magazine has played in the influence
of culture, see Matthew Schneirov, 1994,
The Dream of a New Social Order: Popular
Magazines in America 1893-1914, New York,
Columbia University Press.
17. Korinek, Valerie J., 2000, Roughing it in the
Suburbs: Reading Chatelaine Magazine in
the Fifties and Sixties, Toronto, University
of Toronto Press.
18. Williams, as discussed in Korinek, p. 382.
19. Korinek, p. 16.
20. It is difficult to establish exact figures for
periodical readership during the time period
of this investigation. Other researchers have
reviewed the impact of magazines, particularly
those from the USA, on American
markets. Such magazines did permeate the
Canadian marketplace; however, the CH&G
appears to be the single and consequently
most influential periodical of its kind in
English-speaking Canada.
21. There are several other threads that are to
be pursued in future studies. The first is the
rise of other media, namely television, and
the ways in which early television advanced
ideas of modern living, particularly as they
related to the single-family house promoted
by the CMHC. Another thread to
be explored is the ways in which consumer
culture attached itself to the suburban
house and extended this domain into the
everyday object. Home decorating services,
through national department stores, such
as the T. Eaton Company and the Robert
Simpson Company, played a significant role
in the furnishing and decorating of houses
depicted in the magazine, underscoring the
interplay between house design, lifestyle,
and the cultural appurtenances necessary
for that lifestyle.
22. Strong-Boag, Veronica, 2002 [4 th ed.], “Home
Dreams: Women and the Suburban Experiment
in Canada, 1945-1960,” In Veronica
Strong-Boag, Mona Gleason, and Adele
Perry (eds.), Rethinking Canada: The Prom-
ise of Women’s History, Don Mills, Oxford
University Press.
23. Larry Bourne identifies three phases of
urban settlement under the aegis of the
CMHC. The first, a period from 1945-1964,
saw a rapid growth in population and the
creation of new suburban communities
across Canada. In 1941 only 24% of Canadians
lived in suburbs. By 1961 that number
had increased to 45%. (Bourne, Larry,
1993, “The Changing Settlement Environment
of Housing,” In John R. Miron (ed.),
House, Home, and Community: Progress in
Housing Canadians, 1945-1986, Montreal,
McGill-Queen’s University Press, p. 272.)
24. Bauer, Catherine, 1934, Modern Housing,
Cambridge, Riverside Press, p. xv.
25. Id., p. 146.
26. Id., p. 212.
27. Id., p. 106.
28. See Yorke, Francis Reginald Stevens and
Penelope Whiting, 1953, The New Small
House, London, The Architectural Press.
29. Yorke, Francis Reginald Stevens, 1937
[3 rd ed.], The Modern House, London, Architectural
Press, p. 5.
30. Melvin, Jeremy, 2003. FRS Yorke and the
Evolution of English Modernism, Chichester,
Wiley, p. 13.
31. Yorke, Preface.
32. Melvin, p. 18.
33. Ford, Katherine Morrow and Thomas H.
Creighton, 1951, The American House Today,
New York, Reinhold, p. 2.
34. Ford, p. 2.
35. Aynsley, Jeremy and Francesca Berry, 2005,
“Introduction: Publishing the Modern
House: Magazines and the Domestic Interior
1870-1965,” Journal of Design History,
vol. 18, no. 1, p. 1; and Schnierov, Matthew,
1994, The Dream of a New Social Order:
Popular Magazines in America 1893-1914,
New York, Columbia University Press.
36. Aynsley, p. 1.
37. Id., p. 3.
38. Ibid.
39. Id., p. 5.
40. CMHC, 1958, Housing in Canada: A brief
from Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation
to the United Nations, Ottawa,
Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation,
p. III-1, IV-1.
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George Th o m a s Kapelos > ANALYSis | ANALYSe
41. Liscombe, Rhodri Windsor, 2002, “The Fe-
Male Spaces of Modernism: A Western Canadian
Perspective,” Prospects: An Annual of
American Cultural Studies, vol. 26, p. 669.
42. Id., p. 679.
43. Strong-Boag, p. 318.
44. Parr, Joy, 1999, Domestic Goods: The
Material, the Moral, and the Economic
in Post-war Years, Toronto, University of
Toronto Press, p. 61.
45. For a sampling of issues brought to English
Canadian magazine readers in the 1950s,
see Benedict, Michael (ed.), 1999, Canada in
the Fifties: From the Archives of Maclean’s,
Toronto, Viking Penguin Group.
46. This analysis does not take into account the
very considerable role that local newspapers
played in the dissemination of values and
culture, directed at the home and homemaker.
47. Korinek, p. 366.
48. Liscombe, “The Fe-Male Spaces of Modernism…,”
p. 676.
49. Parr, p. 163.
50. Smiley, David, 2001, “Making the Modified
Modern,” Perspecta, 32, p. 40-54.
51. Id., p. 45.
52. Id., p. 53.
53. The state had been directly involved with
housing production nationally since 1941
through the agency of Wartime Housing
Limited (WHL). The CMHC assumed responsibility
for housing with the 1944 National
Housing Act and, with its establishment on
January 1, 1946, took over the operations
of WHL at that time.
54. Canadian Welfare Council, 1947, A National
Housing Policy for Canada, Ottawa, CWC,
p. 1.
55. The full intent of the Act is clear from its
subtitle, “An Act to Promote the Construction
of New Houses, the Repair and Modernization
of Existing Houses, the Improvement
of Housing and Living Conditions, and the
expansion of Employment in the Post-war
Period.”
56. Carver, Humphrey, 1948, Houses for Canadians,
Toronto, University of Toronto Press,
p. 6.
57. For an extensive description, see Clayton,
Frank A., 1989, “The Single-family Homebuilding
Industry in Canada 1946-2001,” In
Tom Carter (ed.), CMHC and the Building
Industry: Forty Years of Partnership. Occasional
Paper 18, Winnipeg: Institute for
Urban Studies, University of Winnipeg.
58. McKellar, James, 1993, “Building Technology
and the Production Process,” In Miron (ed.),
House, Home, and Community, op. cit.
59. See Liscombe, Rhodri Windsor, 1997, The
New Spirit: Modern Architecture in Vancouver:
1938-1963, Montreal, Canadian Centre
for Architecture, p. 114.
60. Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation,
1947, 67 Homes for Canadians, Ottawa,
Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation,
p. 1.
61. Gitterman, S.A., 1986, “An Old Challenge”
in Housing a Nation: 40 Years of Achievement
/ Un toit pour tous : Quarante années
de realisations, Ottawa, Canada Mortgage
and Housing Corporation, p. 81.
62. CMHC Annual Reports, Ottawa, Canada
Mortgage and Housing Corporation, 1947,
1965.
63. CMHC Annual Report, Ottawa, Canada
Mortgage and Housing Corporation, 1946,
p. 23.
64. For an extensive discussion on the WHL and
projects in Vancouver and Montreal, see
Wade, Jill, 1994, Houses for All: The Struggle
for Social Housing in Vancouver, 1919-
1950, Vancouver, The UBC Press; and Adams,
Annmarie and Pieter Sijpkes, 1995, “Wartime
Housing and Architectural Change,
1942-1992,” Canadian Folklore Canadien,
vol. 17, no. 2, p. 13-29.
65. CMHC, 67 Homes for Canadians, p. 77.
66. CMHC, 67 Homes for Canadians, p. 76.
67. Ibid.
68. Ibid.
69. The pattern book has been a vehicle for
disseminating house plans and information
on housing design since the late eighteenth
century. For a discussion of the role of pattern
books, with particular emphasis on
housing in Canada, see Ennals, Peter and
Deryck W. Holdsworth, 1998, Homeplace:
The Making of the Canadian Dwelling,
Toronto, University of Toronto Press, p. 109-
120, 192-212.
70. CMHC, 1965, Small House Designs, Ottawa,
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation,
Introduction.
71. This list was assembled based on information
on record in the CMHC Information
Centre, Ottawa. In most instances, these
publications were also produced in French.
72. The date of publication is an approximation
as the publication is undated.
73. This list is by no means comprehensive. The
materials produced by the CMHC in both
English and French are extensive and merit
a separate investigation.
74. Gitterman, p. 81.
75. Denhez, p. 79.
76. Holdsworth, Deryck W. and Joan Simon,
1993, “Housing Form and Use of Domestic
Space,” In Miron (ed.), House, Home, and
Community, op, cit., p. 192.
77. The role of Canadian Schools of Architecture
in this period has been discussed extensively
in analyses of the take up of modernism
across the country. (See Liscombe,
The New Spirit…, op. cit.; and Keshavjee,
Serena (ed.), 2006 Winnipeg Modern: Architecture
1945-1975, Winnipeg, University of
Manitoba Press, particularly the chapter by
Kelly Crossman, “The Meaning of White,”
p. 131-152.)
78. Author’s assessment.
79. RAIC Journal, September 1946, p. 206.
80. Hudnut, Joseph, 1945, “The Post-Modern
House,” RAIC Journal, July, p. 139.
81. Ibid.
82. For an extensive discussion of the architect
A.J. (Jim) Donohue, see Crossman, p. 138-
139.
83. “Feature: Residential Interiors,” RAIC Journal,
August, p. 293-294.
84. Based on an estimated Canadian population
of 13.6 million.
85. Chatelaine, by contrast, reached almost 7%
of Canadian households at a circulation of
375,000.
86. Sutherland, Fraser, 1989, The Monthly Epic:
A History of Canadian Magazines, 1789-
1989, Toronto, Fitzhenry and Whiteside,
p. 157.
87. Valerie J. Korinek categorizes the CH&G as
“upscale” and Mayfair as “society” publications;
however, no further explanation
of these categorizations is given (Korinek,
p. 33).
88. The CH&G continued to be published until
July 1962 and Mayfair until 1961. Chatelaine
is still published.
JSSAC | JSÉAC 34 > N o 1 > 2009
59

George Th o m a s Kapelos > ANALYSis | ANALYSe
89. In the period 1946-1950, the CH&G presented
only one article addressing housing
production, as compared with the JRAIC
that featured nine articles (many of which
were editorials) during the same period.
90. CH&G, “Five Designs for the Forgotten
Buyer,” February 1959.
91. CH&G, “Planning the Small Home,” November
1945, p. 36.
92. Ibid.
93. CH&G, “A Two Plan Family House,” November
1952, p. 28-29.
94. CH&G, “This House Gets Extra Space without
a Basement,” June 1956, p. 111.
95. CH&G “Good Use of Space Here,” December
1951, p. 31-35.
96. CH&G, “This is the House that You Built,”
February 1945, p. 17-20.
97. Ibid.
98. Id., p. 21.
99. Clayton Research Associates and Scanada
Consultants, 1989, “Working Paper Two”
The Evolution of the Housing Industry in
Canada, 1946-86: The Housing Industry, Perspective
and Prospective, Ottawa, Canada
Mortgage and Housing Corporation, p. 6.
100. CH&G, “How the Morrisons Manage to
Budget, Build and Furnish,” April 1948,
p. 21-28.
101. CH&G, “How New is Modern?,” January
1948, p. 16.
102. Id., p. 18.
103. CH&G “The Brooks-Hills Wanted Traditional;
The Yolles Proved a Point,” May 1950,
p. 42-43.
104. Skarburskis, A., 1993, “Net Changes in Canada’s
Post-war Housing Stock,” In Miron
(ed.), House, Home, and Community, op. cit,
Table 9.1, p. 157.
105. CH&G, “…the children take their friends
through proudly,” May 1953, p. 16-18.
106. CH&G, “The Poolside Life,” May 1962,
p. 16-20.
60 JSSAC | JSÉAC 34 > N o 1 > 2009

Research Notes | Notes de recherche
Hydrostone’s Heritagization:
Garden City of War 1
Yona Jébrak and Barbara Julien are both
Ph.D. students in the Département d’études
urbaines et touristiques, Université du Québec à
>Yo n a Jé b r a k e t
Bar b a r a Ju l i e n
Montréal, and research associates in the Canada
Research Chair on Urban Heritage and the Institut
du patrimoine, of the same institution.
In 2007, Halifax, Nova Scotia, celebrated
the ninetieth anniversary of its destruction,
an event that would shape both the
future of the city and the early stages of
official planning in Canada. In the morning
of December 6, 1917, an explosion
rocked the harbour, destroying much of
the city. Under the shadow of a worldwide
conflict, many initially thought that the
Germans had attacked; but an investigation
soon revealed that two naval warships,
the Norwegian vessel SS Imo and
the French cargo ship SS Mont-Blanc, had
collided. The city’s entire North End was
levelled and nearly one thousand seven
hundred people perished, and hundreds
of others were wounded 2 . It was the worst
man-made disaster before the atomic
bomb (fig. 1).
Reconstruction began immediately. By
1922, all vestiges of the disaster had disappeared,
so much so that seventy years
later in 1993, the Hydrostone district was
known as a “1920s public housing project
in the English garden-suburb style.” The
designation of a small part of the devastated
area, now rebuilt as a National
Historic Site of Canada by Parks Canada,
spotlights the innovative character of the
project but overlooks the essential reason
behind the reconstruction.
FIG. 1. Scenes of devastation remained in Halifax well after the explosion: some areas were still no man’s
lands in June 1918. | Gauvin and Gentzel, June 19, 1918. Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management, accession no. 1992-359,
negative no. N-7086.
As presented by Parks Canada, the Hydrostone
model of heritagization appears
to trace its beginnings after the project’s
completion, once the first inhabitants were
housed. But Hydrostone was a neighbourhood
rebuilt primarily to house disaster
victims. The initial plan was not conceived
as an innovative housing project; it was
first and foremost an urban response to
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61

Yona Jébrak et Barbara Julien > Research Notes | Notes de recherche
FIG. 2. Halifax devastated. | Adapted by the authors from a 1918 lithograph. Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management, Nova Scotia
Board of Insurance underwriters Collection, accession no. V6 / 240-1917 Halifax, loc. 4.2.3.2.
a catastrophe. As the sole example of a
reconstruction project on Canadian soil tied
to a modern-day armed conflict, Hydrostone’s
exceptional character is emphasized
by the fact that it was part of a very distinct
urban trend—a garden city of war.
Consequently, this research note attempts
to cast a new perspective on the process,
beginning with the catastrophe and
aimed at showing that Hydrostone was
not so much a public housing project as
it was a garden city of war that followed
an international reconstruction movement.
Our discussion will hinge on three
propositions. At the time, the garden
city model was considered as an essential,
even necessary tool for a rapid return
to normal life. Therefore, Halifax would
have chosen the garden city as a means
to rebuild, thus joining an international
“reconstruction management” movement.
Urban resilience—a city’s ability
to return to normal—could have affected
the heritage recognition process.
The Garden City—a
Reconstruction Tool
After the explosion, chaos reigned: seven
hundred and fifty families needed hous-
ing, all landmarks had disappeared, fires
broke out, and a blizzard raged (fig. 2).
A good part of the city needed rebuilding,
and damage was estimated at nearly
twenty-eight million dollars. International
rescue and aid workers were quickly organized
and the federal government imposed
the War Measures Act, giving full power to
the Halifax Relief Commission, which was
created to manage reconstruction.
The Halifax Relief Commission quickly
called on Thomas Adams (1871-1940) to
define the boundaries of the devastated
area (two and a half square kilometres) and
prepare reconstruction plans. At that time,
Thomas Adams was a city planner for the
Conservation Commission, an organization
created in 1909 to ensure management of
Canadian resources. Called over from England
in 1914 as a garden city specialist, 3 he
remained a key resource person in Europe
where he actively participated in discussions
on reconstruction.
Appearing in the late nineteenth century,
the garden city was defined as an alternative
to industrial urban living conditions.
Presented by Ebenezer Howard in his
work Garden Cities of To-Morrow 4 (1898),
it aimed to combine the advantages of
FIG. 3. Article written by Thomas Adams on the
planning of Halifax published in The Contract
Record (Toronto), August 28, 1918,
p. 680-683. | Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management,
Halifax Relief Commission Collection, accession no. 1976-166.57.
both the city and countryside through the
principle of cooperation. From Ebenezer
Howard’s ideal, urban planners only
retained some of the principles. As a
social concept, the garden city is often
interpreted as a construction method
that became standardized, and thus the
tool of choice in early twentieth-century
urban planning.
In 1899 in England, the Garden City
Association was formed, institutionalizing
a movement which soon became
international in scope. This association
had a major impact on the spread of the
concept via a program of publications,
international conferences, exhibitions,
and site visits. When World War I broke
out in 1914, the association’s contribution
to ideas about reconstruction was only
reinforced. Within the very first months,
a number of conferences were organized
by the Garden City and Town Planning
Association and the International Union
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Yona Jébrak et Barbara Julien > Research Notes | Notes de recherche
FIG. 4. Blueprint for the “Plan of Devasted [sic] area indicating progress rehousing
undertaken by the Halifax Relief Commission,” prepared by the firm
Ross and MacDonald, October 25, 1918 (completed March 1919). | Nova Scotia
Archives and Records Management, Halifax Relief Commission Collection.
FIG. 5. Hydrostone District and its surroundings, ca. 1921. Park Fort Needham can
be seen on the left. | Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management, Halifax Relief Commission
Collection, accession no. 1976-166.41.
FIG. 6. Merkel Place, facing one of the linear parks. | Yona Jébrak, June 2006.
FIG. 7. One of the linear parks, between Cabot Street
and Sebastian Street. | Barbara Julien, June 2006.
of Local Authorities. 5 Practitioners and
authorities gathered, enabling the spread
of information and implementation of
intervention guidelines. The Association
lobbied so effectively that the garden
city was considered one of the only
valid plans for rebuilding war-torn cities.
Thomas Adams promoted the idea in Canada
through the publication of numerous
articles on the matter 6 (fig. 3).
Thus, it is in that context of urban innovation
that the destruction of the Hydrostone
district precipitated Canadian
thinking on reconstruction and city planning
in general. It can be conceived that
Halifax, itself a victim of war, wished to
join the European-style reconstruction
movement. The choice of hiring Thomas
Adams to rebuild Hydrostone seemed
clear: he was not only famous, he was also
a garden city theorist and practitioner.
Hydrostone—a Garden City
Hydrostone’s urban environment—garden
city principles combined with the
need to rebuild rapidly—is composed of a
two-part orthogonal grid divided by Gottingen
Street, the district’s central axis. In
the upper area, a series of twenty rows of
equal width are repeated in a standardized
sequence: alley, row of houses, street,
linear park, street, and row of houses. In
the lower area, the streets are parallel to
the port. The sequence is broken by a central
park and two diagonals that create
a formal square. Reconstruction began
with the upper part of the plan, which
we call the Hydrostone district. The lower
area was mainly developed in the 1930s
(figs. 4-5).
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63

