TEMPO

Ottawa's last temporary building has some august neighbours - it's between the Supreme Court of Canada and Parliament Hill. The most obvious thing about the Temporary Buildings is that they were meant to be temporary. They would be so expensive to maintain and offensive to the eye, said C.D. Howe, that two years after the War ‘nobody would know the temporary buildings had existed’.
Between 1939 and 1945 the number of civil servants directly employed in Ottawa grew from 12,000 to 36,000. The temporary buildings were put up on every available piece of land, and this still wasn’t sufficient to meet the explosive growth. Privately owned offices like the Jackson Building at Bank and Slater were also acquired by the Government of Canada.

Four temporary buildings were put up on Wellington Street. Number 1 in the aerial above was removed for the National Library and Public Archives of Canada (1965). Temporaries labeled 2 and 3 hung around until the early 1970s, cleared away for a parking lot and designated as the future site of the on-again off-again Federal Court of Canada. Number 4 marks the site of our last temporary. Most recently this building came to be known as the Justice Annex.
Photo by: Images of Centretown

The standardized design of the temporary buildings is attributed to Department of Public Works’ architect T.D. Rankin. Born in Scotland, Thomas Dunlop Rankin (1886-1965) had joined the Department in 1910. He retired in 1946 as Assistant Chief Dominion Architect. During his career Rankin was associated with almost every major building nearby.

Built over the brow of the hill, this temporary has an exposed basement storey of cement blocks. War time austerity and controls on many strategic building materials like steel and concrete meant that the temporaries were constructed entirely with wood. They were framed in massive western fir timbers, and clad in either clapboards or fire resistant asbestos shingles. Most were three storeys.
The basement windows have been walled up. The temporaries were designed to be erected and occupied quickly. Fourteen temporary buildings were built during the War. By Centennial Year in 1967, only three had been demolished.

The exterior stairs have been removed from the side exit, leaving a suicide door. Remembered as being freezing in winter, and insufferably boiling in the summer, during which time the temporary buildings were also responsible for the first ‘heat days’ when the working conditions became unbearable and civil servants were sent home early.
On Victoria Day I was exploring west on Wellington with my blogging mentor, and we found an open window at the last temporary. He held an outstretched arm into the window and took this. There was a blast of scented air (old wood, linoleum and construction materials) issuing forth.

As well as being the smallest, The Justice Annex is probably the most atypical of the temporaries, with its modest pretentions to the colonial revival - a pedimented entrance and a tiny cupola on its hipped roof.

Plan for the National Capital General Report (1950)

The largest temporaries were the three blocks built for the Department of National Defense on Cartier Square. They were the flat-roofed variety, sheathed in asbestos shingles. There were also Dow’s Lake temporaries at Carling and Preston, and one long temporary on the west side of Sussex.
The DND HQ was still around in 1950, as the first span of the future Mackenzie King Bridge was being built over the Rideau Canal. Eventually National Defense would also cross the canal by moving down Laurier Avenue.
And the temporaries were still occupied in 1966, when the excavations for the National Arts Centre were well underway. Finally in 1979 the Cartier Square temporaries were vacated and demolished - spawning a new argument about how to use this now-liberated open space. After proposals for an American Embassy and a public campaign to built a new National Gallery were abandoned, the land was transferred to the Province of Ontario for a Court House and the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton for its headquarters.
The Justice Annex is a building of outstanding national historic significance - but it is in the wrong place. Situated in the gap between the Confederation and Justice Buildings, directly opposite the Bank of Canada - it interrupts a planned biaxial view across Wellington Street toward the Gatineau Hills.
Last summer I encountered some visitors who demanded to know why this thing had not yet been torn down - this was before its most recent coat of paint. I started to wax eloquent about how the building symbolized our war effort, the expansion of the civil service and the growth of national government. They were skeptical.

Ottawa wasn’t the only capital needing temporary buildings in wartime. In 1918 the sprawling Navy and Munitions Buildings had been built along the north side of The Mall in Washington D.C.
They were still in use in 1938, when the reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial had finally been completed.
Soon to be joined by the Navy Departmental buildings in WWII. One of them was actually built across the Mall. The last vestiges didn't disappear until the late 60s.
The last temporary in Ottawa should certainly be preserved, but for what possible use? A friend who is recently retired from the public service has a great idea - a museum dedicated to the history of the civil service. While most historic buildings should be preserved in situ, there is nothing wrong with relocating a ‘temporary’ structure almost seventy years after its scheduled expiration date. Pick it up, restore the view lines and move it to a better site.