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The Southwest view from the National Arts Centre’s (NAC) rooftop patio. This is a view of central Ottawa that I have always enjoyed. The beautiful Lord Elgin hotel faces Confederation Park and beyond the park, the Rideau Canal. Although small in size, to me, Confederation Park, with its location in the heart of the city’s downtown core, is like a miniature-sized version of New York City’s Central Park. In this frame we see the greenery of the “green roof” of the NAC, the western aspect of Confederation Park, and Ottawa’s historic Lord Elgin Hotel - now framed on three sides by office towers.

“Across from Confederation Park on Elgin Street stands The Lord Elgin Hotel. Built in the French Chatêau style with a copper roof, and clad in the famous Queenston limestone from Niagara, the hotel has been an Ottawa landmark for 75 years. While conceived prior to the outbreak of World War II, the hotel was erected during the first half of 1941, helping to alleviate the shortage of affordable accommodation in the nation’s capital, made worse by an influx of thousands of service men and women. So urgent was the housing crisis, 1,000 tons of steel and 30,000 tons of other construction materials were appropriated for the hotel’s construction despite pressing war-related needs. The municipal government also provided considerable financial inducements to the owner of the building. .... Its architects were Messrs Ross & Macdonald of Montreal, the successor firm that designed the Chatêau Laurier Hotel and Union Station a generation earlier [as Ross and Macfarlane].”

Significantly more historical information about the Lord Elgin Hotel can be found on James Powell’s informative and interesting blog (link below).