Yona Jébrak et Barbara Julien > Research Notes | Notes de recherche
FIG. 8. Young Street, the commercial strip. | Yona Jébrak, June 2006. FIG. 9. Blueprint for one of Ross and Macdonald’s house designs, house design D.12
(June 1918). | Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management, Halifax Relief Commission Collection,
reference no. MG 36, Series R, no. 1028.
FIG. 10. A typical Hydrostone model on Stanley Street, between Navonlea Street
and Isleville Street. | Yona Jébrak, June 2006.
FIG. 11. A typical Hydrostone model on Cabot Street. | Barbara Julien, June 2006.
FIG. 12. Canadian Hydrostone Plant, Eastern Passage, January 1919. The plant was built in order
to accelerate house reconstruction. | Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management, William Smith Collection,
accession no. 1991-325, negative no. N-7050.
There were three underlying development
criteria to the plan: first, it introduced
a standard neighbourhood design
composed of an economic centre and
residences. A commercial thoroughfare
with the same architectural design was
developed in the vicinity of the three
hundred and twenty-six new residences.
The road hierarchy—the second criteria—consisted
of a five-level system of
streets including thoroughfares, primary
and secondary collection highways, local
access roads, and service roads. This
organization not only separated the different
kinds of traffic and controlled their
64 JSSAC | JSÉAC 34 > N o 1 > 2009

Yona Jébrak et Barbara Julien > Research Notes | Notes de recherche
FIG. 13. The symbolic and physical mechanism of urban resilience applied to the
reconstruction of Halifax devastated area. | Jébrak and Julien, 2008, “Hydrostone
patrimonialisé : cité-jardin de guerre,” p. 65.
FIG. 14. Newly built Hydrostone houses designed by Ross and Macdonald. This
strip of houses is located on the north side of Sebastian Place, west
of Gottingen Street. | Gauvin and Gentzel, March 24, 1921. Nova Scotia Archives and Records
Management, William Smith Collection, accession no. 1991-325, negative no. N-7015.
FIG. 16. Postcard published in 1918 illustrating “Stores and residences destroyed” during the 1917 explosion.
| Cox Bros., Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management, Halifax City Regional Library Collection, accession no. 1983-212.
FIG. 15. Advertisement for Devastated Halifax, a
graphic picture story published by Gerald
E. Weir. Excerpt from Stanley K. Smith, Heart
Throbs of the Halifax Horror (Halifax, 1918),
p. 118. | Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management,
reference no. F5249 / H17 / Ex96 / S66.
volume and direction, it also limited the
dangers associated with traffic and pollution,
thus fostering the development
of a local community. This quest for an
ideal community is also illustrated by the
priority given to public spaces, notably
parks—the third criteria. Three kinds of
parks were included. First, across from
the commercial strip was a triangular
outdoor space boasting green plants and
park benches where shoppers could rest
between errands. In addition, eight garden
boulevards, bordered by residences,
were at the centre of the project and
gave the district its special feel. Lastly,
Park Fort Needham—a central park area
of over eight acres that was the crowning
point of the garden city—was a recreational
space as well as a historic landmark.
It served as a natural border for the district
and provided Halifax’s North End
with something it had lacked before the
disaster: an accessible, multifunctional
park network (figs. 6-8).
For architectural expertise, the Halifax
Relief Commission called on the services
of George Allen Ross from the Montreal
firm Ross and MacDonald. In close
collaboration with Thomas Adams, Ross
fine-tuned a standard home construction
method using hydrostone—cinderblocks
made from cast concrete. This material
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65

Yona Jébrak et Barbara Julien > Research Notes | Notes de recherche
was non-flammable, relatively inexpensive,
and, most importantly, could be produced
quickly. As well, Ross standardized
his architectural design. The seven home
models he proposed were in the English
cottage style, which is reminiscent of the
garden city architecture proposed by Raymond
Unwin and Barry Parker at Letchworth,
England (figs. 9-12).
Halifax’s Resilience
A study of the Halifax reconstruction
reveals the existence of a process of resilience.
7 The shorter the reconstruction period,
the more effective urban resilience
will be. The components of this resilience
can be categorized in two groups: physical
elements and symbolic elements (fig. 13).
Physical elements are pragmatic in nature:
when a well-organized municipal structure
takes charge of victims, quickly and
from the very start, an even greater catastrophe
is avoided. Despite winter and
the incredible devastation, there were
no sanitary problems after the explosion
and all of the victims were housed
within a month of the disaster. Moreover,
permanent reconstruction was all the
more efficient as the Relief Commission,
sole party responsible for reconstruction,
quickly named Thomas Adams to draw
up the reconstruction plans. The garden
city, whose applicability had already been
determined, was rapidly approved, thus
enabling a return to normal (fig. 14). We
consider that community resilience was
achieved in 1922, as, by that date, physical
reconstruction was complete.
Nevertheless, even though by 1922 the
homeless had found new lodging, it cannot
be considered that the catastrophe had
been forgotten by then. The memory of an
event enlists a sphere of representations:
that is symbolic resilience. It does not follow
the same pattern as physical resilience
in that it is supported by a set of references
that varies from one group of actors
to another. Symbolic resilience is achieved
through a series of stages. At first, the
ruins prompted discussion of the disaster.
As in Europe, where the Michelin Guide
proposed guided tours of the battlefields
even before the war was over, postcards
and guidebooks of the Halifax rubble were
offered for sale (figs. 15-16). Next, as the
first Hydrostone occupants moved into
new dwellings, new discussions centred
on the beauty of the restored district,
thereby allowing the disaster victims to
regain their community. Grieving gave way
to thoughts of the future. Starting in the
1980s, Hydrostone was no longer referred
to as a reconstructed district. In 1983, it
was time to commemorate the disaster victims
by erecting a memorial in the heart
of Fort Needham Park.
Conclusion
The explosion and reconstruction had,
and still have, an impact on national and
local collective memory following the
federal recognition of heritage. However,
that recognition seems to overlook the
circumstances in which Hydrostone was
born. Can this paradox be explained by
our natural tendency to forget, associated
with successful urban resilience?
Hydrostone is clearly a garden city of
war. World War I created an environment
that encouraged international cooperation
among city planner professionals
and theorists. This pooling of ideas not
only spurred thinking about rebuilding a
city, it also sped the application of the
theory. Through model standardization
and simplification of the building process,
a rapid response was therefore possible; a
new urban design was born. In choosing
Thomas Adams, the city of Halifax sought
to join this international reconstruction
movement. Hydrostone became the tangible
application of ideas from abroad
and helped develop the basis for modern
Canadian urban planning. Far from the
“English garden city” model, Hydrostone
illustrates the ability of a city to rebuild…
and to forget its past.
Notes
1. This research was also published in Jébrak,
Yona and Barbara Julien, 2008, “Hydrostone
patrimonialisé : cité-jardin de guerre,” In
Marie-Blanche Fourcade (ed.), Patrimoine et
patrimonialisation. Entre matériel et immatériel,
Québec, Presses de l’Université Laval,
p. 51-72.
2. Ruffman, Alan and Colin D. Howell (ed.),
1994, Ground Zero. A Reassessment of the
1917 Explosion in Halifax Harbour. Canada’s
Most Tragic Disaster, Halifax, Nimbus Publishing
Limited.
3. Adams was the Garden City Association’s
secretary and administrator (1903-1906) of
Letchworth, a garden city in Herfordshire,
England.
4. Howard, Ebenezer [1898] 1902, Garden Cities
of To-Morrow (1898), London, Swan
Sonnenschein and Co., Ltd.
5. See Hardy, Dennis, 1991, From Garden Cities
to New Towns. Campaigning for Town
and Country Planning, 1899-1946, Oxford, E
and FN Spon Publisher; Ward, Stephen, 2002,
Planning the Twentieth Century City: The
Advanced Capitalist World, Chichester, John
Wiley; and Smets, Marcel (ed.), 1985, Resurgam.
La reconstruction en Belgique après
1914, Bruxelles, Crédit communal.
6. See Adams, Thomas, 1917, Plan et Développement
ruraux. Une étude sur les conditions et
les problèmes ruraux au Canada, Ottawa,
Commission de la conservation du Canada;
and Adams, Thomas, 1917, “What Town Planning
really Means,” The Canadian Municipal
Journal, vol. X.
7. On the topic of urban resilience, see Vale,
Lawrence J. and Thomas J. Campanella (eds.),
2005, The Resilient City. How Modern Cities
Recover From Disaster, New York, Oxford university
Press.
66 JSSAC | JSÉAC 34 > N o 1 > 2009

Research Notes | Notes de recherche
Deux exemples de jardins civils
à Montréal au dix-huitième siècle
Marie-José Fortier est architecte paysagiste
et muséologue; elle a récemment terminé son
doctorat. Sa recherche portait sur les jardins
>Ma r i e-Jo s é
For t i e r
canadiens durant le Régime français. Elle est
spécialisée en histoire des jardins.
Des documents récemment découverts
aux Archives nationales de France,
Centre des archives d’outre-mer (CAOM),
apportent des précisions sur l’état de la
propriété de Claude de Ramezay un peu
après sa mort. Ils permettent également
de donner une forme aux jardins et de
confirmer leur existence. La disposition de
la propriété offre un modèle d’aménagement
à plusieurs zones tel qu’il apparaît
dans les plans de ville de la Nouvelle-
France dès 1670. Ce modèle se trouve
surtout en milieu urbain, quoiqu’il existe
aussi des exemples de segmentation des
espaces extérieurs dans les propriétés de
banlieue. L’aménagement peut revêtir
des formes riches et complexes, comme
nous le verrons dans le cas de l’hôtel
particulier du seizième gouverneur de
la colonie, le marquis Philippe de Rigaud
de Vaudreuil.
ill. 1. Levasseur de Neré, Jacques, 1704, « Plan de la ville de Montréal levé
en l’année 1704 », maison et jardins du marquis de Vaudreuil, plan
manuscrit, 50 x 90 cm. | Archives nationales de France, CAOM, Aix-en-Provence, 468/5PFA.
La composition des espaces extérieurs
en plusieurs zones à usage différencié
apparaît comme un ajustement aux pratiques
métropolitaines reproduites dans
un contexte aux ressources limitées, dans
les deux cas que nous allons illustrer, soit
deux membres de l’administration coloniale.
Le gouverneur de Montréal, Claude
de Ramezay (1659-1724), occupe ce poste
durant vingt ans, à partir de 1704 ; Philippe
de Rigaud de Vaudreuil (1643-1725)
est d’abord nommé gouverneur de Montréal
(de 1698 à 1703), puis gouverneur
de la Nouvelle-France (de 1703 à 1725).
Les jardins et les espaces extérieurs de
ces deux propriétés sont aménagés de
manière à rehausser et à compléter la
demeure. Ces deux jardins jouent un double
rôle, espaces à la fois privés et institutionnels.
Dans leur première fonction, les
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67

Marie-José Fortier > Research Notes | Notes de recherche
Ill. 2. Chaussegros de Léry, Gaspard-Joseph, 1717, « Plan de la ville de Montréal, en
Canada, Nouvelle-France, dans l’Amérique Septentrionale », jardins de particuliers
dans la ville, 500 toises, juin, plan manuscrit, 52,5 x 78,7 cm. | Archives
nationales de France, CAOM, Aix-en-Provence, 03DFC472B.
Ill. 3. Chaussegros de Léry, Gaspard-Joseph, 1725, « Plan de la ville de Montréal
», jardins de particuliers, 300 toises, 10 septembre, plan manuscrit,
51,9 x 73,9 cm. | Archives nationales de France, CAOM, Aix-en-Provence, 475/5pfB.
jardins comportent des parties utilitaires
et d’agrément alors que, pour répondre
à la seconde, ils doivent offrir un espace
social, voire de représentation.
Dans cet article, nous décrirons la composition
de ces deux jardins aménagés à
Montréal au début du dix-huitième siècle.
Nous y avons trouvé des éléments et des
dispositions propres aux courants adoptés
par la bourgeoisie et la petite noblesse
dans des provinces françaises, au cours de
la même période : présence d’un jardin,
qui peut servir de cadre de rencontre et
comporte conséquemment des caractères
d’apparat, et structuration de la propriété,
pour mettre en valeur la demeure et les
espaces extérieurs. Nos deux exemples en
sont l’illustration.
Les jardins de l’hôtel du
marquis de Vaudreuil
À Montréal, les jardins de la résidence du
marquis de Vaudreuil peuvent être considérés,
en regard de la composition et de la
complexité des espaces aménagés, comme
l’équivalent des jardins du palais de l’intendant
à Québec. Bien qu’il s’agisse d’une
résidence privée, les lieux peuvent se prêter
à des fonctions politiques et administratives,
y compris la représentation du pouvoir
colonial et, de ce fait, ils deviennent
des espaces institutionnels. Cette double
fonction explique le caractère recherché
de la composition des espaces, la qualité
de l’habitation et des jardins. Deux types
de documents cartographiques, soit les
plans de Montréal et des plans spécifiques
de la résidence, nous permettent, d’une
part, de juger de l’évolution des jardins de
1704 à 1731 et, d’autre part, de connaître la
composition précise de cet aménagement
urbain. À ces manuscrits s’ajoutent des
documents écrits qui corroborent l’information
contenue dans les plans mentionnés.
En 1704, les jardins du marquis sont représentés
simplement ; on y trouve d’abord
l’arrangement assez fréquent de l’espace
carré ou rectangulaire subdivisé en quatre
grandes zones, à leur tour fractionnées en
autant de carrés, avec puits attenant. Un
rectangle de verdure, situé à proximité de
la maison, s’ajoute à cette composition : il
en est séparé de la zone du potager par
un long mur maçonné qui court d’ouest
en est (ill. 1).
Sur le plan de 1717 (ill. 2), la maison qui
précède la construction de l’hôtel particulier
occupe le même emplacement ; au
sud, on peut voir la cour avec remise et,
à l’arrière, un grand espace dédié au jardin.
Cette zone, subdivisée en neuf carrés
définis par des allées qui se coupent à
angle droit, est bordée d’une plantation
et entourée d’une clôture de pieux.
En 1723, le gouverneur entreprend la
construction d’une résidence plus cossue,
que certains historiens assimilent à l’hôtel
parisien de la même période ; sur le plan
de 1725 (ill. 3), on peut voir le nouveau
bâtiment, toujours flanqué à sa gauche
de la cour et d’un bâtiment de service, et
le jardin à l’arrière. Ce dernier a gardé une
allure semblable, bien que deux nouveaux
bâtiments soient venus réduire l’espace
qu’il occupait initialement.
Le plan de 1731 (ill. 4) représente une
version des aménagements très proche
du plan spécifique dressé le 17 juillet
1726 par Jean-Baptiste Angers et René
de Couagne, mandatés à cet effet par
le procureur du roi. Dorénavant, une
grille permet d’accéder à la maison ; un
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Marie-José Fortier > Research Notes | Notes de recherche
Ill. 4. Chaussegros de Léry, Gaspard-Joseph, 1731,
« Plan de la ville de Montréal dans la Nouvelle
France 1731 », jardin de Vaudreuil, 400
toises, 2 octobre, plan manuscrit, 51,3 x 70,7
cm. | Archives nationales de France, CAOM, Aix-en-Provence,
03DFC480B.
Ill. 5. Angers, Jean-Baptiste et René de Couagne,
1726, « Plan, élévation, profil et terrains
appartenant à la succession de monsieur le
marquis de Vaudreuil », 17 juillet, plan manuscrit
avec retombes, 51,5 x 12,7 cm. | Archives
nationales de France, Paris, Cartes et plans, Marine, C7, no 340,
pièce 13bis, dossier Vaudreuil.
mur maçonné circonscrit la cour et l’espace
adjacent, plus au nord. Le parterre
de broderie, placé immédiatement à
l’arrière de la demeure, est également
entouré d’un mur de pierre. Au-delà
s’étend le reste du jardin, composé de
quatre carrés. La propriété couvre la
quasi-totalité de l’espace compris entre
la rue Saint-Paul – sur laquelle donne la
façade – et la rue Notre-Dame, et elle
borde la rue Saint-Charles sur presque
toute sa longueur.
Le premier plan de la succession de
Vaudreuil est dressé en 1726 (ill. 5), au
moment de l’inventaire des biens. Un
second plan, portant la signature de
Gaspard-Joseph Chaussegros de Léry,
est complété l’année suivante, en juillet
(ill. 6). Les deux plans offrent peu de différences
quant aux parties du jardin et à
la disposition interne.
Il existe également un troisième plan :
« Le château de Vaudreuil 1726 » (ill. 7) ; il
s’agit d’une copie d’un plan conservé par
Archibald Chaussegros de Léry McDonald.
Bien que cette version reprenne l’ensemble
des éléments du plan initial et présente
distinctement les trois parties du
jardin, à savoir le parterre, le verger et le
potager, la légende en est plus sommaire.
Ces distinctions étant établies, nous utiliserons
le premier plan pour décrire les
aménagements extérieurs.
Le relevé de 1726 fournit d’abord les
dimensions du terrain, soit une superficie
de mille deux cent onze toises 1 : deux cent
soixante et un pieds sur la rue Saint-Charles
et trois cent trente-trois pieds sur la
limite intérieure, cent soixante-huit pieds
en façade sur Saint-Paul et cent soixantedix
du côté opposé. Du côté sud de la rue
Saint-Paul, face à la résidence, un terrain
Ill. 6. Chaussegros de Léry, Gaspard-Joseph, 1727,
« Plan, élévation, profil et terrains appartenant
à la succession de feu Monsieur le
marquis de Vaudreuil », 25 toises, 15 juillet. |
Archives nationales de France, Paris, Cartes et plans, Marine, C7,
no 340, dossier Vaudreuil.
de soixante-quatre toises appartient aussi
au marquis ; il a été acquis pour préserver
la vue sur le fleuve. Une maison située sur
la rue Saint-Paul a davantage de valeur,
ainsi que le signale Claude-Thomas Dupuy
quand il évalue la maison de Claude
de Ramezay :
On peut encore trouver le prix par celuy qui
a esté marqué au sujet de l’estimation de la
maison de feu M. le Marquis de vaudreuil sur
quoi il faut observer que les terreins de la
haute ville tel qu’est celuy-cy dans un endroit
reculé du commerce se vendent moins qu’a ce
qu’on appelle la basse ville vers le marché 2 .
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Marie-José Fortier > Research Notes | Notes de recherche
pour l’usage de son propriétaire. Ces
espaces forment un tout avec le bâtiment
et s’intègrent à l’aménagement général
de la propriété qui possède également
cour et avant-cour, bâtiments de service
et équipements utilitaires (puits et glacière).
Enfin, l’occupant s’est réservé un
espace qui lui permet d’apprécier le paysage
environnant et, de façon non équivoque,
le fleuve. Bien que moins élaboré
mais porteur des mêmes usages et de la
même signification, nous verrons ci-après
comment se présente le jardin de Claude
de Ramezay, à la même période.
Ill. 7. « Le château de Vaudreuil 1726 ». | D’après un plan
en la possession d’Archibald Chaussegros de Léry Macdonald,
dans Benjamin Sulte, 1884, Histoire des Canadiens-Français,
1608-1880 : origine, histoire, religion, guerres, découvertes,
colonisation, coutumes, vie domestique, sociale et politique, développement,
avenir, Montréal, Wilson et Cie Éditeurs, vol. 8.
Le plan contient également un relevé précis
des parties de la propriété. Une avantcour
précède l’escalier et le perron (L) ;
une grande cour (V), regroupant remise
(N), écurie (O), corps de garde (P) et commodités
pour les domestiques (M), est
aménagée dans la partie est et se trouve
complètement séparée de l’entrée principale.
L’accès au potager (S) peut se faire à
partir de la cour ou du parterre (T) ; murs,
clôtures et escaliers séparent ces espaces
entre eux et avec le jardin fruitier (R),
situé à l’arrière (ill. 8).
L’organisation interne des espaces dominés
par les végétaux est simplement
esquissée par quatre carrés de dimensions
semblables ; le parterre bénéficie
en plus d’un aménagement central, qui
pourrait être une fontaine, un cadran
solaire ou une autre pièce décorative, et
d’un puits situé en retrait. De la grande
salle (A), de la grande chambre (B), situées
Ill. 8. Agrandissement d’une partie du plan
d’Angers et de Couagne (ill. 5).
à l’étage noble, et des cabinets (C) dans
les ailes latérales, on a une vue directe sur
le parterre ; la terrasse à l’arrière offre le
même avantage, alors que l’escalier qui
la complète, aménagé au centre du bâtiment
et dans l’axe central du parterre, en
autorise l’accès. La glacière (Q) se trouve
à l’angle nord-ouest du terrain, à proximité
du verger. L’intendant Dupuy, qui
rédige la correspondance relative à l’estimation
de la maison, en 1727, écrit : « du
reste la maison est gracieuse et très bien
distribuée à quelque chose. Bâtie avec
convenance pour sa destination en belle
veûe et sans la pouvoir perdre au moyen
de la place devant […] bâtimens cours et
jardins avec les arbres fruitiers qui y sont
complantés » et précise que les « écuries,
remise, mur de clôture, puits et canals »
sont en maçonnerie 3 .
Ce jardin, qui complète une résidence
nobiliaire canadienne, se présente comme
un modèle de jardin d’agrément urbain
constitué de trois parties essentielles
– parterre, jardin fruitier, potager –
rehaussées par la présence de l’eau et
organisées pour le plaisir de la vue et
Le jardin de la maison
du gouverneur Claude de
Ramezay
Les plans de Montréal et les plans spécifiques
illustrant la propriété du gouverneur
général et du gouverneur de Montréal
sont liés par des circonstances semblables.
Claude de Ramezay, un temps gouverneur
de la ville des Trois-Rivières (1690-1699),
puis de Montréal (1704-1725), à sa mort
lègue à sa veuve une belle maison avec
jardin et verger, donnant sur la rue Notre-
Dame, mais aussi beaucoup de dettes.
Compte tenu de la situation, celle-ci propose
au représentant du gouvernement
d’acheter une partie ou la totalité de sa
propriété en vue de l’utiliser comme résidence
pour l’intendant lors de ses séjours
dans la région. La transaction sera éventuellement
conclue et la maison occupée
durant plusieurs années par l’intendant
Gilles Hocquart, au gré de ses passages
dans la ville. En octobre 1727, Claude-
Thomas Dupuy, écrivant au ministre de
la Marine, mentionne l’utilisation des
plans de la ville pour mieux faire connaître
outre-mer la situation des deux résidences
; il souligne le parallèle des deux
démarches :
j’ay eü soin de faire marquer sur le plan
général d’une maniere distincte les
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Marie-José Fortier > Research Notes | Notes de recherche
emplacemens de ces deux maisons tant de
celle de feu M. le marquis de vaudreuil que
de celle de M de Ramezay pour que vous
ayés le tout sous les yeux et que vous y
metiés vous même l’estimation 4 .
Il avait auparavant, précisé :
Comme il n’y a point eü de commission du
Roy au sujet de la maison de madame de
Ramezay je n’en ay point fait faire de proces
verbaux d’estimation en forme, mais j’ay
chargé le S. Raimbault d’y emploier les
memes experts, ala suitte de l’operation
qu’ils ont faite de la maison de feu M. Le
marquis de Vaudreuil, de sorte que pouvans
penser avoir prêté le serment pour l’un et
pour l’autre ils fussent plus attentifs à ne
dire que la verite 5 .
Dessiné par Dahlia Marinier-Doucet
Plan du rez-de-jardin
Superposition du plan actuel et du plan ancien
J’ay fait faire par M dugué le plan tant de
la maison que du verger avec la disposition
sur ce verger de la destination qu’en fait
madame de Ramezay. Je joins les plans à
cette lettre 6 .
Quatre documents récemment découverts
permettent dorénavant de situer avec
précision le jardin de Claude de Ramezay
et de comprendre le morcellement progressif
de la propriété après la mort du
gouverneur. Tout d’abord, deux mémoires
de la main de l’intendant Dupuy contiennent
une description et une évaluation
des lieux, suivies de propositions en vu
de leur utilisation comme domaine royal 7 .
Ces documents ne seraient cependant
pas complets sans les plans auxquels
ils réfèrent, en l’occurrence deux plans
découverts au cours de notre recherche 8
et représentant, pour l’un, la maison et
la disposition des trois étages et, pour
l’autre, l’ensemble de la propriété, y
compris la localisation du potager et du
verger. Le « Plan de la maison de madame
de Ramezay » (ill. 9) et le « Plan de la
Maison, Jardin et verger de Madame de
Ramezay » (ill. 10) sont directement liés
Récemment, une série de plans illustrant le Château Ramezay, datés de 1727, a été
retrouvée dans un fonds d’archives en France. Il s’agit là d’une découverte importante
au sujet de cet édifice historique unique dont la première construction, commandée par
le gouverneur de Montréal, Claude de Ramezay, remonte à 1705. Jusqu’à maintenant,
les plus anciens plans connus du Château dataient des années 1830.
Nous savions que la Compagnie des Indes, qui acheta la résidence des héritiers de
Ramezay en 1745, avait procédé à un agrandissement du bâtiment en 1755-1756. En
1973, des fouilles archéologiques avaient mis au jour la maçonnerie du coin sud-est
des fondations du Château de 1705. En prenant comme point de repère ce coin sudest,
nous avons procédé à la superposition du plan de 1727 à celui d’aujourd’hui. Cet
exercice nous a permis de constater que les murs nord et ouest auraient toujours été au
même endroit. Ce fait renforce l’idée d’un « rétablissement et augmentation », comme
le stipulait le contrat octroyé au maçon en 1755 (dont nous avions déjà copie), et non
d’une reconstruction complète. D’ailleurs, plusieurs autres éléments du bâtiment de
1705 semblent encore être présents aujourd’hui. À partir de ces plans, des recherches
plus poussées nous permettront de mieux documenter l’histoire du Château et de
l’architecture en Nouvelle-France.
Le Château Ramezay, un des plus beaux exemples de l’architecture du dix-huitième
siècle, premier édifice classé par la Commission des monuments historiques du Québec
en 1929, a été témoin de nombreux moments forts de notre passé. En ses murs,
« l’esprit du lieu » conserve toutes ses strates historiques, dont tout particulièrement
l’époque de Ramezay, pierre d’assise de toute l’histoire originale de cet édifice.
André Delisle
Directeur général et conservateur
Musée du Château de Ramezay
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71

