Confederation Building: Ottawa Travel Guide (4.7★)

The Parliament building people walk past

Most visitors to Parliament Hill aim straight for the Peace Tower. They stop at the lawn, take their photos and turn back east. A few hundred metres west, at 229 Wellington Street, there is another building in the same grey stone and green copper. Far fewer people stop to look at it.

That building is the Confederation Building. It belongs to the same parliamentary family as the Centre Block, but it was put up a generation later. Today it is one of the quieter stops along Wellington Street. You can stand at its base and get a close look at Ottawa’s Gothic and Château style with almost nobody in your frame.

Reading the stone: what was built in 1927

The cornerstone went down in 1927, the 60th anniversary of Confederation, which is where the name comes from. The building was finished in 1931. It was designed under Thomas W. Fuller, then Chief Dominion Architect, and it was meant to give Parliament more office space as government outgrew the Hill.

The style is what Canadians call Château: the federal take on Gothic Revival that also appears in the railway hotels. Look for these details:

• The roofline. A steep green copper roof with dormers and turrets, the colour copper turns after decades in Ottawa weather.
• The masonry. Rough-faced grey stone walls, so the building reads as one piece with its neighbours on the Hill.
• The corner massing. The building fills its corner site, so its bulk shows best from across Wellington, not from right underneath.
• The windows. Rows of stone-framed windows, a reminder that this was always an office block and not a ceremonial hall.

Looking without going inside

The Confederation Building is a working building. It holds offices for Members of Parliament, so it is not a museum you can wander through. Google lists it as open 24 hours, and that really means the exterior: the pavement and the view are there at any time. The doors are run by parliamentary security, and access is for staff and invited visitors.

Some practical points for the people around you:

• Stay on the public pavement. Don’t walk up to the entrances or wait on the steps. Staff come and go all day, and security will politely move you along.
• Photograph freely from the street. Pictures of the façade are normal. Pointing a long lens into office windows is not.
• For an inside look at Parliament, book the official tours. The Library of Parliament runs free guided tours of the parliamentary buildings that are open to the public. Check its website for the current schedule and for which buildings are included.
• Expect security, especially on sitting days. When the House sits you will see more police, more staff and more cars along Wellington. That is normal, not a reason to stay away.

Because it is under the radar, you rarely need any crowd strategy here. A tour group crossing Wellington is the busiest it usually gets.

Getting to 229 Wellington

The building is on the north side of Wellington Street, on the escarpment above the Ottawa River, near where Bank Street meets Wellington. The easiest way in is the O-Train. By coincidence, Line 1 is officially named the Confederation Line.

• Lyon station (Line 1) is a few minutes’ walk south of the building. Walk north to Wellington and you are there.
• Parliament station (Line 1) works just as well if you plan to start at the Peace Tower and walk west.
• On foot from the Hill: follow Wellington west past the West Block. It is a short, flat walk.

Driving is not worth it. Parking in the parliamentary area is limited and the rules on Wellington change, so take transit or walk from the nearby downtown hotels.

Copper, snow and low light

How the building looks depends on the season more than most. The green roof is its main feature, and the background changes it. Under a blue sky in summer the roof looks almost turquoise against the grey stone. In winter, snow sits on the dormers and the building looks the way people picture Ottawa in a postcard.

Since you can see it at any hour, go when the light flatters it. Early morning and late afternoon bring out the texture of the rough stone. After dark the street lighting along Wellington picks out the façade without the daytime traffic. Fifteen to twenty minutes covers it. Give yourself longer if you are walking the whole precinct.

A short walk along Wellington

The Confederation Building is a good place to start or finish a walk through government Ottawa. Within a few minutes on foot you can reach:

• The Justice Building, its neighbour to the west, from the same period and in a matching style.
• The Supreme Court of Canada, further west on Wellington, with its own copper roof.
• Library and Archives Canada, further west again along Wellington.
• The West Block and Centre Block, east toward the Peace Tower.
• Sparks Street, a pedestrian street one block south, for coffee and lunch.

A simple loop: start at Lyon station and look at the Confederation Building first. Walk east along Wellington to Parliament Hill, then come back through Sparks Street. That way you see the Hill’s grand front and its quieter, office-filled west end, which most visitors miss.