The Capital Info Centre: Welcome to Ottawa
A showcase of tackiness and visual excess, The NCC's visitor centre renovation looked dated before it was even finished.
[photo courtesy Alexandre Laquerre (flickr)]
The Capital Info Centre is the NCC-run tourist information office. While a not a bad idea in principle, the Info Centre unfortunately reeks of what could be generously described as exuberant 1990s office park architecture, better suited to the headquarters of a high tech firm in Kanata than its conspicuous location across from Parliament.
Situated on an historic site at Sparks Street and Metcalfe, the Info Centre looks out on Parliament Hill, over the former site of the Rideau Club. The club, damaged by fire in 1979, was expropriated by the feds and the site has been vacant ever since. In the mid-90s, the NCC renovated the facade of the Info Centre. In typical schizophrenic style, almost as soon as the renovation, conservatively estimated to cost $4.3 million, was finished, the NCC proposed demolishing the centre, along with the rest of Metcalfe Street with its Grand Boulevard.
What it lacks in visual appeal, it more than makes up for in symbolic resonance. The NCC has always been more concerned with shallow appearances, the latest trends, and justifying the cinchy jobs of its absentee patronage-appointed directors than with the workaday job of making Ottawa a more livable city.
In the late 90's, the building featured a prominent "millennium" clock counting down the days to January 1, 2000. Always looking for ways to maximize taxpayer dollars, we'd like to propose that the clock now be put to better use counting down the days to the abolition of the NCC.
In the summer of 2011, the NCC relocated the Info Centre to a kiosk in the World Financial Centre a few blocks away. No word on what, if anything, will be done with the Info Centre facade.
Blunders: Metcalfe Grand Boulevard
Blunders: Sparks Street
Former NCC Chief Architect: Capital InfoCentre page
Panoramic view of the Info Centre [Quicktime required]