Marie-José Fortier > Research Notes | Notes de recherche
Ill. 9. Dugué, 1727, « Plan de la Maison de madame de Ramezay », plan manuscrit
avec retombes pour les trois niveaux de la maison. | Archives nationales de
France, CAOM, Aix-en-Provence, Collection Moreau de Saint-Méry, Guyane, F/3/289/14.
Ill. 10. Dugué, « Plan de la Maison, Jardin et verger de Madame de Ramezay »,
1727, plan manuscrit. | Archives nationales de France, CAOM, Aix-en-Provence, Collection
Moreau de Saint-Méry, Guyane, F/3/289/15.
Ill. 11. Dezallier d’Argenville, Antoine-Joseph, 1747 [4e éd.], « Plan général de Jardin dessiné
sur le papier », La théorie et la pratique du jardinage, ou l’on traite à fond des beaux
jardins appelés communément les jardins de plaisance et de propreté, Paris,
Chez Pierre-Jean Mariette, planche 1, p. 260.
Ill. 12. De Villeneuve, Robert, 1685, « Plan de la ville et chasteau
de Québec, fait en 1685 mezurée exactement par le sieur
de Villeneuve » (partie), 100 toises, 13 novembre 1685,
plan manuscrit, 55,8 x 81,8 cm. | Archives nationales de France,
CAOM, Aix-en-Provence, 03DFC349B.
aux mémoires de Claude-Thomas Dupuy ;
la correspondance sur plusieurs points a
été établie et elle permet de confirmer
cette hypothèse.
Une démarche semblable à la précédente
sera effectuée pour l’examen de
la représentation du jardin de Claude
de Ramezay. Dans un premier temps, nous
questionnerons les formes et l’évolution
du jardin dans la cartographie de la ville
de Montréal de 1717 à 1734 ; par la suite,
l’examen des plans spécifiques permettra
de compléter la description des lieux.
Dès 1717 (ill. 2), la disposition de la maison
et du jardin, représentée sur le plan de
la ville, correspond de près au plan particulier
de 1727 (ill. 10). La cour avant est
circonscrite par un mur de pierre qui se
termine d’un côté sur le mur ouest de la
maison et de l’autre à l’écurie, établie le
long de la rue Notre-Dame. Le verger fait
suite à l’écurie et longe aussi la rue Notre-
Dame ; le jardin composé de plusieurs carrés
se trouve à l’arrière de la demeure et
se prolonge en entonnoir jusqu’à la rue
Saint-Paul. En 1725 (ill. 3), la situation est
pratiquement inchangée. En 1731, la composition
des espaces extérieurs est conser-
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Marie-José Fortier > Research Notes | Notes de recherche
vée, mais la superficie de la propriété est
réduite et il n’y a plus d’accès direct à la
rue Saint-Paul. En 1734 9 , le verger a disparu
et seul subsiste le jardin arrière.
Le plan portant spécifiquement sur
la propriété de Claude de Ramezay a
l’avantage de nous renseigner sur l’organisation
interne et sur la relation des parties
entre elles. Le « Plan de la Maison,
Jardin et verger de Madame de Ramezay
» (ill. 10) est un bel exemple de la
disposition des espaces extérieurs et des
dépendances, semblable à ce qui figure,
mais dans une version moins élaborée,
dans les traités de jardinage de l’époque,
notamment celui d’Antoine-Joseph
Dezallier d’Argenville (ill. 11). Sa simplicité
le rapproche des jardins du domaine
de Talcy 10 : juxtaposition de carrés offrant
fonctionnalité et ornementation.
L’espace extérieur est composé d’une
porte aménagée dans le mur qui isole la
maison de la rue, débouchant au centre
de l’avant-cour, face à la résidence ; de
part et d’autre de cette cour, deux portes
aménagées dans les murs perpendiculaires
donnent accès à deux basses-cours distinctes
comportant, pour l’une, la glacière
et, pour l’autre, l’écurie. La disposition
des pièces de la maison est en lien avec
les aménagements extérieurs. Au rez-dechaussée
et à l’étage, une série d’ouvertures
dans le mur arrière donnent sur le
« jardin potager », alors qu’un escalier
au rez-de-chaussée permet d’y accéder
directement. Bien que Dugué 11 désigne
cet espace comme potager, l’attention
portée à la représentation du jardin, sa
composition formelle en quatre grands
carrés et la rangée d’arbres qui complète
l’aménagement donnent à penser qu’il
remplissait une fonction à la fois utilitaire
et d’agrément.
Sur le plan de 1727, le verger occupe un
espace en « L » qui s’étend au-delà du
potager et qui diffère de la représentation
sur le plan de Montréal de 1725 ; son
état correspond toutefois à la description
qu’en fait Claude-Thomas Dupuy, dans le
document annexe, et met en évidence sa
valeur marchande, compte tenu de ses
dimensions importantes :
Le verger qui contient scavoir la majeure
partie a costé et joignant le terrain limité
pour la Maison dix neuf toises trois pieds
et demy de front sur le niveau de la rüe
notre Dame et 18 toises deux pieds sur le
niveau de la rüe St Paul et cinquante et une
toises trois pieds de l’une desdites rues
à l’autre, et lautre partie dix sept toises
sur le niveau de ladite rue notre Dame sur
quatorze toises de proffendeur, peut se
diviser par emplacement dont douze sur la
majeure partie en formant une rüe au milieu
de vingt quatre pieds de large et deux dans
l’autre partie sur la rüe notre Dame ce qui
produisoit à madame de Ramezay, 14 à
15 000 livres en les donnant à constitution
de rente aux preneurs suivant lavis des
personnes qui en ont fait la visite 12 .
En réalité, le plan spécifique est conforme
aux représentations sur les plans de 1717
(ill. 2) et de 1725 (ill. 3) ; Dugué a simplement
inclus dans la superficie du verger
la pointe du jardin qui se terminait
à la rue Saint-Paul, ce qui permettait de
vendre une bande de terrain où il serait
possible de subdiviser l’espace et d’autoriser
l’aménagement d’une nouvelle rue.
Le plan du jardin et du verger sert à
illustrer la faisabilité d’une proposition
d’affaire et non à mettre en valeur les
aménagements extérieurs. L’auteur du
plan n’avait donc pas intérêt à insister
sur la composition et la valeur ornementale
de ces espaces. Ce sont notamment
l’envergure de la superficie consacrée
en jardin et, plus précisément, le verger,
qui accroissent l’attrait de la propriété,
compte tenu de sa valeur foncière. À titre
comparatif, Dupuy évalue la maison et le
jardin, sans le verger, à vingt-huit mille
deux cent quarante-cinq livres 13 .
L’importance du jardin et du verger de
Ramezay à sa résidence de Montréal a
dû nécessiter l’embauche d’un jardinier,
situation cependant non documentée.
Par contre, un contrat intervenu entre
Claude de Ramezay et Gervais Chesnon,
jardinier embauché pour un an en 1693 14
pour s’occuper du jardin du gouverneur
résidant alors à Trois-Rivières, apporte un
élément de réponse. On constate chez le
gouverneur une constante dans le souci
d’aménager un jardin dans ses deux lieux
de résidence officielle.
Ce plan nouvellement retrouvé confirme,
dans un premier temps, la présence de
jardins attenants à la résidence de Claude
de Ramezay. Il permet d’obtenir une
image précise de l’organisation de la propriété.
Chez ce dernier, comme chez le
marquis de Vaudreuil, la disposition des
espaces extérieurs reprend le modèle déjà
apparu à Québec au siècle précédent et
dont témoigne Robert de Villeneuve dans
son plan de 1685 (ill. 12).
La maison du gouverneur de Ramezay correspond
à la demeure de petite noblesse
campagnarde – entre autres, par la prédominance
des espaces vivriers pouvant
aussi offrir des zones d’agrément –, un
modèle français qu’on pouvait également
transposer dans les agglomérations. Cette
découverte a aussi le mérite de mettre
un terme aux spéculations imprécises sur
la forme réelle du jardin du gouverneur
Claude de Ramezay.
Notes
1. Une toise compte 6 pieds français ; elle correspond
à 1,94 mètre ou 6,4 pieds anglais.
2. Archives nationales de France, CAOM, dossier
Claude de Ramezay, E344bis, feuillet 4, document
non paginé.
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Marie-José Fortier > Research Notes | Notes de recherche
8. Archives nationales de France, Paris, dossier
Vaudreuil, Marine, C7, n o 340.
3. Ibid.
4. Archives nationales de France, CAOM, dossier
Claude de Ramezay, E344bis, feuillet 7, non
paginé ; quant au « plan général » dont il est
question, il s’agit sans doute de celui réalisé
par Dugué en 1726 : « Plan de la ville et des
fortifications de Montréal relatif au mémoire
ci-dessus », 19 août, Archives nationales de
France, CAOM, Aix-en-Provence, 477/5pfb et
478/5pfB.
5. Id., feuillets 1 et 2.
6. Id., feuillet 6.
7. Ibid. Le premier mémoire s’intitule « Au sujet
de l’Emplacement et du verger de Madame de
Ramezay » et comprend deux pages. Le second
s’adresse à Monseigneur (sous-entendu, le ministre
de la Marine) ; il contient neuf pages
dans lesquelles Dupuy détaille l’évaluation qui
a été faite de la maison et propose diverses
solutions de rechange au ministre.
8. Au Musée du Château Ramezay, on savait que
des plans de la propriété avaient été confectionnés
au cours du Régime français, au moment
du décès du gouverneur, mais ceux-ci
n’avaient jamais été retracés. Nous les avons
retrouvés en consultant la liste complète des
plans de la collection Moreau de Saint-Méry,
au CAOM, où ils avaient été classés dans la
section « Guyane ».
9. Chaussegros de Léry, Gaspard-Joseph, 1734,
« Plan de la ville de Montréal dans la nouvelle
France », 300 toises, 15 (ou 16) octobre,
Archives nationales de France, CAOM, Aix-en-
Provence, 487pf.5B.
10. Weill, Joëlle, 2001, « Les jardins de Talcy, Loiret-Cher
», Monumental – annuel 2001, dossier
« Jardins historiques », Paris, Éditions du Patrimoine,
p. 48-49.
11. Nos recherches ne nous ont pas permis de
trouver le prénom de M. Dugué.
12. Archives nationales de France, CAOM, dossier
Claude de Ramezay, E344bis, « Au sujet de
l’emplacement et du verger de madame de
Ramezay », p. 1.
13. Id., p. 3.
14. Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec,
Montréal, Greffe Louis Chambalon, Québec,
30 octobre 1693.
74 JSSAC | JSÉAC 34 > N o 1 > 2009

