Fuller Building

The stark black and white office building at 75 Albert Street must have been a jarring addition to the dirty brick and stone downtown of 1960. Perhaps it also symbolizes the curse of modernism - the ease with which it could churn out an endless supply of bland, boring and banal boxes.

It was built during 1960-61. 'Ottawa's first rentable fully air-conditioned building of its size. The Fuller Building is now under construction on the north side of Albert Street between Elgin and Metcalfe streets. The $3 million structure (sketched here) is owned by Metcalfe Realty Company Ltd. It will be completed by Oct 1 this year. Parking space will be provided for tenants. It was designed by Ottawa architects Balharrie, Helmer and Morin in association with Metcalfe Realty's construction division. Mechanical engineers for the air conditioning are Yost Keen of Toronto.' Although the general contractors are not listed in this caption, I am guessing that the building was named for the Fuller family of Thomas Fuller (Chief Dominion Architect) and Fuller Construction fame.

It's been faithfully reproduced though successive renovations. The black piers, which were polished granite (or a composite terrazzo material) were simply covered over with black metal flashing. The new windows still have three divisions, and although the openable awning window was omitted - there are still some operating windows. On the second floor from the top, fourth double bay from the right, one is cracked open.

Regular readers will know of my admiration for architect Watson Balharrie (Brook Claxton Building, Carleton U's first moderns, the first permanent Sparks Street Mall, etc.) but he was obviously capable of designing potboilers like this.

Euphemistically speaking, the Fuller maximizes its site coverage, i.e. lot line to lot line coverage.

Still, there is a Balharrie finesse in the steel-finned housing that surrounds the large mechanical penthouse (all that air conditioning).

The August 14, 195 Ottawa Citizen mistakenly placed the Fuller Building amongst this group of new developments. 'Going up - city core attracting big building investment - Planned or now building are 1-11 story office [Sir Wilfrid Laurier] 2- 11 story apartment [The Gloucester] 3-Campeau office building [Centennial Tower] 4-Campeau office-hotel [Place de Ville I] 5-Bank of Canada 6-Brouse office-hotel-stores [west side of Bank, Laurier-Slater, never built] 7-Press building [pre-cursor of La Promenade 151 Sparks?] 8-Toronto-Dominion Bank 9-Montreal Trust 10-Canada Permanent Trust 11-Fuller Building [sic -wrong location, it's actually the Blackburn Building] 12- 11 story office building [Gillin Building].'

The perspective drawing accurately reflected the Lorne Building across the street. I first remember the Fuller Building when it housed the overflow offices and library of the National Gallery of Canada. The Albert Street frontage was altered shortly after the building opened when an entrance door was cut into the ground floor for interior designer Gordon Burrows' showrooms. Incredibly chic, for Ottawa, the store had a striped marquee, urns, and a doorman.

Inside the lobby floating open stairs lead to a downstairs restaurant. The brass railings are an 1980s touch.

There is book-matched cinnamon brown marble through the double-height space.

The building's construction was ill-fated. This late-breaking bulletin hinted at disaster.

The wooden supports holding up canvas coverings to protect the concrete formwork had failed, trapping the fifty workers who had been finishing the third floor slab.

The injured men were hoisted off the site is a sling hung from a crane.

Towards the end of construction a fire broke out on the roof.

The chief glory of the Fuller is a huge compass set into the lobby floor. It has been covered over with permanent slush mats.

Engraved gothic F-B's decorate the elevator doors.

The first business to occupy the ground floor was the Ottawa branch of Montreal Trust, which opened here in January 1961.

It was '..less than 10 minutes' walk from any business office commercial establishments, Government office or hotel in the core of the city. The location was carefully selected particularly with a view to the projected development of the capital.'

In fact, Montreal Trust would soon become part of that projected development when it moved out of the Fuller Building, and built its own offices at Sparks and Metcalfe in 1965.