Suburban Ottawa: Post-War Modern Heritage
Tour Description:
Ottawa has many hidden treasures beyond its famous Gothic parliament buildings. Are you interested in modern heritage? After the Second World War, many of the public servants who came to serve the government decided to stay after the war. Our welfare state helped build a middle-class and brought greater security and wealth to the expanding baby-boom generation. In the 1950s and 1960s, Ottawa became a suburban city, stretching out to new towns. Come and visit the places that shaped its modern suburban culture. Highlights include Kanata – a pioneer new town, experimental school designs, modern places of worship and several architect-designed homes.
General Itinerary:
- Diefenbunker – Canada’s Cold War Museum, an underground bomb shelter built for Canada’s government in case of nuclear attack
- Kanata New Town – a new town developed by Bill Teron, a developer who had a vision of a town shaped around the natural landscape of the Canadian Shield
- Qualicum – a small enclave of architect-designed 1960s executive homes
- Saint Basil’s Church – a mid-century place of worship
- MORE DETAILS TO COME
Tour Leader:
Andrew Waldron is the Heritage Conservation Manager at Brookfield Global Integrated Solutions, a facilities management company. He has been a Parks Canada Superintendent, the Canadian Registrar of Historic Places and manager of the Federal Heritage Buildings Review Office. As an architectural historian, he specialises in Canadian modernism. He has been president of the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada, is author of Exploring the Capital: An Architectural Guide to the Ottawa-Gatineau Region and is an adjunct professor at Carleton University in the History and Theory of Architecture