Report | Rapport
National Arts Centre, Ottawa, Ontario
Rhona Goodspeed has been an architectural
historian with Parks Canada since 1990. During
>Rh o n a Go o d s p e e d
that time she has worked on a range of subjects,
including military complexes, historic districts,
cultural landscapes, ecclesiastical buildings,
houses, and other building types.
Designation
The National Arts Centre (NAC) was designated
a national historic site of Canada
in 2005. The reasons for its designation
are the following. It is an outstanding
example of a performing arts centre in
Canada for its overall design, its highly
successful integration into its urban setting,
its succession of interior spaces to
create dramatic effect, its unique combination
of performing spaces and the
progressive designs of each one, and its
integration of contemporary works of art
as part of its design. It is an outstanding
example of a building illustrating
the positive consequences of Canadian
federal policy on the performing arts
during the second half of the twentieth
century, considered, in the words
of Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson, as a
“national institution.” It is an example of
state-of-the-art performing spaces and
technology at the time of construction,
in particular for the aesthetic and technical
design of Southam Hall, which is an
exceptional example of a medium-sized
multipurpose auditorium representing an
inspired collaboration between architect
and acoustician.
Introduction
FIG. 1. National Arts Centre, Ottawa, Ontario; built in 1964-1969, Affleck, Desbarats, Dimakopoulos, Lebensold,
Sise, architect; from the east side of the Rideau Canal; 2001. | Marc Fowler, Courtesy of the National Arts Centre.
The National Arts Centre (NAC) is located
on the east side of Confederation Square
in the centre of downtown Ottawa
(figs. 1-3). It occupies an irregular site on a
steep slope descending from Elgin Street,
a major artery on the west, to the Rideau
Canal on the east. The Mackenzie King
Bridge, also a major artery, runs along the
south. Just to the north of the building is
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Fig. 2. Current site plan showing the location of the
NAC in relation to the surrounding streets
and the Rideau Canal. | NAC, n.d.
Fig. 4. Boundaries of the site. | City of Ottawa, 2002; and
Judith Dufresne, Historical Services Branch, Parks Canada, 2005.
Fig. 6. NAC from the north showing a hexagonal
stair tower on the left, and windows of the
Southam Hall lobby on the right. | Wayne Duford,
Parks Canada, Canadian Inventory of Historic Buildings, 1989.
Fig. 7. NAC from the west side of Elgin Street. The entrance
from this street is located behind the
car in the centre. | Wayne Duford, 1989.
Fig. 3. Aerial view of the NAC. To the northwest are
Confederation Square and the Parliament
Buildings. The Château Laurier is on the upper
right, on Rideau Street. Directly opposite and
beside the Rideau Canal is former Union
Station, now the Conference Centre. | NAC, 1970.
a small park with a manicured lawn, trees,
and paths as well as recent additions of
sculptures and balustrades (fig. 4).
The NAC is a complex structure of irregular
plan whose design is based on the
triangle and hexagon, from the overall
composition and layout down to decorative
details (figs. 5-10). The building
houses three main performing spaces: a
multipurpose auditorium with two thousand
three hundred and thirty-four seats,
formerly called the Opera Hall and renamed
Southam Hall in 2000 (figs. 5 and
11), the Theatre with eight hundred seats
(figs. 5 and 12), and the Studio with three
Fig. 5. Floor plan for the main level of the NAC. This is
the level of the main entrance, box office, main
foyer, and main lobbies to all performing spaces.
On the right is Southam Hall; in the centre is
the Theatre, and on the left is the Studio. To the
immediate left of Southam Hall is the much
smaller Salon. | Wilkinson Studios, courtesy of the NAC, 1965.
hundred (figs. 5 and 13), as well as the
Salon, a fourth space for small concerts
and receptions (fig. 5). In addition, the
centre houses two rehearsal halls, dressing
rooms, a workshop and prop room,
offices for administration, restaurants,
the Panorama and Fountain rooms for
public rental, and a nine hundred-space
subterranean parking garage. Designed in
the Brutalist style, the NAC is constructed
of poured reinforced concrete and covered
with precast panels of exposed
Laurentian-granite aggregate concrete
with a variety of textures. The visually
dominant components of its irregular
design are the three main performing
Fig. 8. View of the NAC from the southwest along
Elgin Street. | Rhona Goodspeed, Parks Canada, 2005.
spaces that rise above a series of terraces,
in the form of huge irregular hexagons
with flat roofs (fig. 3). The main elevation
faces the canal, where the principal, ceremonial
entrance is located at the second
level, accessible by car from a ramp descending
from Elgin Street and then paralleling
the entrance before descending
again to the level of the canal (figs. 10
and 14). A segment of the ramp forms a
section of the building structure as the
roof of Le Café, a restaurant for fine dining
at the canal level, where in summer
an outdoor terrace extends out towards
the canal (fig. 10). On the opposite side
of the building, along Elgin Street, below
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Fig. 9. Display windows on Elgin Street, formerly
looking into French and English bookstores,
an area now housing the Fourth Stage. | Rhona
Goodspeed, 2005.
Fig. 13. The Studio in 2000. | Marc Fowler, Courtesy of NAC.
Fig. 11. Southam Hall showing the decorative stage
curtain, designed by Micheline Beauchemin,
and the ceiling, designed by Julien Hébert;
1985. | André Dubreuil, courtesy of NAC.
Fig. 10. The NAC from the Mackenzie King Bridge,
showing the windows of the administrative
spaces and the ramp descending from
the main, ceremonial entrance on
the far right. Le Café is located beneath
the ramp. | Rhona Goodspeed, 2005.
Fig. 12. The Theatre in 1999. Since then, the rows
have been widened, the seat covers changed
to a bluer shade, and handrails have been
added. | Marc Fowler and Stephen Fenn, courtesy of NAC.
Fig. 14. Above is the entrance to the Studio lobby,
while the parking spaces are located directly
opposite the main entrance, seen below. On
the ceiling of the overhang are the hexagonal
light fixtures, also seen throughout the
public spaces in the interior. | Rhona Goodspeed, 2005
the terraces, are display windows originally
designed for commercial space, space
that is now used for the community performances
of the Fourth Stage, a small
multipurpose performance hall (figs. 7-9).
Two public pedestrian entrances to the
centre are also located on Elgin Street
(figs. 7 and 15).
Most of the interior walls of the public
spaces are covered with precast concrete
panels of the same materials as
the exterior. A number of contemporary
works of art have been introduced
into the centre, many of which are integrated
with the architecture, following
the tenets of modern architecture; these
works include sculptures, paintings, and
tapestries. Among them are: a nine-ton
abstract bronze sculpture by Montréal
sculptor and painter Charles Daudelin,
located on the south terrace (fig. 16);
the stage curtain designed by Québec
painter-weaver Micheline Beauchemin
and woven in Kyoto, Japan, for the
Southam Hall (fig. 11); a second stage
curtain for the hall by Canadian artist
Mariette Rousseau-Vermette; the ceiling
of Southam Hall by Canadian industrial
designer Julien Hébert (fig. 11); two huge
cast-aluminium doors with abstract relief
sculpture by Montréal sculptor Jordi
Bonet, opening into the Salon (fig. 17); a
large chandelier donated by the Swedish
government and a tapestry by Parisian
artist Alfred Manessier, woven in France,
both in the Salon; European artist Ossip
Zadkine’s Trois Grâces, a bronze formerly
in the National Gallery of Canada
(fig. 18); a sixty-foot-high relief sculpture
of brushed aluminium, by Montréal artist
Gino Lorcini, on the wall of the Theatre
lobby (fig. 19); a glass and metal sculpture
for a fountain, designed by Julien
Hébert, in the Studio lobby (fig. 20); an
abstract mural called Homage to Robert
F. Kennedy, by Canadian painter William
Ronald, in front of the Studio and
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Fig. 15. Entrance on Elgin Street, opening to a
passage leading to the box office and
to Southam Hall. Just to the left may be
glimpsed the terrace. A second entrance, to
the Fourth Stage, is located, further south
on Elgin. | Rhona Goodspeed, 2005.
Fig. 18. Three Graces, by Ossip Zadkine, in one of the
stairwells on the level of the main lobby of
Southam Hall. | Courtesy of NAC, n.d.
Fig. 21. Detail of Homage to Robert F. Kennedy,
by William Ronald. | Rhona Goodspeed, 2005.
Fig. 16. Bronze sculpture, 25 feet long, 10.5 feet
high, by Charles Daudelin, on the southern
terrace. | Rhona Goodspeed, 2005.
Fig. 19. Sculpture by Montréal artist Gino
Lorcini, on the wall of the Theatre
lobby. | Rhona Goodspeed, 2005.
Fig. 22. Chandelier in stairwell, by William
Martin. | Rhona Goodspeed, 2005.
Fig. 17. The pair of cast aluminium doors by Jordi
Bonet, opening into the Salon. | The Canadian
Architect, July 1969, vol. 14, no. 7, p. 59.
Fig. 20. Studio lobby with sculpture in hexagonal
water fountain. In the background is a painting
by British Columbia artist Jack Shadbolt,
and on the left is a glimpse of the work by
William Ronald. | Rhona Goodspeed, 2005.
Fig. 23. One of four tapestries designed for the
walls behind each of the bars in the lobbies
of Southam Hall. | Rhona Goodspeed, 2005.
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extending into three levels (figs. 20-21);
and five chandeliers of metal and glass
spirals suspended within five wells for
staircases, by William Martin from Milton,
Massachusetts (fig. 22). Tapestries were
also installed in each of the four lobbies
of Southam Hall, and in the lobby of the
Studio (fig. 23).
In addition, the NAC’s nine hundred-space
underground parking garage, on three
levels, is fully integrated with the structure
of the building and the surrounding
site, and partially located beneath the
Mackenzie King Bridge. The parking lot is
accessed and exited at four points, 1 and in
turn provides access to the public spaces
by means of escalators, the top one rising
into the foyer of the box office, and
by means of elevators, just to the north
of that foyer.
Historic Value of the Place
This section discusses the NAC with respect
to the guidelines for built heritage of the
modern era. 2 It begins with a discussion
of the social and political conditions that
brought about the federal government’s
construction of the NAC. The Massey Report
is then considered, and the building
is shown to be an exceptional illustration
of Canadian cultural policy concerning
the performing arts during the second
half of the twentieth century, in particular
federal government subsidization of
culture and related activities. The NAC
is also considered briefly in its role as a
national ceremonial meeting place for
heads of state and visiting dignitaries,
which was a significant improvement to
Canada’s capital. This is followed by a
discussion of its performing spaces from
a functional and technical point of view,
and how this programme determined, to
a large extent, the architectural design
and use of materials, with an emphasis
on the Opera Hall. Following is an analysis
of the architecture of the whole as a new
expression of form both stylistically and
functionally. Here it is demonstrated that
the building is an outstanding example of
a performing arts centre for its design in
the modern, Brutalist style, for its successful
integration with its site and setting,
and for the design of its interior spaces,
including the integration of contemporary
art with the architecture, an expression of
the tenets of modern architecture.
Changing Social, Political
and /or Economic Conditions
The NAC is an outstanding example of
a building illustrating the evolution of
Canadian federal policy on culture during
the second half of the twentieth
century and, as one of a number of
performing arts centres built across the
country, the flowering of the performing
arts nationally during the 1960s. Its construction
was a significant contribution
to the improvement of Canada’s capital,
including its role as a place to entertain
visiting dignitaries.
One of the most important early steps
taken by the federal government in the
development of the Canadian cultural
policy on the arts was without doubt the
Royal Commission on National Development
in the Arts, Letters and Sciences
(1949-1951). 3 Chaired by Vincent Massey,
then chancellor of the University of
Toronto; the commission was unprecedented
in Canada in nature and in scope.
Its role was to examine federal institutions
concerned with Canadian history
and traditions that enriched Canadian
life, for example the CBC, the National
Film Board, the National Gallery, and the
Public Archives. One of the commission’s
particular areas of investigation was the
stystem of aid offered by the federal government.
The Massey Report became a
landmark of the “utmost importance in
the cultural history of Canada,” as it advocated
“the principle of federal patronage
of a wide range of cultural activities” and
proposed the establishment of a Canada
Council to provide federal subsidies for,
among other things, the arts across Canada.
4 The Canada Council was eventually
established in 1957, along the lines suggested
in the report. State support of the
arts had long been taken for granted in
most European countries and, in fact,
had already been “flourishing modestly”
in the province of Québec; however,
the idea was unpopular in Canada and
North America, where advocacy of public
spending for the arts was considered
detrimental to a political career.
The Massey Report addressed the performing
arts in three separate chapters,
on the theatre, ballet, and music. For all
three areas, it reported that there were
ample Canadian talent, audiences, and
annual festivals, and a significant growth
in the appreciation of these arts in recent
years. 5 However, in all three areas, it was
reported that there was inadequate financial
support. In addition, it described a
nationwide lack of adequate performance
facilities. For theatre, the report stated:
“Every great drama […] has been shaped
by its playhouse,” while “facilities for
the advanced training in the arts of the
theatre are non-existent in Canada,” and
even amateur companies are “grievously
handicapped, through lack of suitable or
of any playhouses.” 6 Consequently, only
a few theatre companies existed. Further,
there were inadequate rehearsal
facilities. 7 The report called for federal
subsidies to build suitable playhouses
throughout Canada, and mentioned the
possibility of building a National Theatre
in Ottawa, from which travelling companies
could go on tour across Canada.” 8 For
music and ballet, too, there was a lack
of suitable quarters for rehearsal and
performance, impeding growth of these
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arts. 9 The commission reported that the
country was singularly deficient in concert
halls. “Without exception, in all […]
centres […] visited […] the musical life of
the community is gravely handicapped
through lack of appropriate quarters for
concerts and recitals.” 10
The idea of a performing arts centre
in Ottawa was taken up in 1952, when
Vincent Massey, then Governor General,
commissioned a study on the feasibility of
the creation of an annual performing arts
festival in the capital, modelled after the
highly successful Edinburgh Festival. The
main obstacle was identified as the near
complete lack of adequate facilities for
the performing arts in the national capital.
11 At that time the Capitol Theatre, a
movie palace (demolished), was Ottawa’s
premier stage; while it had a good number
of seats, its stage was shallow, and
there were few dressing rooms, little
wing space, and insufficient storage space
for scenery. Venues for theatre, choral,
and orchestral ensembles were generally
schools; for example the Canadian
Repertory Theatre, Ottawa’s acclaimed
professional theatre company, made use
of the La Salle Academy, a high school,
and the amateur Ottawa Drama League
(now the Ottawa Little Theatre) at first
performed in the museum on McLeod
Street, and later in a converted church
on King Edward Avenue. 12
By 1963, over fifty arts groups in the
National Capital Region had come
together to collectively embrace the idea
of the creation of a performing arts centre
in Ottawa. The National Capital Arts
Alliance (NCAA) argued that the capital
of “an ever more culturally confident and
mature country deserved better theatrical
facilities.” 13 With funding from the
Canada Council and volunteer organizations,
it commissioned professional consultants
to prepare a well-researched
and detailed report on requirements for
a National Centre for the Performing
Arts and the establishment within it
of an annual festival, as envisioned by
Massey’s 1952 study. 14 Identifying its project
within a national and international
context, rather than local, this group was
united in its determination to improve the
cultural life of Canada and its capital. Its
president was G. Hamilton Southam, who
held that the NCAA were “spiritual successors”
to Massey and his commission.
Inherent in the NCAA’s proposal for a centre
was a “humanist belief that culture
must form an integral part of Canadian
society, and become the cornerstone of a
distinct Canadian identity.” 15 The report
reiterated the absence of a concert hall
and playhouse facilities in Ottawa. Why,
it asked, support the arts, if there was no
centre for them in which to perform? 16
The NCAA called on Prime Minister Lester
B. Pearson to build the centre and establish
an annual festival of the arts. The
Prime Minister took up the project; like
the NCAA, he set it within an international
context, pointing out that the United
States and Australia were already building
similar centres. Within the national
context, he saw the centre as having potential
for reducing the strain between
English and French Canadians, bringing
about a unifying effect. He felt that “[a]
National Centre to which the best in
the development of both cultures could
be brought for performances and from
which the development of both could
be encouraged, could become a helpful
force in the future of the country.” 17 Prime
Minister Pearson stated that the Canada
Council was an “imaginative first step,”
while “the establishment of a cultural
centre with a gradually developing programme
of activities would be a logical
and positive second step” in this regard. 18
It would also be a central facility for national
organizations serving the arts, and
would develop repertory theatre companies
in both languages, possibly a resident
orchestra, and a national festival, which
would be dependent on the centre. It was,
of course, to be a bilingual institution.
With Cabinet approval in 1963, the proposed
centre became the only major centenary
project under federal government
study for Ottawa. 19 The six and a half-acre
site, finally chosen amid great controversy
in 1964, was donated by the city. 20
G. Hamilton Southam was chosen as the
project’s full-time coordinator and four
subcommittees made up of representatives
of the performing arts community
were created to advise on building requirements.
The Montréal firm of Affleck,
Desbarats, Dimakopoulos, Lebensold,
Sise was selected to prepare the plans,
with Fred Lebensold (1918-1985) as lead
architect, reporting to James Langford,
chief architect of Public Works, under
whose direction the building was constructed.
As architect of Place des Arts in
Montréal, the Queen Elizabeth Theatre
in Vancouver, and the Centennial Centre
in Charlottetown, the firm already had
considerable experience in the field. The
NAC was one of a number of performing
arts centres built across the country during
that time, a part of the “gathering
movement across the country,” in the
words of the Honourable Judy Lamarsh,
“to provide housing that will be worthy
of the high standard of excellence of our
leading artistic companies.” 21 In fact, some
forty to fifty projects for performing arts
centres were under consideration across
the country in 1964. 22
Construction of the NAC began in 1965.
Built at a cost of forty-six million four
hundred thousand dollars, the edifice
was entirely paid for by the federal government.
Not completed in time for the
Centennial as planned, the centre officially
opened two years later, on June 2,
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Fig. 24. Cross sections of designs for the performing spaces, showing the Studio
on the upper left, the Theatre on the upper right, and the Opera,
below; 1965. | Wilkinson Studios, courtesy of the NAC.
Fig. 25. The National Arts Centre Orchestra on the stage of Southam Hall in 1990.
In the background are the boxes on either side and along the rear the four
levels of orchestra, mezzanine, amphitheatre and balcony. | Fred Cattroll,
courtesy of the NAC.
1969, still a part of the euphoric spirit
of the Centennial and attracting international
attention, both for its inaugural
stage presentations and for its fine architecture.
23 The Opera opened with the
National Ballet of Canada’s production
of a new ballet, Kraanerg, with choreography
by Roland Petit and music by Iannis
Xenakis, conducted by Lukas Foss; the
Theatre opened with Michel Tremblay’s
adaptation of Aristophanes’s Lysistrata,
produced by the Théâtre du Nouveau
Monde, directed by André Brassard;
and the Studio opened with a new play
called Party Day, written and directed
by Jack Winter. Former Prime Minister
Lester B. Pearson, on opening day, described
the NAC as more than a building:
“This is not an arts centre—it is a national
institution.” 24 The realization of the National
Arts Centre in Ottawa was both a
major architectural and cultural achievement
for the federal government. 25
The NAC was operated by a crown corporation
established by an Act of Parliament
that had received Royal Assent in
1966. G. Hamilton Southam was chosen
as its head, and held the position of director
general of the NAC from 1967 to
1977. The National Arts Centre Corporation
was “to operate and maintain the
Centre, to promote the development
and production of the performing arts
in the National Capital Region, and to
assist the Canada Council in the development
of the performing arts elsewhere
in Canada.” 26 While the corporation was
to be governed by an independent board
of trustees, funding was to come from an
annual appropriation from federal funds,
as well as from its own earned revenues.
Subsidies for the performing arts were
part of the idea from the beginning.
The NAC, though, needed to have resident
companies, that is “a heart that beats,” in
the words of Jean Gascon, chairman of the
Advisory Committee on Theatre. 27 In 1967-
1969, the National Arts Centre Orchestra
(NACO) was created under music director
Jean-Marie Beaudet and founding conductor
Maestro Mario Bernardi. A firm
foundation for theatre was established
in 1971, when touring companies for
youth audiences, known as The Hexagon
in English and l’Hexagone in French, were
established, and seasons in English and
French for visiting and in-house productions
were created for the NAC’s stages in
the Theatre and the Studio. 28 That same
year, Festival Canada came into being;
though modest, it heralded the establishment
of a festival centred on opera
and chamber music, which would eventually
garner international recognition for
Canada. In 1973, undoubtedly due to the
success of the NAC, federal government
subsidies increased, with the government
announcing that it would allocate twenty
percent more to the centre in the coming
year. G. Hamilton Southam announced
that he would speak out for even more
money in the years ahead: the “centre
has proven itself a success and attitudes
have changed […] [it is] obvious not only
in Ottawa but in the centre’s contribution
to the performing arts across Canada.”
The NAC has staged performances from
grand opera, to hard rock shows, to outdoor
sing-alongs. 29
Canada’s capital now had elegant spaces
for visiting dignitaries and for Canadian
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Fig. 26. Widely spaced fins on exterior of Southam Hall lobby, angled in the
direction of the Parliament Buildings. | Rhona Goodspeed, 2005.
Fig. 27. View from the terrace showing the National War Memorial and,
behind it, the East Block and the Peace Tower of the Parliament
Buildings. | Rhona Goodspeed, 2005.
and international performances. Ottawa
was transformed culturally by the construction
of the NAC, with its variety of
performing spaces under one roof and
its central location on Confederation
Square, the city’s second most important
ceremonial space, and in proximity
to the most important, the Parliamentary
grounds. The NAC was also intended
as a national ceremonial meeting place,
where national events would be held and
national and international heads of state
and dignitaries would visit as guests of
Canada. Over the years an impressive list
of kings, queens, heads of state, and internationally
famous persons, including, of
course, great artists, have passed through
the doors of the centre. Command and
state performances are an integral part
of the Centre’s mandate. There is a long
list of command performances as well as
state occasions that have been held at
the NAC. The government of Canada has
used the NAC as an instrument of Canadian
cultural prestige, and as a point of
access to Canadians for culture from other
countries. 30 With the opening of the NAC
in 1969, a range and variety of types of
performances, in both official languages,
were offered on a regular basis in appropriate
and highly attractive spaces, in a
central location.
Technological Advances
In the design of the performing spaces,
the architect had two main objectives: first
to provide a different spatial experience
in each one; and second to make each of
them as versatile as possible for differing
types of performances. 31 The Opera was
to be an auditorium to accommodate a
wide range of performances with large
audiences; the Theatre to be for smaller
productions, of plays, and the Studio for a
range of performances as well, but especially
for experimental works (fig. 24). All
three had specific technical requirements,
especially with respect to acoustics and
lighting. The American firm Bolt, Beranek
& Newman, Inc. (BBN) provided advice
on, and supervision of, the design of the
acoustics for all three spaces.
The largest of the performing spaces,
the Opera, was to be a multipurpose
hall, which at the time was a relatively
new concept but was coming into more
frequent use. 32 It was to accommodate
orchestra, opera, and ballet, as well as
popular musicians and other functions.
The enormous stage area, which was
slightly larger than the auditorium itself,
was the second largest in North America
at the time. 33 It included an orchestra
pit that could be raised or lowered. The
acoustical design had a major impact on
the space’s architecture. Acoustics and
architecture were very closely related
in auditorium design, with dimensions,
materials, shaping, and surface orientations
playing direct and often key roles
in establishing the quality of sound. 34
World-renowned acoustician Russell
Johnson of BBN was project supervisor
as well as acoustic designer for the Opera
Hall. 35 For such a multipurpose hall, it was
necessary to be able to vary the acoustic
environment. In the design process
of a performing space, the acoustician
advises the architect, who then decides
how the architecture of the space shall
be. For the Opera, most of the requirements
laid out by Russell to create good
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sound effects were incorporated or at
least taken into account by the architect.
Among these was the seating capacity:
the larger the hall, the more difficult it is
to achieve satisfactory hearing conditions
for a variety of types of performances. 36
The relatively small capacity of the hall,
that is under about two thousand four
hundred, was a good choice and represented
the current trend of the previous
five years towards smaller seating capacities.
A compact audience chamber also
had a positive effect for most types of
performances; for the Opera the dimensions
chosen were about as long, or deep,
from the front to the rear of the audience,
as they were wide. In addition, the
tiering of seats along the side walls and
across the rear, using three levels, as opposed
to the one or two used in most
auditoriums from about 1920-1963, was
also a positive choice, as were the fascias
of the boxes and balconies, which provided
for shorter time delays, for many
seats, for reflected sound (fig. 25). The
fairly steep, rather than shallow, rake of
the Opera also added to the quality of
the acoustics (fig. 24). The use of thick
materials throughout was preferable, as
thin materials tended to vibrate more easily,
deadening the sound. In addition to
the concrete pillars supporting the hall,
there were inverted plaster pyramids as
part of a suspended ceiling; 37 the carpets
and fully upholstered seats also helped.
For rehearsal purposes, the seats, when
empty and folded, were designed to reproduce
absorption qualities of human
beings: the metal underneath the seat
itself was perforated, so rather than reflecting
sound, it allowed it to pass into
the upholstery. The thin glass walls of the
hall were thickened on the inside with
vertically attached aluminium diffusers,
each of varying thickness, to break up
some of the sound. To alter the hall for
symphony concerts, the stage could be
enclosed with a solid reflective bandshell
made of plywood, whose front surfaces
were articulated by the addition of aluminium
diffusers. 38 Motor-operated cloth
curtains were installed just below the upper
ceiling, above the boxes and along
the rear wall: by retracting the curtains,
reverberance was increased; by extending
them, the articulation of sound was increased.
39 This was a relatively new system
that had been little tried elsewhere. 40
Helmhotz chambers were also added outside
the hall, above the collector aisles;
these could be opened for symphonies,
increasing reverberation within the hall.
The orchestra pit, when lowered, functioned
as an acoustic shell.
Just below the ceiling of the hall, a catwalk
was installed, camouflaged by
means of the aesthetic design of the ceiling
(fig. 11). The catwalk was not included
in the initial designs, but it was very soon
realized that one would be needed, both
for sound requirements and, in particular,
for lighting, for example, the spotlight.
Technical facilities included a lighting
system whereby a required sequence of
changes in light levels could be recorded
in rehearsal and played back in the correct
order during performance. 41 Also
along the catwalk was an array of sound
loudspeakers; others were installed in
the box and balcony soffits. The console
for this system was located in the control
room behind and above the top balcony. 42
Just above this catwalk network was an
array of remote-controlled sound-reflecting
panels, which were vertically placed
for concerts and horizontally placed for
musical comedy and lectures. This was
also a new technology.
Acoustician Russell Johnson strongly
praised the collaboration between the
architect and acoustician in the Opera. In
his words, “Bolt, Beranek and Newman
have worked on many auditorium projects,
but in only some of these has the
architect availed himself of more than
a fraction of advice proffered. One example
of true collaboration in this regard
is the 2300-seat Opera Hall in Ottawa.” 43
The acoustics of the NAC were highly
praised in reviews at the time of the
building’s opening: “Canada’s National
Arts Centre opened in Ottawa with
three theatres and some of the world’s
most advanced technical facilities for the
performing arts;” 44 and the NAC “constitue
une réussite incontestable sur le
plan de la qualité architecturale et de
l’équipement technique.” 45 Performers,
for example of opera and ballet, were
also very happy with the hall, while musicians
had some reservations—though
music of the orchestra was well articulated,
it tended to be dry, as was the
case with multipurpose halls in general.
In spite of the dryness of the sound perceived
by musicians and music lovers,
in the words of one critic at the time,
“there are no acoustical mistakes; sound
at all frequencies is well distributed.” 46
Since the hall was built, many of its features
continue to promote high quality
sound, especially the basic design of the
hall. The hydraulically-controlled curtains
are still used; although technical testing
has shown that they have little effect,
in practice, listeners can hear a positive
difference when they are used. 47 However,
the sound reflecting panels on the
ceiling were removed because they were
not effective. Recently there was a major
improvement for the orchestra: the
addition of an electronic sound system,
to improve the acoustics and add warmth
to the sound. For this, speakers were added
onto the side and back walls and the
ceiling, as well as above the orchestra.
The system adds reverberation and time
delay, and the NACO is extremely happy
with it. While the possibility of significantly
upgrading the acoustics has been
considered in recent years, it would not
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be possible without substantially altering
the architecture of the hall as well as closing
it for a year or two. Therefore this
was not seriously considered. 48
The eight hundred-seat Theatre was arranged
in an amphitheatre plan, with
the seats in a semi-circle; it had a single
balcony and a steep rake (figs. 12 and
24). The stage was adjustable: it had a
thrust stage and a vomitory to allow the
actors to enter through the audience, or it
could accommodate traditional proscenium
productions, in which case the apron
portion of the stage could either provide
additional seating or be lowered to create
an orchestra pit. 49 At the time of construction,
a theatre combining adjustable
stage facilities of this type with an amphitheatre
plan was unique and remains
so in the professional world in Canada.
It presented a “tremendous architectural
challenge” and since its construction has
been “a very successful space.” 50
The Studio was designed to be an experimental
space and was therefore
highly flexible with extensive capabilities
(figs. 24 and 33). 51 Here, there was no
fixed position for the stage or for seating
arrangements. There was a shallow balcony
all around the space; any part of the
floor or balcony could be used for performers
or spectators and curtains were
available if desired. Both the main and
balcony levels had public and backstage
entrances and the two were connected
by a variety of demountable stairs. The
Studio’s three hundred seats could be arranged
in innumerable ways: they could
be either small seat wagons or chairs; the
chairs could be placed on demountable
stairs, if desired. Risers could be installed
or removed. The ceiling was a steel hexagonal
grid which allowed great flexibility
for lighting effects. Above the grid, which
could be removed, was equipment for flying
scenery, a function rarely seen in experimental
spaces. The only mechanized
equipment was a hexagonal lift near the
centre, which could be lowered to form a
pit or raised for use as a platform. 52 As an
experimental space was usually a “black
box,” either adapted from an already
existing space or inexpensively built, the
Studio was unique in Canada at the time
of construction and probably remains
so today. The Studio retains its original
flexibility, though the original seating has
since been adapted to conform to the fire
code, which required some seats to be
attached to others. According to Macy
Dubois in The Canadian Architect, “The
Studio is a remarkable achievement both
as a great performing space and very fine
architecture.” 53
When the NAC was built there was no
precedent on which to model this combination
of facilities. 54 Further, each one
of them was unique and represented the
state of the art in its technical facilities.
Louis Applebaum, musical advisor for
the NAC, praised the technical facilities
and spaces for performers of the NAC
in 1971:
Wing space, side stages, backstages,
workshops, dressing room areas, film
projection equipment and radio and
television facilities have all been considered
carefully. Whether it be the computerized
lighting console, or the latest-designed
rigging system, everything is provided to
satisfy the artistic ambitions of the most
demanding producers. For them, life at the
Centre should be a joy!” 55
New Expressions of Form and/or
Responses to Functional Demands
The NAC is an outstanding example of a
performing arts centre for its design in
the Brutalist style, for its integration into
its urban setting, and for the effective
integration of art into the architectural
design. The building is also of interest
for its very carefully designed interior
which unites several different types of
performing space in one building, and
creates public spaces which are carefully
designed to provide delight and enjoyment
for spectators by means of spatial
design, art, aesthetics, and lighting effects.
No cost was spared on this fine
building, from its overall design down to
the finest details. 56 According to architectural
historian Janet Wright, the building
epitomizes the architectural aesthetic of
the 1960s in Canada. 57
The architects were given freedom in
developing the design, 58 and they took
inspiration from the general shape of the
building’s site (fig. 3). In Fred Lebensold’s
words, the shape of the whole centre was
dictated, “as much by the site on which
the buildings are located as by the purpose
for which they are intended […] The
hexagonal pattern reflects the shape of
the site.” 59 The sixty-degree angle at the
northeast corner of the intersection of the
Rideau Canal and Rideau Street provided
inspiration for the sixty-degree angles of
the hexagon, while the site as a whole
was generally triangular. The hexagon
and the triangle were the basic modular
units used throughout the building (except
for the parking lot), reappearing
in plans for the performing spaces, for
stairs, for decorative details of the ceiling
and floor, as well as for the layout of the
dressing rooms and rehearsal halls for the
use of the performers.
The building was designed to house a
number of functions; in addition to the
primary functions of performing spaces
and related facilities, it included commercial
spaces, restaurants, and a huge
underground parking lot. The style chosen
was Brutalism, a term derived from the
French term béton brut, meaning raw
concrete, and coined in 1954 to describe
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architecture influenced by Le Corbusier’s
unité d’habitation in Marseilles, with its
surfaces of exposed concrete. 60 During
the 1950s, the International style of the
Bauhaus, with its plain smooth surfaces,
large expanses of glass, and floor plans
based on a square or rectangular module,
was the dominant approach to building
design. These values were challenged in
1956 by Peter and Alison Smithson from
England and architect Aldo van Eyck from
the Netherlands, who called themselves
“Team Ten,” at the tenth meeting of
Le Congrès international d’architecture
moderne (CIAM). They took inspiration
from other sources such as utilitarian
buildings, for example warehouses, and
from expressionistic architecture. When
the group later divided up, two separate
movements developed, one of which became
known as Brutalism.
Fig. 28. Architect’s plot plan, showing a plan of
the NAC within the context of never-executed
components of the proposed Parkin Plan,
including a conference centre and a widening
of the canal (above left), a pedestrian
walkway across the canal (top centre) and
an art gallery (right); 1965.| Courtesy of the NAC.
Fig. 30. Main lobby at night, with the grand staircase
on the right and the upper level,
originally a restaurant and now the Panorama
Room, on the left. On the far wall is
projected an image of the corporate symbol
of the NAC, three intertwined hexagons;
1998. | Courtesy of the NAC.
Fig. 29. Interior of main lobby showing the later
addition of the display cases and a glimpse
of the box office foyer through the doors.
The black curtain above the pillars was hung
temporarily for an event. | Rhona Goodspeed, 2005.
Brutalism appeared in North America in
the late 1950s. Paul Rudolph’s Art and
Architecture Building at Yale, New Haven,
constructed in 1958-1962, was described
as a revolt against the Miesian
“universal space” glass box. 61 An asymmetrical,
seven-storey composition with
vertical towers and concrete walls with
rugged texture and vertical striations,
the building contained thirty-seven levels
of interpenetrating and overlapping
platforms. The then-current interest at
Yale in the relationship of buildings to
the urban landscape was reflected in Rudolph’s
Art and Architecture Building. His
design built on slightly earlier works by
Louis Kahn (such as Richard Laboratories
in Philadelphia, 1957-1962) and by Frank
Lloyd Wright. More or less contemporary
to it was Kahn’s famous Salk Institute, of
concrete and wood, with a plaza framing
the Pacific Ocean. Kahn went on to
design buildings in the Brutalist style in
Asia, while Kenzo Tange (1913-2005), the
most influential architect in post-war
Japan, worked in the style there, designing
megastructures such as the huge Yamanashi
press and broadcasting centre,
with seven towers, built in 1964-1967.
Internationally the style remained popular
for buildings through the 1970s.
Brutalism became popular for buildings
in Canada during the 1960s, when Canadian
architects, like their counterparts
elsewhere before them, were seeking, in
the words of Janet Wright,
to redefine and rethink modern architecture
in terms of humanistic rather than
mechanistic values. In formal terms,
the pristine cubic volumes and the slick,
Fig. 31. View of the balcony lobby of Southam Hall.
In the background is a glimpse of one of the
hexagonal staircases. | Rhona Goodspeed, 2005.
translucent surfaces associated with the
International style were being supplanted
by an architecture of textured surfaces and
complex compositions composed of varied
and irregular masses. 62
Brutalism generally made use of exposed
concrete, expressing the ruggedness and
weight of masonry. Designs often incorporated
block-like geometric shapes and
were frequently irregular. Texture played
a significant role in the style’s aesthetic;
surfaces, of which there were large expanses,
could be of rough, unadorned
poured concrete, or textured to create
different effects, sometimes alluding to
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Fig. 32. Main lobby before the addition of the dais
and partitions for the Donors’ Circle,
and before the blocking in of the skylights;
1980. | Courtesy of NAC.
Fig. 33. The Studio with the original chairs. |
The Canadian Architect, July 1969, vol. 14, no. 7, p. 49,
a building’s interior functions. Brutalist
buildings are often criticized for being
unfriendly and uncommunicative instead
of integrative and protective, as was originally
intended; for example, the location
of the entrance is rarely obvious
to the visitor. Many Brutalist structures,
however, came to be appreciated in time
for their uniqueness or eye-catching appearance.
One well-known Canadian example
of Brutalism is Place Bonaventure
in Montréal, also designed by Affleck,
Desbarats, Dimakopoulos, Lebensold,
Sise, and constructed in 1964-1968, at a
time when most North American buildings
were designed for a single purpose. 63
Located on a six-acre site, this multipurpose
building houses a two-level retail
arcade, an exhibition area, five levels of
merchandising mart, an international
trade centre and a four hundred-bedroom
hotel, as well as attractively landscaped
courtyards. The exterior walls are cast-inplace
concrete panels exhibiting a variety
of sandblasted finishes on a reinforced
concrete frame with few windows. Its
weighty and massive appearance and textured
and monolithic surfaces are characteristic
of the Brutalist style.
Brutalism was a style admirably suited
to the function of a theatre, with the
requirement for interior spaces insulated
from outdoors sights and sounds. The
style’s flexibility also made it an appropriate
choice to enclose a range of functions
and to adapt to an irregular site. The
NAC’s irregular, monolithic-like massing
reflected its interior functions and was
dominated by the three main performing
spaces and associated lobbies and stairs
rising out of the series of low-lying terraces
forming the roof of much of the rest
of the building (figs. 4 and 8). A lower,
more regular block-like mass housed the
administrative section on the southeast
at the level of the bridge (figs. 1 and 10).
The precast concrete panels sheathing the
walls were treated in a variety of textures,
corresponding in some areas to interior
functions, with widely spaced fins on the
lobbies, smaller-scaled ribs on theatre sections,
and flat surfaces on service spaces
(fig. 26). According to Janet Wright, “the
architects treated the surface in a variety
of contrasting textures to give the building
the sense of fortress-like solidity and
rugged massing that defined the Brutalist
aesthetic of the 1960s in Canada.” 64 On
the canal side, the ceremonial entrance
was at the second level, while above, on
the next level, a covered walkway provided
access from the terrace to the restaurant
for fine dining for patrons above
(figs. 1 and 14). At the lowest level, to the
south, beneath the descending ramp, was
a more informal restaurant called Le Café
(fig. 10). With its compositional complexity,
created in part by the repeated use of
the hexagon and triangle in various sizes
and forms, the building assumed an organic
quality of constantly shifting views,
as the visitor moved around the building
and along the terraces. 65
The terraces were designed as an integral
part of the building, comprising a range
of spaces that were shaped aesthetically
partly by the landscaping which included
a number of planters, all faced with the
same precast concrete panels, and often
