City Daily Photo Theme Day: Municipal Building

The first day of the month is a theme day for members of City Daily Photo. And March has Municipal Building for the occasion. Check out how others are taking on this theme right here.

Ottawa's City Hall is downtown, on a large property it shares with a provincial courthouse. I photographed it one morning last month, approaching from a direction I rarely use: the south side. Here is where we get a good view of the two very different aspects to City Hall. At the left, the 19th century architecture of the Heritage Building stands out strongly with the more modern wing of what was originally built as the regional headquarters before the city amalgamation. The two buildings are linked by an overpass walkway. The Heritage Building houses offices and committee rooms, while much of the day-to-day work is in the new wing. 

Here we have a look into the council chambers, in the new wing. You might notice the wall in the background at left; I did a post about the sculpture there back in 2017 that some of you may remember.

On the other side of the wall outside the council chamber are a series of paintings by Ottawa artist Ben Babelowsky depicting scenes from Ottawa, both urban and rural. The series is collectively titled The Ottawa We Love.

A large atrium stands in the heart of the new wing. This look outside at the snow includes a sculpture.

This lion sculpture is mostly buried in snow. One half is lighter than the other. Fable VII is the title of this, but I refer to it as The Ghost And The Darkness.

Back in the atrium, I photographed this painting, titled Aftermath, 1916. It is a gift by the artist, Ross Rheaume, given to the city in 2016 to mark the centenary of the burning of the original Centre Block. The artist depicts the ruin of the Parliamentary block in daylight following the fire.

Here is a wider view. The columns at left bear banners for the various local history museums spread out across the city.

While this view shows some of the walkways between upper levels.

Back outside, here is an exterior view on the north side.

And over to the left is the skating rink outside City Hall. The Cartier Square Drill Hall, an armoury built in 1879 and still in use today. stands in the background.

Here we have another view of the Heritage Building.

Looking back gives a view of the main west entrance to the new wing.

And one final view from the southwest corner of the property at the Heritage Building, dating to 1875 and once a teacher's college. The Human Rights Monument is at left, an abstract monument that is one of several national monuments in the capital.