of hexagonal shape. These were to contain
a variety of plantings, including trees,
shrubs and, in summer, flowers (figs. 3
and 16). The terraces were also carefully
designed to create views of some of the
city’s most significant structures: of the
Centre and East blocks of the Parliament
Buildings, of the National War Memorial
on Confederation Square and of the
Château Laurier, emphasizing the NAC’s
role as a place to entertain heads of state
and dignitaries (fig. 27). The constantly
shifting quality of spaces as one moved
through them reflected the Brutalist
aesthetic; they included spaces that are
open and exposed, intimate and secluded,
sunny and shady. Accessible from the
lobbies of the Opera and Theatre, the terraces
allowed members of the audience
to stroll outside during intermissions. Also
accessible from the street, these spaces
were additionally intended to provide a
setting for outdoor concerts in summer.
Further interest was added to the terraces
by means of art. For example, on the
south terrace is a large nine-ton bronze
contemporary abstract sculpture by Québec
sculptor and painter Charles Daudelin
(1920-2001), creator of a number of public
monuments during his career (fig. 16). 66
The Massey Report, which had criticized
the International style for its “poverty of
emotional appeal,” called for “painting
and colour, however, modest in scale,” and
“collaboration of architect, painter, and
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sculptor […] With the modern appreciation
of light, both artificial and daylight,
with broad surfaces of unbroken wall and
a free and open plan in public areas, there
is every opportunity to make the utmost
of the art of painting and sculptor.” 67 The
report went on to encourage the use of
art in the design of buildings. Beginning
in the late 1950s, through the 1960s up
to the present, art has been included
within the designs of modern buildings.
Modern sculpture began to “grace the
otherwise windswept plazas of modern
ensembles.” 68 The incorporation of the
Daudelin on the exterior, as well as of
other pieces of art in the interior, was
an expression of the then-current trend
in modern design to introduce and integrate
art within buildings, to enhance the
architectural design. During these years,
art appeared not only within the lobby
space of buildings, but also as a part of
the basic design concept of a number of
public and commercial buildings, including
theatres of the 1960s. For the NAC,
in order to create a building embodying
the latest and most up-to-date modern
design, a visual arts advisory committee
was set up to select artists and/or works
of art to be included in the centre, all
decisions made in full agreement with
the architect. Included on the committee
were K.M. Fenwick, curator of prints
and drawings at the National Gallery of
Canada, and British Columbia painter Bertram
Charles Binning. The Daudelin was
the only work on the exterior, but there
were glimpses of some of the spiral chandeliers
from the terraces, through the tall
narrow windows.
While the terraces were a highly attractive
feature of the architecture, they
were also central to the integration of the
building with its immediate surroundings
and setting, both visually and functionally.
While the orientation of the NAC
has been criticized for turning its back
on Confederation Square, 69 the architects
took great care to integrate the building
with its surrounding urban space, aesthetically
by means of the terraces and functionally
by means of both the terraces and
the control of pedestrian and traffic flows
around the building. The terraces were intended
to be a part of the cityscape. Fred
Lebensold, commenting on the impact of
the centre, explained that because it was
located in a public square, where it would
have been “unthinkable to impede the
normal flow of pedestrian traffic, the site
was developed as a series of pedestrian
terraces.” 70 These were made accessible
from various points along the street, for
example by means of stairs leading up
from Elgin Street and the bridge, or directly
from the sidewalk. The major eastwest
artery of Queen Street was lined up
with the opening from the sidewalk on
Elgin Street onto the terrace, providing a
functional link for pedestrians over to the
Mackenzie King Bridge, as well as leading
down to the main entrance and box office
foyer (figs. 2-3). Pedestrians heading
towards the centre could also access the
main entrance via the park on the north
(fig. 3), or through the modest entrance
directly on Elgin Street (fig. 15). Like
some other Brutalist buildings, neither
the main nor the subsidiary entrances to
the NAC were easily identifiable to the
uninitiated (figs. 7 and 15). 71 The building
was further linked to its urban environment
by facing commercial spaces onto
Elgin Street (fig. 9), used as bookstores
for many years and accessed by doors to
the north and south. In addition, Le Café,
a restaurant on the opposite side of the
building, was accessible from outside at
the level of the canal. Traffic flow around
the building, and vehicular access to it,
were other key, if purely functional considerations
(fig. 2). Located at “the hub
of the city’s traffic plan,” 72 the NAC would
draw thousands of visitors on a regular
basis. The vehicular access to and exit
from the underground parking lot at four
points were designed to disperse traffic
and eliminate traffic jams. 73
To fully understand the design of the
building in relation to its setting, it should
be considered within its original design
context, that of the Parkin Plan, which
was commissioned by the National Capital
Commission and drawn up in 1962, to
develop Confederation Square and renew
the urban core of Ottawa. 74 Fred Lebensold
had stated that “The National Arts
Centre is, of course, only part of the plan
for the redevelopment of Confederation
Square. When the plan is completed the
Centre will be one of the main focal points
of the heart of Ottawa—the physical link
between the city’s eastern and western
parts.” 75 Early models and plans of the
NAC show the building within the context
of this plan, including major changes proposed
but never carried out, such as the
widening of the canal, the replacement
of Union Station with a new conference
centre, the construction of a new art gallery
to the south, and, in some plans, the
construction of a pedestrian walkway
from the NAC terraces to the opposite side
of the canal (fig. 28). The canal had been
identified within the plan as the most important
landscape component in the area;
hence it made sense for the architect to
face the building towards it, as opposed
to towards Confederation Square.
When the NAC opened, the terraces and
the integration of the building with its
site were highly praised.
The outstanding feature of the National Arts
Centre is the way the site has been returned
to the city as an intensively developed park.
The terraces that cover all but the tallest
portions of the complex are open to the
public for strolling and enjoying the views—
both outward towards the city’s landmarks
and inward towards lobbies and cafes. 76
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According to Architectural Record, it was
“masterfully arranged on a difficult triangular
site […] and ingeniously developed
within a triangular module.” 77 And, “this
complex fits right into its environment.
With half of its mass buried in the canal
bank and the rest cropping out in an irregular
series of towers and parapets, the
center follows Ottawa’s Victorian tradition
of romantic landscape and picturesque
building masses.” 78 The relation of the
building to the site remains unchanged.
In its austerity, its plain and closed surfaces
and its consistently dark, sombre
colouring, the Brutalist exterior was an
excellent foil for the interior, which depended
on dramatic spatial sequences,
contrasting lighting effects, and varied
and sometimes colourful pieces of art for
its design. In the words of one critic, the
NAC was, “un ensemble austère mais non
sans force, écran de béton entre l’abri atomique
et le blockhaus du mur de l’Atlantique,
le précieux, le rare, l’exquis étant
à l’intérieur.” 79 “Delight should be the
watchword of anyone designing buildings
for the performing arts,” declared Hazen
Sise, of Affleck, Desbarats, Dimakopoulos,
Lebensold, Sise, in a seminar on architectural
requirements for the performing arts
in Canada, sponsored by the Centennial
Commission in June 1964. 80
Going to the theatre or to a concert
ought to be a pleasurable occasion, looked
forward to with anticipation. On entering the
front door one should start a process of
transition from the cares of the real world
into the world of art; one’s surroundings
should prepare one’s mood for enjoyment,
one should walk through a crescendo of
architectural excitement with the hall itself
as culmination. The lights dim and the
curtain goes up. 81
The architect has effectively developed
this principle in the design of the interior
spaces, “gradually detaching [the spectator]
from everyday life” and creating “a
succession of psychological barriers that
cut people off from the street and turn
them into an attentive audience.” 82 The
progression began at the main entrance,
with its austere exterior (or with the escalator
from the parking lot) opening
into the box-office foyer, a contained
one-storey space suitable for meeting
up with fellow theatregoers (figs. 14 and
29). Here, as in all the public spaces of the
building, the walls were sheathed with
panels similar to those on the exterior,
creating a certain continuity between
interior and exterior, and the ceiling was
covered with fibreglass light fixtures,
fibreglass hexagons divided into triangles,
which provided a low light.
Reflecting the Brutalist aesthetic of the
exterior, the interior spaces presented
constantly shifting views to the visitor.
From the box office one glimpsed the
main lobby, through the windows and the
doors. Once entered, this space opened
up, expanding outwards to the left and
right and upwards to two levels in height,
with the upper level open on three sides,
which during the day allowed natural
light to filter in (fig. 30). Directly across
from the box office was the ceremonial
grand staircase to the second level of the
Opera, while to its left were the striking,
two-storey-high cast aluminium doors to
the Salon, beautifully integrated into the
architecture (fig. 17). Here the architect
had borne in mind that these were spaces
for mingling, for seeing others, such as
heads of state and dignitaries, and for being
seen (fig. 30). The doors exhibited an
abstract design in relief, executed by Jordi
Bonet, characteristic of other works he
designed for public spaces. They opened
into the Salon, a hexagonal room panelled
in oak, forty-five feet across and two
stories high, intended for small chamber
recitals (for up to one hundred people)
and receptions, for example for visiting
dignitaries. From here a door opened to
the stairs to the royal box of the Opera,
and access was provided to the Green
Room for the performers, who were also
often received in the Salon.
Approaches to the main performing
spaces were signalled by the lowering of
the ceiling (figs. 20 and 32). The low ceilings
and low lights of the lobbies were
deliberately designed to bring spectators
together. In Fred Lebensold’s words, “I
think there is something most unhappy
about going out into a lobby and being
alone. One of the wonderful things
about the theatre is being with other
people. Lobby space should be gauged
so that while movement is easy, isolation
is impossible.” 83 In total there were
four levels of lobbies for the Opera, all of
which could be accessed by means of tall,
contained hexagonal staircases on either
side (fig. 5). Each one was decorated by
a piece of art by William Martin: a chandelier
of metal and glass suspended from
a skylight at the top, down the centre of
the stairwell; the sculpture lit the stairs
by means of reflected light—natural light
during the day and floodlights installed
beneath the skylight at night (fig. 22). The
tall centrally lit space helped dramatize
the more open, more diffusely lit space
of the lobbies. From the second to the
fourth level on the north, there were
views of Confederation Square and the
Parliament Buildings from the lobbies (the
concrete fins on the exterior were angled
in their direction; fig. 26), and the lobbies
were opened up vertically by a well
down to the lowest level (fig. 31). On the
opposite side, to the south, on all levels,
were oak bars; behind them tapestries
decorated the walls (fig. 23).
Leading from either side of each lobby
were sparsely decorated collector aisles,
which narrowed as they led downwards to
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Fig. 34. Confederation Centre of the Arts, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island;
built in 1964; Affleck, Desbarats, Dimakopoulos, Lebensold, Sise, architect.
Main elevation above, terrace on lower right, and interior views from
Memorial on lower left. | Reproduced from Geneviève Charrois, “Le Centre des arts de la
Confédération,” HSMBC, Submission Report 2002-45.
Fig. 35. Place des arts, Montréal, Québec, Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier; built in 1963, Affleck,
Desbarats, Dimakopoulos, Lebensold, Michaud, Sise, architect. | Journal of the Royal
Architectural Institute of Canada (JRAIC), November 1964, p. 123.
single-storey tinted-glass doors, indicated
by single vertical rows of lights. The spectator
was unconsciously prepared by these
plain and confined spaces for the theatrical
climax of the architectural composition,
the Opera (fig. 11). The Opera was
the most highly praised of the performing
spaces, with its plush red carpets and rows
of seats arranged in “continental” style,
that is with no aisles in the centre. Helping
to draw the eye upwards, lights were
placed in vertical lines and spaced increasingly
further apart as they neared the
ceiling, in order to increase the sense of
height. These strips of lights also helped
balance the horizontal lines of the hall, created
by the balustrades of the mezzanine,
amphitheatre and balcony, and of the
boxes (fig. 25). The dramatic ceiling composition,
a circular pattern of black and
white panels and strips with suspended
lights effectively camouflaged the catwalk
above. The side walls were of tinted glass,
with the vertical metal diffusers adding a
subtle aesthetic appeal, though designed
for acoustical purposes. The outstanding
single feature was the luxurious stage curtain
designed by Micheline Beauchemin,
with its large billowing panels of solid vibrant
colours, made of cotton, nylon, and
plastic fibres (fig. 11).
The Theatre lobby, to the south, was
also accessible from the main foyer and
opened up through three levels (though
the Theatre itself possessed only two levels).
Just inside the entrance to the lobby,
applied to the precast concrete wall also
rising through three levels, was a brushed
aluminium relief sculpture by Montréal
sculptor Gino Lorcini (fig. 19). The two
levels of the Theatre itself were accessed
by hexagonal staircases similar to those
of the Opera, with similar glass sculptures
in the centre. To the south of the Theatre
was the lobby space for the Studio; here
again were tapestries decorating the walls
above the bar. In the centre of this space
was a sculpture designed by Montréal
industrial designer Julien Hébert. Set
within a hexagonal water fountain, it rose
through two levels, to a skylight (fig. 20).
Just to the east was the entrance to the
Studio (fig. 5) and, in front of it, a balustrade
overlooking the floor below and
providing a view on the opposite wall of
a large abstract mural on three levels, in
strong bright colours, by Canadian painter
William Ronald (figs. 20-21).
Care was also taken in the design for the
layout of the non-public areas for performers.
Backstage, the three performing
spaces were connected by a series of
service spaces at the same level, linking
them to the trucking lane at the stage
door (fig. 2). The dressing rooms were arranged
hexagonally around the Theatre
and near to the Opera, a design very convenient
for performers. A large scenery
shop between the stages of the Theatre
and Opera was linked to both by proscenium-high
metal doors. (The shop was
also designed to serve a mobile theatre
berthed in the truck dock.) It is reported
that performers are generally happy with
the design of these spaces. 84
Both the exterior and the interior of
the building have remained unchanged
except for very minor details. The interior
of the NAC is stunning for its public
areas, for its successions of spaces, for the
variety of attractive views, for its finely
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Fig. 36. Manitoba Theatre Centre, Winnipeg, Manitoba; built in 1969-1970, Number
Ten Architectural Group, architect. | [http://canada.archiseek.com/manitoba/winnipeg/
downtown/market_avenue/manitoba_theatre_centre_lge.html], accessed April 2005.
Fig. 37. Grand Théâtre de Québec, Quebec; Victor Prus, architect, built in 1964-1971.
Main elevation and entrance. | Nicholas Goodspeed, 2005
finished details, for the effective use of
contemporary art to enhance the interior
spaces, and for the performing spaces
themselves, especially the Opera. The motifs
of the hexagon and triangle are used
effectively and imaginatively to create an
interior that brings people together and
an exterior well suited to its irregular site.
These motifs, due to their unusual geometry,
had also posed an unusual challenge
in construction, with the execution of the
various components in concrete, plaster,
and wood. All details were carefully
planned and executed, and contributed
to the creation of unity throughout the
building. No expense was spared by the
federal government in the design or execution
of the NAC, from the larger planning
concepts, the complex but effective
floor plans, down to the fine details.
The critics were full of praise for the interior
spaces. According to an English critic,
The key to the whole drama is that an
opera house auditorium must be theatrical
to succeed whereas a theatre auditorium
must not. At Ottawa everything is cunningly
composed, even the restaurant, so that the
right dramatic lead is established for entry to
the grand salle de l’opera. At this moment for
the first time height isn’t only allowed to take
over, but […] is encouraged to do so. 85
Verticals in the Opera continue up and
lose themselves beyond the ceiling. 86
Praise for the contemporary art was not
universal, but one writer described it as
“a striking display of modern art incorporated
into the design of the whole.” 87
Many comments were written praising the
building as a whole. According to architect
Jules Gauvreau in Vie des Arts, the NAC,
“présente l’incontestable avantage d’une
homogénéité inexistante dans la plupart
des autres centres comparables, récemment
construits,” and the building is “une
incontestable réussite architecturale.” 88
Macy DuBois in The Canadian Architect
wrote: “The Federal Government has
produced a good piece of work. It is the
best building in Ottawa; it is better than
anything of its size and function I have
seen in Canada; and it is better than most
such buildings anywhere in the world.” 89
In the opinion of Janet Wright, “the National
Arts Centre introduced the idea
that important federal buildings could
serve as a showcase for the best in Canadian
architecture.” 90 And in the words of
Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau,
It is the culmination of years of work by
many different organizations and individuals
[…] In its design and construction, the
Centre has drawn on skills and experience
acquired during an active decade of work
on similar buildings in all parts of Canada.
Clearly, it has surpassed its predecessors
in versatility and comprehensiveness. It will
stand comparison with the world’s best. 91
Conclusion
To summarize, the NAC illustrates or
represents all three cultural phenomena
described in the guideline for evaluating
built heritage of the modern era. First, the
NAC is an outstanding illustration of the
changing social and political conditions
with respect to the performing arts in Canada
as the only performing arts centre in
the country which was fully subsidized by
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the federal government. From a political
point of view, it is a significant addition
to Canada’s capital as a national ceremonial
meeting place for heads of state
and visiting dignitaries. Second, in terms
of technological advances, it represented
state-of-the-art technology for lighting
and acoustics, especially in the Opera Hall,
and in terms of adaptability, it introduced
either unprecedented or state-of-the-art
flexibility for all three performing spaces.
Third, the building was an outstanding
new expression of form for its design in
the Brutalist style, epitomizing the architectural
aesthetic of the 1960s in Canada;
for its successful integration into its important
site on Confederation Square in
downtown Ottawa; for the outstanding
design of its interior spaces; for the successful
integration of a number of contemporary
works of art with the architecture;
and for the Opera, or Southam Hall, of
particular note for its aesthetics.
Integrity
The structure and appearance of the NAC
are virtually the same as when built, both
on the exterior and in the interior. An
unsympathetic addition to the terrace
at street level is the large pillar at the
northwest corner: while it is covered
in the same concrete aggregate as the
building, it is not well integrated with
the site and it blocks the view of some of
the Confederation Square buildings from
a part of the terrace. Inside the building,
changes are minor and reversible, such as
the addition of display cases (fig. 29) and
the blocking over of several skylights in
the main foyer, the installation of partitions
for the donors’ circle at the rear
of the Southam Hall lobby, the addition
of a bar and other moveable counters in
the main foyer, all finished in materials
resembling those original to these spaces.
The carpeted (wood) stairs up to the main
staircase have been extended and a dais
and universal ramp have been added. The
corridor leading from the Elgin Street entrance
to the box office has been slightly
altered and completely enclosed, whereas
it had been partially open originally. 92
The performing spaces are unaltered in
appearance except for the Theatre. Here
the changes are relatively minor, comprising
mainly the installation of new seats
of a slightly different colour and in a
slightly new arrangement with wider
rows and handrails, to accommodate an
aging population. This has resulted in a
slight reduction of seat numbers in the
centre of the Theatre when the proscenium
is used. In addition, the vomitory has
been somewhat enlarged, to allow for
greater access by the performers. As already
mentioned, the Studio has had new
(moveable) seats installed, but its character
and flexibility as an experimental
performing space are unchanged. For all
performing spaces, apart from the stages,
where technological advances have been
embraced, much of the equipment is original
to the building’s construction. However,
the acoustics of Southam Hall have
been augmented electronically to meet
today’s needs. 93
All the performing spaces, including the
Salon, continue to house their original
functions. Changes to functions elsewhere
include the replacement of the original
bookstores on Elgin Street by the Fourth
Stage. The space which housed Le Restaurant,
the original formal restaurant,
is now divided into the Fountain and Panorama
rooms, which are used for rental
functions, such as dinners and receptions.
Le Café, originally used for casual dining,
now provides fine dining for patrons. In
the summer, Le Café opens onto a terrace
parallel to the canal, which was not the
case originally. The interior space just to
the west of Le Café is now the location of
a small restaurant called the Oasis, which
is a new use.
Comparative Context
The NAC is one of a number of performing
arts centres built across Canada
from 1959 to 1970, of which sixteen are
listed in the appendix. The Board recommended
the Confederation Centre of the
Arts in Charlottetown for national designation
because
as one of a number of cultural complexes
built in the 1960s and 1970s in Canada,
and as a memorial to the Fathers of
Confederation, it is an outstanding example
of a national institution dedicated to the
performing arts; when it was built in 1964,
it was highly innovative in its stage design
and acoustics, and featured state-of-the-art
lighting and construction techniques; and
it is a distinguished example of Brutalist
architecture in Canada, which, for its era,
is well-integrated with the city. 94 (fig. 34)
The NAC was one of two arts centres built
in Canada at the time that made use of
federal funds, and it is the only one built
entirely with federal funding. 95 In terms
of design and function, the NAC is the
only performing arts centre of the period
designed and built from the start to
house three major performing spaces. The
other examples were originally designed
either to house a single performing
space, to house a performing space plus
an additional function, or to house two
performing spaces.
Among the examples listed in the appendix,
five were built with a single auditorium
(including the required associated
spaces). 96 The remainder included additional
performing spaces and/or functions as
well. The Hummingbird Centre in Toronto,
built in 1960, combined the largest auditorium
of the period, for an audience of
three thousand two hundred, with several
spaces for exhibiting art. The Queen Elizabeth
Theatre in Vancouver, built in 1959,
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housed a large hall with two thousand
nine hundred and thirty-one seats and
an art gallery. Place des Arts in Montréal
included five performing spaces linked to
each other underground; however, each
one was built successively, beginning with
a large performing hall for an audience of
two thousand nine hundred and eightytwo
(formerly the Grande Salle, now the
Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier), constructed in 1963;
all the others were later additions (fig. 35).
These three centres all have halls that are
significantly larger than the Opera, or
Southam Hall at the NAC. In contrast to
Place des Arts, the NAC was designed and
constructed as a whole.
The two centres with auditoriums closest
in size to Southam Hall in Ottawa are those
in Saskatoon and Regina, each with one
medium-sized performance hall combined
with a congress centre. The Saskatoon
Centennial Auditorium, built in 1964-1968,
holds an audience of two thousand and
three, while the Saskatchewan Centre of
the Arts in Regina, built in 1970, has a hall
with a seating capacity of two thousand
and twenty-nine. The Cleary International
Centre in Windsor, which opened in 1960,
housed a smaller auditorium of one thousand
two hundred and eleven seats as
well as a convention centre and exhibition
space. When it was reopened in 1991 after
renovations, the auditorium was slightly
enlarged but not substantially altered. The
St. John’s Arts and Culture Centre in St.
John’s, Newfoundland, built in 1967, includes
a main performing space for one
thousand seats and a small theatre for an
audience of seventy-five. In addition, the
building housed a library and an art gallery.
None of these buildings was designed
to accommodate the variety of performances
as was the NAC, with its multipurpose
medium-sized auditorium, as well as
a theatre and an experimental studio, not
to mention the smaller Salon, designed for
small concerts as well as receptions.
Stylistically, three arts centres in Canada
have been identified which are comparable
to the NAC for their designs in the
Brutalist style. The Manitoba Theatre Centre
(MTC), built in 1969-1970, is a relatively
modest theatre that is significantly smaller
in size than the NAC, housing only one
performing space, designed for theatre
(fig. 36). 97 Apart from the fly tower, the
building is two storeys high, while the NAC
is built on a number of levels. Characteristic
of Brutalist buildings, the Manitoba
centre is asymmetrical with four different
elevations and the main entrance at
one side, and is constructed of exposed
concrete. Largely rectangular in plan and
occupying a rectangular site, the building
possesses an overall massing that is much
simpler and more block-like than that of
the NAC. The MTC’s raw concrete surfaces
are carefully—even delicately—expressive
of the wooden formwork that was used to
create the walls. Various internal functions
are expressed on the exterior through advancing
and receding volumes, and in particular
by expanses of glass fronting the
public lobby areas. At the NAC, the precast
concrete exterior panel finishes vary
on the exterior to correspond with the
functions of the interior spaces. The MTC
was deliberately scaled to be compatible
with its neighbour down the block, the
1912 Pantages Theatre, though not necessarily
with the multi-storey warehouses in
the immediate vicinity. The NAC is a much
more complex example of Brutalist architecture,
carefully adapted to its irregular
site, and exhibits a much greater integration
with its setting.
A second example of a theatre in the
Brutalist style is the Grand Théâtre de
Québec in Québec City, built in 1964-1971
to designs by Victor Prus. This building
houses two performing spaces—a formal
multipurpose auditorium for ballet, opera,
and theatre for a medium-size audience of
one thousand eight hundred, as well as a
studio, which is adaptable as a performing
space and could seat five hundred (fig. 37).
The building also has an area for outdoor
performances in the rear. Again, this is a
smaller building than the NAC, with fewer
performing spaces, both of which are
smaller than their equivalents at the NAC.
Generally the plan of the Grand Théâtre
is rectangular, with truncated corners on
the front elevation where windows occupy
the full height of the building; these are
the locations of the main entrances. The
main elevation is more or less symmetrical
except for the fly tower and performing
space seen rising above it. All four elevations
exhibit tall panels of smoothly finished
concrete, projecting outwards near
the top and divided into bays of equal
width by columns. Windows, of which
there are few, are at ground level, except
those at the corners.
Like the NAC, the building incorporates
art into the design: a large mural by Jordi
Bonet, over twelve thousand square feet
in area, was sculpted into the cement in
the lobby of the auditorium. 98 Its exterior
exposed concrete surfaces and even
its use of concrete for the mural inside
is an expression of the Brutalist style;
as a whole it is not, however, nearly as
complex or ambitious in its design as the
NAC, with its complete asymmetry, shifting
views and overall complexity. Further
the NAC includes a larger number and
greater variety of works than the Québec
theatre. The Grand Théâtre may be
described as a conservative interpretation
of Brutalism, as it recalls the modern
International style in its reliance on
a certain regularity in plan, its rhythmic
bays, visible supports, truncated corners
and continuous window design rising the
full height of the building at the corners.
No particular effort appears to have been
made to integrate the Grand Théâtre with
its surroundings, though it is generally
harmonious in scale with its neighbours.
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The NAC, in contrast, has a terrace which
effectively carried this integration out in
terms of pedestrian access and attractive,
highly symbolic views.
The Confederation Centre for the Arts,
built in 1964 in the Brutalist style to designs
by Affleck, Desbarats, Dimakopoulos,
Lebensold, Sise, was designated a
National Historic Site of Canada in 2003
(fig. 34). Of all the arts centres built in
Canada, it is the most comparable to
the NAC in terms of its fine design in
the Brutalist style and its generally large
scale. 99 The Charlottetown building is
usually described as a complex, in that
it houses several functions: a memorial
space to the Fathers of Confederation, a
theatre for a fairly small audience of one
thousand, a library and an art gallery. The
building, like the NAC, takes inspiration
both from Brutalist principles and from
its urban, downtown setting, next to
Province House—though the focal point
in the design was the memorial, rather
than the performing space, a contrast to
the NAC. The finely designed Confederation
Centre for the Arts is composed of
four visually distinct but similarly scaled
pavilions which rise above, and are connected
below a single-level terrace, not
far from street level. The scale of the
centre is conditioned by that of Province
House, including the centre’s pavilions
which are the same height as Province
House. The floor plan is arranged in a
horseshoe around the memorial, with
the different functions housed in each
pavilion. Windows are few, designed vertically
and located at the corners of each
pavilion except for the memorial, where
the roof is entirely of glass and a second
large window effectively frames the side
elevation of Province House.
Typical for Brutalist buildings of the era,
the Charlottetown centre is constructed
of concrete, but in this case it is sheathed
in smoothly finished sandstone, the same
sandstone used in the construction of
the legislative building. A few examples
of modern sculpture are located on the
terrace. The inside of the building also
makes use of sandstone for portions of
the walls, though marble is used in the
memorial. Originally there were several
murals inside, but they did not all survive.
The works of art inside appear to be associated
with the art gallery rather than
with a design to integrate them with the
architecture. The interior of the Charlottetown
complex is a great contrast to the
interior of the NAC. The smooth straight
lines of the interior, the generally rectilinear
floor plans, the clarity of the design
and the use of materials create a purity
in the design and a still, contemplative
atmosphere, appropriate to the memorial
as well as to the gallery and the library.
The NAC, with its overall irregular design
and its changing spaces and shifting views,
was designed to create specific effects appropriate
for a performing centre, such as
psychologically preparing the audience for
a performance. The impetus behind the
design of the NAC was the creation of
spaces for the performing arts, and the
building is characterized by varied, dynamic,
and theatrical spaces which express
their differing needs. The design of the
NAC is more complex than the Charlottetown
centre, as it relies on the more unusual
motifs of the hexagon and triangle,
on contrasting massing and shapes, on the
use of differing textures, and the incorporation
of a variety of works of art within
the overall design of the architecture. The
Opera Hall of the NAC represents an unusually
satisfactory collaboration between
architect and acoustician when compared
to other arts centres in the country. Further,
the Opera at the NAC appears to have
been a fairly rare example for its time of a
multipurpose hall, representing the trend
towards a medium-sized hall.
Current Status
a) Threat(s)
Funding constraints allow the NAC
to deal only with immediate building
needs. Funding for capital repairs is allocated
first to repairs involving health and
safety, major building code issues, and
operational sustainability. In the medium
term, however, precast and structural
component failures present an increased
operational risk of shutdown. 100 In addition,
much of the equipment original to
the building’s construction is nearing the
end of its lifespan. 101
b) Other Designations
When the building opened, two bronze
plaques, one in French and one in English,
were placed in the central lobby of the
building. The texts were written by two
well-known Canadian authors. Robertson
Davies wrote the English version and
Robert Choquette the French version. The
text in English reads:
Part of the land on which the National
Arts Centre is built was given to Ottawa
for a marketplace by Nicholas Sparks in
1848. The city’s generous gift of land to
the people of Canada is historically apt, for
a town hall was raised here which served
also as a theatre and a concert room from
1849 until 1865; and on a nearby site,
from 1897 until 1928, stood the Russell
Theatre, in which the most eminent plays
and players of English, French and American
theatre were seen. Thus the stage of
our inherited tradition in theatre, music
and dance becomes the stage where the
native growth in these arts is cherished,
and honour done to those living, dead or
yet to be born who serve us honourably, as
musicians and artists of the theatre. This
superscription was unveiled by her majesty
Queen Elizabeth II, on the fifth day of July,
in 1967, the centennial year of Canada’s
Confederation, before it was placed here.
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In 1970, the NAC was the recipient of a
Massey Medal for architecture. 102
c) Community Value
“The marvellous building on Confederation
Square brings for the first time to
our doorsteps the performing arts at their
best,” wrote the editor of the Ottawa
Citizen on the day of the opening. 103 The
construction of the NAC, with its variety
of performing spaces and wide range of
performances, from the time it was built
until the present, has made possible the
appreciation and enjoyment of the performing
arts for the citizens of the national
capital area. Known by everyone in
the community who is interested in the
arts and beyond, it is attended regularly
by thousands. The NAC is without doubt
one of the most important buildings in
the city to a large number of the city’s
inhabitants, all of whom would agree
that Ottawa would not be the same
without it. The NAC also provides spaces
for additional functions, such as art exhibits,
graduations, and social events. It
is currently busy six days and evenings a
week.
NOTES
1. These points are: from the ramp on the east
side of the building, near the main entrance;
just north of the bridge at the level of the
canal, at the east corner; just south of the
south ramp to the Mackenzie King Bridge,
from the east side of Elgin Street; from Albert
Street, through the Albert Street tunnel, just
west of Elgin Street (figs. 2-3).
2. According to this guideline, “A building,
ensemble or site that was created during
the modern era may be considered of significance
if it is in a condition that respects
the integrity of its original design, materials,
workmanship, function, and/or setting,
insofar as each of these was an important
part of its overall intentions and its present
character; and it is an outstanding illustration
of at least one of the three following cultural
phenomena and at least a representative
if less than outstanding illustration of the
APPENDIX 103
CITY NAME DATE ARCHITECT(S)
Vancouver B.C. Queen Elizabeth Theatre 1959
Affleck, Desbarats,
Dimakopoulos, Michaud,
Lebensold, Sise
Edmonton, Alta. Jubilee Auditorium 1954-1957 Public Works
Calgary, Alta. Jubilee Auditorium 1954-1957 Public Works
Saskatoon, Sask.
Regina, Sask.
Saskatoon Centennial
Auditorium
Saskatchewan Centre
of the Arts
1964-1968
Winnipeg, Man. Centennial Concert Hall 1967
Winnipeg, Man. Manitoba Theatre Centre 1969-1970
Kerr Cullingworth Riches
Associates Architects;
Affleck, Desbarats,
Dimakopoulos, Lebensold,
Sise
1970 Izumi, Arnott and Sugiyama
Smith Carter, Moody, Moore,
G.B.R. Architects
Number Ten Architectural
Group
Stratford, Ont. Festival Theatre 1957 Rounthwaite & Fairfield
Toronto, Ont.
Hummingbird Centre for the
Performing Arts (O’Keefe
Centre)
1960
Windsor, Ont. Cleary International Centre 1960
Ottawa, Ont. National Arts Centre 1964-1969
Montréal, Qué. Place des arts 1963
Québec, Qué. Grand Théâtre de Québec 1964-1971 Victor Prus
Earle C. Morgan and Page
and Steel
Douglas C. Johnson and
Cunningham McWhinnie
Affleck, Desbarats,
Dimakopoulos, Lebensold,
Sise
(Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier)
Affleck, Desbarats,
Dimakopoulos, Lebensold,
Michaud, Sise
Fredericton, N.B. The Playhouse 1964 [information unavailable]
Charlottetown, P.E.I.
St. John’s, Nfld.
Confederation Centre for the
Arts
St. John’s Arts and Culture
Centre
1964
1967
Affleck, Desbarats,
Dimakopoulos, Lebensold,
Sise
Affleck, Desbarats,
Dimakopoulos, Lebensold,
Sise
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other two cultural phenomena of its time:
a) changing social, political, and/ or economic
conditions; b) rapid technological advances;
c) new expressions of form, and/or responses
to functional demands.”
3. Unless otherwise indicated, this section on
the Massey Commission is based mainly on:
Kallmann, Helmut, “Massey Commission,”
The Canadian Encyclopedia, [http://www.
thecanadianencyclopedia.com], accessed
January 21, 2005; Litt, Paul, 1992, The Muses,
the Masses, and the Massey Commission, Toronto,
University of Toronto Press; and Royal
Commission on National Development in the
Arts, Letters and Sciences (1949-1951), [http://
www.collectionscanada.ca/massey/h5-400-e.
html#content], accessed March 11, 2005.
4 . Kallmann, op. cit.
5. See Royal Commission on National Development
in the Arts, Letters and Sciences,
op. cit.
6. “The Theatre,” Royal Commission on National
Development in the Arts, Letters and
Sciences, p. 3.
7. Id. p. 6.
8. Id. p. 10.
9. “Ballet,” [http://www.collectionscanada.ca/
massey/h5-400-e.html#content], p. 3 accessed
March 11, 2005.
10. “Music,” ibid.
11. Grace, Gerry, 2001, “The National Arts Centre:
A Brief History,” unpublished manuscript
on file, NAC Archives, December, p. 2; and
Décary, Robert, 1986, “The National Arts
Centre: A History of the Events Leading to
its Creation,” Final Draft, on file at the Parliamentary
Library, Ottawa, p. 1-3.
12. Other high schools used for performances
included Glebe Collegiate and Ottawa Technical
High School (See, for example, Grace,
p. 1).
13. Grace, p. 1.
14. Dominion Consultants Limited, 1963, “A
National Centre for the Performing Arts:
A Study Prepared for the National Capital
Arts Alliance,” October. This study is often
referred to as the Brown Book.
15. Grace, p. 2.
16. The report made detailed recommendations
for the requirements of such a centre, which
they stated needed an opera hall, a theatre,
a studio, and a small reception/performing
area. The sizes of the performing spaces as
built appear to have been influenced by the
findings of the Brown Book (Dominion Consultants
Limited, op. cit.).
17. Décary, p. 13.
18. Ibid.
19. Id., p. 17.
20. The NCAA considered sixteen sites in their
report using ten criteria, and recommended
that the centre be built at Sussex and St. Patrick
streets. The site chosen was not among
those that they considered (Dominion Consultants
Limited, p. 54-65).
21. Décary, p. 50.
22. Architectural Requirements for the Performing
Arts in Canada, 1964, A Seminar
Sponsored by the Centennial Commission,
Ottawa, The Parliament Buildings, June 1-2,
1964, Ottawa, Roger Duhamel, p. 3.
23. Submission from the National Arts Centre
Corporation, to the Executive Secretary, Historic
Sites and Monuments Board of Canada
(HSMBC), n.d., p. 3.
24. Frazer, Robbin, 1971, “The Stradivarius of
Arts Centres,” Performing Arts in Canada,
March.
25. Wright, Janet, 1997, Crown Assets: The Architecture
of the Department of Public Works,
1867-1967, Toronto, University of Toronto
Press, p. 265.
26. Décary, p. 45.
27. Id., p. 19.
28. The original plan for the Stratford Festival
Theatre to be winter resident as the Stratford
National Theatre, and the Théâtre du
Capricorne, a new ensemble established for
a resident French theatre, did not work out.
29. Globe & Mail, April 4, 1973; and La Presse,
April 11, 1973.
30. Gerry Grace, Curator, NAC; e-mail to author,
April 11, 2005.
31. CBC Times, May 31-June 6, 1969, vol. 21,
no. 49, p. 3.
32. Bob Allen, head sound engineer, NAC; conversation
with the author, March 15, 2005.
33. The Canadian Architect, July 1969, vol. 14,
no. 7, p. 32.
34. Johnson, Russell, 1969, “Acoustic Problems,”
The Canadian Architect, vol. 14, no. 7, p. 62.
35. Johnson had founded and become principal
consultant of BBN’s Theatre Planning and
Consulting Division and technical coordinator
for concert hall and opera house design. In
1970, the year after the NAC opened, Johnson
founded ARTEC, of world renown in the
field of all technical aspects of performing
arts spaces design.
36. The volume of sound is directly proportional
to the size of an auditorium; for example,
a large auditorium allows for less available
sound than a smaller one.
37. Canadian Building News, 1969, no. 3, p. 4.
38. This was put together with pieces suspended
from either side of the ceiling and walls, or
towers, on wheels, that could be moved inwards.
Twenty-eight feet tall and ten feet
wide, these towers were rolled onstage and
locked in position for performances.
39. The curtains were to be retracted for organ
recitals and symphony concerts and extended
for musical comedy and lectures.
40. Bob Allen, conversation with the author,
March 15, 2005.
41. The Canadian Architect, July 1969, vol. 14,
no. 7, p. 63.
42. This sound-reverberation system was used for
the performance of electronic music, for special
effects with film exhibition, for theatrical
effects, for opera and musical comedy, and
for certain popular music attractions.
43. Johnson, p. 62.
44. Id., p. 32.
45. La Technique des travaux, January-February
1971, no. 327, p. 3.
46. “The resulting sound has that dry, ‘hi-fi stereo
quality’ which music critics cannot agree on.”
(Dixon, John Morris, 1969, “Cultural Centre
Canadian Style,” Forum, October, p. 51.)
Bob Allen, currently head sound engineer,
worked at the NAC from the time shortly
after it opened. He stated that the acoustics
were “great” and could not name a centre
in Canada with a multipurpose hall which he
thought had better acoustics at the time.
47. Bob Allen, conversation with the author,
March 15, 2005.
48. Gerry Grace, Archivist, NAC, site visit,
March 15, 2005.
49. The Canadian Architect, July 1969, vol. 14,
no. 7, p. 32.
50. Paul Hennig, director of Production Operations,
NAC; conversation with the author,
April 20, 2005.
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95

Rhona Goodspeed > Report | Rapport
51. This section on the Studio is based on Hennig,
id.; and CBC Times, May 31-June 6, 1969,
vol. 21, no. 49, p. 3.
52. Dixon, p. 51.
53. DuBois, Macy, 1969, “Critique,” The Canadian
Architect, vol. 14, no. 7, p. 46.
54. Hennig, April 20, 2005.
55. Frazer, op. cit.
56. For example, see Terry J. Waller, 1968, “The
National Arts Centre,” Plywood World, vol. 8,
no. 3, p. 1; and 1971, La Technique des Travaux,
January-February, no. 327, p. 3.
57. Wright, p. 265.
58. Ibid.
59. Waller, p. 4.
60. Banham, Reyner, 1966, The New Brutalism,
London, England, The Architectural Press
London, p. 16 and 21-22.
61. For Brutalism, see Tzonis, Alexander, Liane
Lefaivre, and Richard Diamond, 1995, Architecture
in North America Since 1960, Boston
/ New York / Toronto / London, A Bullfinch
Press Book, Little, Brown and Company, esp.
p. 22-24 and 82-84; Khan, Hasan-Uddin, 2001,
Le Style International : Le Modernisme dans
l’architecture de 1925 à 1965, Cologne, Taschen;
and Maitland, Leslie, Jacqueline Hucker,
and Shannon Ricketts, 2004 [2 nd ed.], A Guide
to Canadian Architectural Styles, Peterborough,
Ontario, Broadview Press, p. 203-209.
62. Wright, p. 265.
63. For Place Bonaventure, see Kalman, Hal, 1994,
A History of Canadian Architecture, vol. 2, Toronto,
Oxford University Press, p. 832; and
Tzonis et al., p. 120-123.
64. Wright, p. 265.
65. Ibid.
66. Charles Daudelin, [http://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Charles_Daudelin], accessed March 17,
2005.
67. Quoted in Bronson, Susan, 1997, Built Heritage
and the Modern Era: Overview, Framework
for Analysis, and Criteria for Evaluation,
Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada,
Appendix 6, p. 10, [http://www.collectionscanada.ca/massey/index-e.html].
68. Ibid. See also Wright, op. cit.
69. For example, Janet Wright and Dana Johnson,
“Confederation Square, Ottawa, Ontario,”
Agenda Paper, HSMBC, 1984-17.
70. CBC Times, May 31-June 6, 1969, vol. 21,
no. 49, p. 3. The idea for terraces with views
of the Parliament Buildings and having space
for concerts appears to have originated with
the Brown Book (see p. 68).
71. This is a feature of the NAC often criticized.
But one may also consider the following comment:
“One has only to compare the National
Arts Centre with Toronto’s O’Keefe Centre,
however, to recognize the virtues of avoiding
a bombastic entrance, unused during most
working days, but standing like an unbeaten
drum waiting for its brief use.” (DuBois,
p. 44)
72. Wright and Johnson, p. 226.
73. Dixon, p. 46.
74. The inclusion of the NAC within the Parkin
plan was mentioned by Pearson in 1963 (Décary,
p. 14). For the plan, see John B. Parkin
Associates, 1962, Confederation Square
Development: A Proposal to the National
Capital Commission, vol. 1, December; and
John B. Parkin and Associates, 1967, “Confederation
Square Development: A Proposal to
the National Capital Commission,” March 1,
Ottawa Public Library.
75. CBC Times, May 31-June 6, 1969, vol. 21,
no. 49, p. 3.
76. Dixon, p. 52.
77. “A Performing Arts Center for an Urban Redevelopment,”
Architectural Record, December
1964, p. 20.
78. Dixon, p. 48.
79. “Le Centre national des arts ouvre ses portes
ce soir,” Le Devoir, May 31, 1969.
80. Architectural Requirements for the Performing
Arts in Canada, p. 14.
81. Ibid.
82. As described in the Brown Book, where it
says, in full, that the “theatre-temple […]
must be given an interior which […] reflecting
the expectations of the theatre-goer, will
gradually detach him from everyday life to
lead him to the auditorium in a psychological
state favourable to the performance he is going
to see. The architecture of the various
corridors, cloakrooms, foyers and lobbies
becomes […] a succession of psychological
barriers that cut people off from the street
and turn them into an attentive audience.
The sequence provided by the entrance halls,
cloakrooms, staircases and lobbies leading towards
the auditorium, and inversely, from the
auditorium to the foyers during the interval,
should have a scheme of development which
would help to establish first an atmosphere
of concentration and an ‘inner gravity’ and
then the encouragement of conversation
during the interval.” (Dominion Consultant
Associates Limited, p. 67-68.)
83. “Building /A Discussion,” RAIC (Royal Architecture
Institute of Canada) Journal, 1963,
vol. 40, no. 11, p. 54.
84. Site visit, March 2005.
85. Bentham, Frederick, 1970, “National Arts
Centre, Ottawa,” TABS, no. 1, p. 20.
86. Ibid.
87. CBC Times, May 31-June 6, 1969, vol. 21,
no. 49, p. 3.
88. Gauvreau, Jules, 1969, “Au seuil d’une Époque
Nouvelle… l’Architecture,” Vie des Arts,
vol. 56, p. 15.
89. DuBois, p. 48.
90. Wright, p. 265.
91. “Hexagon,” unpublished manuscript, on file
at NAC, p. 18.
92. Gerry Grace, site visit, March 15, 2005.
93. Ibid.
94. HSMBC, “Minutes,” December 2002.
95. Charrois, Geneviève, “Centre des arts de la
Confédération, Submission Report, HSMBC,
2002-45, p. 7; and Gordon Fulton, director,
Historical Services Branch, Parks Canada, conversation,
March 4, 2005.
96. Description of comparatives is largely based
on Charrois, op. cit.
97. See Maitland et al., p. 206.
98. “Site officiel de Jordi Bonet,” [http://www.
jordibonet.com], accessed March 17, 2005.
99. This analysis is based on Charrois, op. cit.; and
Charrois, conversation with the author, April
2005.
100. “Submission from the National Arts Centre
Corporation,” January 2004.
101. Ibid.
102. “Massey Medals for Architecture,” Architecture
Canada, 1970.
103. Young, Christopher, 1969, “A City Grows Up,”
Saturday Citizen, May 31, 1969.
104. This chart was drawn up by Charrois, p. 15.
96 JSSAC | JSÉAC 34 > N o 1 > 2009

Des régimes D’authenticité
essai sur la mémoire patromoniale
Lucie K. Morisset
24 $
«L ’ auteure décrypte les étapes qui mènent au classement du château
ramezay, à montréal, en 1929, après celui de divers autres lieux symboliques
(vieille basilique de Québec, maison des Jésuites à sillery, etc.). elle dresse un
parallèle convaincant avec la France, pointe les différences de législation, livre
une histoire précise des protagonistes à l’origine de ce système spécifique de
représentations et insiste sur l’importance du bilinguisme pour la valorisation
naissante. »
Jean-Yves Andrieux
Nos livres soNt eN veNte
chez votre libraire…
ou au www.puq.ca

Directives aux auteurs
Mise en forme du texte
• Titre principal de l’article : minuscules gras.
• Aucune mise en forme du texte ou des pages (police utilisée
dans tout le texte : 12 points, style « normal » ; pas de caractères gras,
soulignés, italiques, capitales, petites capitales), sauf pour les titres :
niveau 1 – gras ; niveau 2 – souligné ; niveau 3 – italique ; les mots
étrangers sont aussi en italique ; les citations longues sont en retrait.
• Aucun espace entre les paragraphes (un seul retour d’un paragraphe
à un autre).
Position des différents corps de texte
• Les références bibliographiques sont comprises dans les notes
de fin de document ; s’il y a des références additionnelles, celles-ci
sont placées à la fin du texte, précédées du titre « Bibliographie
complémentaire ».
• Les légendes des illustrations sont placées à la fin du texte,
après la bibliographie.
• Le nom du(des) auteur(s) vient tout de suite après le titre principal
et une(des) courte(s) notice(s) biographique(s) est(sont) placée(s)
au tout début du texte.
• Les citations courtes sont insérées dans le texte, entre guillemets ;
les citations longues sont composées légèrement en retrait dans un
paragraphe indépendant (en alphabet romain; en italique seulement
si en langue autre que celle de l’article).
Format des références
Le format des références utilisé dans la revue Architecture au Canada
est le suivant :
• Notes de fin de document, avec appels de note automatiques.
• La référence à un ouvrage ou à un article (format américain) n’est pas
donnée dans le texte ; on suit plutôt le modèle européen, c’est-à-dire un
appel de note dans le texte et le détail en note de fin (voir exemples).
• Dans la note de fin, l’appel 1 est suivi d’un point et d’une marque de
tabulation.
1. [TAB] Exemple de note de fin. Les références sont présentées de la
même façon dans les notes de fin et la bibliographie complémentaire
(le cas échéant) : les segments de la référence sont tous séparés par
une virgule. À remarquer qu’ici l’appel, suivi d’une tabulation, n’est pas
en exposant : Noppen, Luc et Lucie K. Morisset, 2000, L’architecture de
Saint-Roch : Guide de promenade, Québec, Ville de Québec.
La référence complète (voir les exemples) est utilisée pour la première
occurrence. Dans les entrées suivantes, on utilise le format abrégé,
peu importe le type de référence : auteur(s), numéro de page :
Mercier, p. 122.
• S’il y a plus d’une référence du même auteur, on insère l’année :
Mercier, 2000, p. 122.
• Et s’il y a plus d’une référence du même auteur la même année,
on ajoute les premiers mots du titre :
Mercier, 2000, L’usage urbain…, p. 122. OU
Gagnon, 1998, « De Lower St. Lawrence à Charlevoix… », p. 16.
Bibliographie complémentaire
Exceptionnellement, s’il y a des références additionnelles importantes
auxquelles on ne réfère pas dans le texte, on pourra ajouter une
« Bibliographie complémentaire » en suivant la même présentation
que celle des notes de fin (voir la section « Exemples de références »).
Exemples de Format des références
Livre / 1 auteur
Churchill, Gilbert A., [7 th ed.] 1999, Marketing Research: Methodological
Foundations, Fort Worth, The Dryden Press.
Livre / 2 auteurs et plus
Noppen, Luc et Lucie K. Morisset, 2000, L’architecture de Saint-Roch :
Guide de promenade, Québec, Ville de Québec.
Chapitre de livre
Mercier, Guy, 2000, « L’usage urbain de la nature : conflit et ralliement.
L’exemple du quartier Saint-Roch à Québec », dans Jean-Pierre Augustin
et Claude Sorbets (dir.), Sites publics, lieux communs. Aperçus sur
l’aménagement de places et de parcs au Québec, Bordeaux, Maison
des sciences de l’homme d’Aquitaine, p. 119-136.
Article de revue scientifique
Gagnon, Serge, 1998, « De Lower St. Lawrence à Charlevoix :
l’émergence d’un haut lieu de villégiature de la bourgeoisie marchande
canadienne », Téoros, vol. 17, no 1, p. 15-22.
Article de journal
Beaubien, Claude, Jr., 1973, « Pour la conservation de la maison Van
Horne », La Presse, 22 août, p. 8.
Rapport
Poullaouec-Gonidec, Philippe, Michel Gariépy, François Tremblay, Bernard
Saint-Denis, Christiane Montpetit et Julie Tellier, 1999, Balisage des
enjeux de paysage concernant trois filières de production d’électricité,
Rapport de recherche de la Chaire en paysage et environnement,
Montréal, Université de Montréal.
Thèse ou mémoire
Sabourin, Cécile, 1985, Le tourisme dans les régions rurales du Québec :
bilan et perspectives, thèse de doctorat en droit et économie du tourisme,
Université de droit, d’économie et des sciences d’Aix-Marseille III.
Référence Internet
Julius Shulman, Modernity and the Metropolis, exposition tenue
au J.P. Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 11 octobre 2005-22 janvier 2006,
[http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/shulman/], consulté le 15 août 2008.
Litt, Paul, 1992, The Muses, the Masses, and the Massey Commission,
Toronto, University of Toronto Press ; et Royal Commission on National
Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences (1949-1951),
[http://www.collectionscanada.ca/massey/h5-400-e.html#content],
consulté le 11 mars 2005.
JSSAC | JSÉAC 34 > N o 1 > 2009
99

Guidelines for Authors
TEXT EDITING
• Main title of article: bold lower case.
• No formatting of text or pages (use 12-point font, “normal style,”
throughout the text; no bold, underline, italics, capitals, or small
capitals), except for titles: level 1 – bold; level 2 – underlined;
level 3 – italics; use italics also for foreign words; long quotations
are indented.
• No extra space between paragraphs (one return only after each
paragraph).
POSITION OF THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE TEXT
• Bibliographic references are included in endnotes; if there are
additional references, these are placed at the end of the paper, under
the title “Complementary Bibliography.”
• Illustration captions are at the end of the text, after the bibliography.
• Author’s name(s) is(are) placed immediately after the main title;
short biographical note(s) is(are) directly at the beginning of the
article.
• Short quotations are included in the paragraphs, preceded and
followed by quotations marks; long quotations are indented
independent paragraphs (roman alphabet; use italics only if
language differs from that of article).
REFERENCE FORMAT
The following format is used in Architecture in Canada for the
references:
• Endnotes with automatic endnote marks.
• References to articles or documents (American style) are not cited
within the text; the European style is used: endnote marks in the
text with details in endnotes (see examples).
• In endnotes, reference marks 1 are followed by a period and tab
mark.
1. [TAB] Endnote example. References are written in the same
manner both for endnotes and complementary bibliography (if the
need arises): all segments of a reference are separated by commas.
Note here that the endnote mark, followed by a tab, is not in
superscript: Churchill, Gilbert A., [7 th ed.] 1999, Marketing Research:
Methodological Foundations, Fort Worth, The Dryden Press.
The complete reference is used for the first occurrence. For the
following occurrences, the same abbreviated format us used for all
types of references: author(s), page number:
Mercier, p. 122.
• If more than one reference by the same author, insert year:
Mercier, 2000, p. 122.
• Finally, if more than one reference by the same author in the same
year, the italicized first words of the title are included:
Mercier, 2000, L’usage urbain…, p. 122. OR
Fripp, 1899, “The Influence of the Modern Christian Church…,” p. 9.
Complementary Bibliography
Exceptionally, if there are additional important documents not
referred to in the text, these are inserted at the end, under the title
“Complementary Bibliography,” using the same presentation as the
endnotes (see section “Reference Format Examples”).
REFERENCE FORMAT EXAMPLES
Book / 1 author
Churchill, Gilbert A., [7 th ed.] 1999, Marketing Research:
Methodological Foundations, Fort Worth, The Dryden Press.
Book / 2 or more authors
Noppen, Luc et Lucie K. Morisset, 2000, L’architecture de Saint-Roch :
Guide de promenade, Québec, Ville de Québec.
Book chapter
Farber, Carole, 1983, “High, Healthy, and Happy: Ontario Mythology
on Parade,” In Frank E. Manning (ed.), The Celebration of Society:
Perspectives on Contemporary Cultural Performance, Bowling Green
(OH), Bowling Green University Popular Press / London, Congress of
Social and Humanistic Studies, University of Western Ontario, p. 33-50.
Scientific paper
Fripp, R. Mackay, 1899, “The Influence of the Modern Christian Church
upon the Ecclesiastical Architecture of the Dominion,” Canadian
Architect and Builder, vol. 12, no. 4, p. 9.
Newspaper article
Carter, David Giles, “New Uses for our Landmarks Might Be a Way of
Saving Them,” The Gazette, July 13, 1973, p. 7.
Report
Hammer and Company Associates, 1968, An Economic and Social
Study of the Vieux Carré, New Orleans, Louisiana, Vieux Carré
Demonstration Study Report Series, no. 4, New Orleans (LA), Bureau
of Governmental Research, Washington (DC), Associates.
Thesis or dissertation
Galas, Walter, 1996, Neighborhood Preservation and Politics in New
Orleans: Vieux Carré Property Owners, Residents and Associates,
Inc. and City Government, 1938-1983, master’s thesis in Urban and
Regional Planning, College of Urban and Public Affairs, University
of New Orleans.
Internet reference
Julius Shulman, Modernity and the Metropolis, exposition tenue
au J.P. Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 11 octobre 2005-22 janvier 2006,
[http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/shulman/], accessed August 15,
2008.
Litt, Paul, 1992, The Muses, the Masses, and the Massey Commission,
Toronto, University of Toronto Press ; et Royal Commission on National
Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences (1949-1951),
[http://www.collectionscanada.ca/massey/h5-400-e.html#content],
accessed March 11, 2005.
100 JSSAC | JSÉAC 34 > N o 1 > 2009

call for PAPERS | appel à textes
Editorial Statement
Politique éditoriale
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Articles should be original and provide a new contribution to scholarship, whether they
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d’obtenir les autorisations nécessaires et de défrayer les droits de publication. La
SÉAC et le rédacteur de la revue déclinent toute responsabilité en cette matière. Toutes
les illustrations doivent être accompagnées d’une légende comprenant, normalement,
l’identification du sujet, la date, le nom de l’architecte, l’auteur ou la provenance de
l’image. Les illustrations seront retournées aux auteurs.
Tous les manuscrits sont évalués par le comité de lecture qui fait rapport au rédacteur.
Le rédacteur transmet l’avis du comité aux auteurs, au plus tard soixante jours après
la soumission initiale ; il s’assure que les modifications requises sont apportées avant
d’accepter le texte et de proposer une date de publication. Les auteurs recevront trois
exemplaires du numéro de la revue dans lequel leur texte est publié.

Le Forum canadien de recherche publique sur le patrimoine, réseau stratégique de recherche
d’observation, d’information et de concertation, subventionné par le CRSH (2008-2015) et logé à l’Institut
du patrimoine de l’UQAM, aspire à réunir décideurs et chercheurs de tous milieux dans la conception
d’un dialogue entre l’expertise (qui choisit le patrimoine) et ces collectivités (qui le vivent), en rendant
disponibles les résultats de la recherche et en intégrant celles sur le patrimoine et sur les représentations
culturelles, la décision et l’utilisation (par le public) du patrimoine, afin d’à la fois résoudre des problèmes
multisectoriels et pancanadiens et d’être en mesure de décliner une force nationale pour résoudre des
problèmes locaux. Cela sera fait, d’abord, autour de trois grands « chantiers », problèmes prépondérants
qui recouvrent nos expertises et nos préoccupations : l’avenir du « patrimoine religieux », celui du
patrimoine moderne et, dans une perspective plus théorique, la formation de la mémoire patrimoniale
des Canadiens.
The Canadian Forum for Public Research on Heritage, a strategic knowledge cluster and network for
research, observation, information, and cooperation, with SSHRC’s support (2008-2015) and hosted by
UQAM’s Institut du patrimoine, hopes to bring together decision makers and researchers in all areas
for dialogue among experts (those who designate heritage) and the local communities (those who live
it). To do so, it makes results available and integrates research on heritage and cultural representations,
decisions, and the public use of heritage in order to both solve multisectoral and Canada-wide problems
and build a national force to solve local problems. To begin, the focus will then be placed on three main
areas/critical problems in our areas of expertise and concerns: “religious heritage”, “modern heritage”,
and, in a more theoretical vein, “canadian heritage memory”, e.g., understanding heritage through its
narratives and as etched on the memory of Canadians.
www.patrimoine-canada.ca
Photo : Le Royal Ontario Museum (Thomas Coomans).
Forum canadien de recherche
publique sur le patrimoine
Canadian Forum for Public
Research on Heritage