Month: December 2016

Ottawa’s Building Permits, 1941

The Jackson Building received a $327,000 addition at the rear along Slater in 1941 for the RCAF. Image: geoOttawa.

1941 Ottawa was Wartime Ottawa. Of the top five building permits issued that year, four were issued to the Dominion Government to accommodate the expansion is wartime bureaucracy, and of those four, three were for the wooden so-called wartime “temporary” buildings.

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Ottawa’s Building Permits, 1945

James Beach and R.C. Greig teamed up to construct this apartment on Second Avenue at Bronson in 1945. Image: Google Maps (May 2016).
James Beach and R.C. Greig teamed up to construct this apartment on Second Avenue at Bronson in 1945. Image: Google Maps (May 2016).

Due to the wartime material and labour shortages I noted yesterday, construction in 1945 was, to say the least, pokey. Where there were 55 “important” building permits listed in the 1946 Annual Report, the number was only 24 in 1945.

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Ottawa’s Building Permits, 1946

Vignette of the British American Banknote Company's Gladstone Avenue facility. Source: British American Banknote Company. "90 Years of Security Printing: The story of the British American Bank Note Company Limited, 1866-1956."
Vignette of the British American Banknote Company’s Gladstone Avenue facility. At $800,000, it was the largest building permit issued for Ottawa in 1946. Source: British American Banknote Company. “90 Years of Security Printing: The story of the British American Bank Note Company Limited, 1866-1956.”

Although the Second World War had ended the previous year, in 1946, shifting Canada’s economy back from wartime production had proven a somewhat lengthier enterprise. Both materials and capital remained in short supply and, in spite of exceptional need, construction had not yet picked up. In spite of this, there were a few bright spots in Ottawa’s construction industry.

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Ottawa’s Building Permits, 1947

Strathcona Heights in 1984, before the 1989 restoration project. Source: Ottawa. City of Ottawa. City Living Developments. Ottawa: City Living Ottawa, 1984, p. 15.
The largest permit issued in 1947 was valued at $2,000,000 and for the Mann Avenue rental housing project. Image: Ottawa. City of Ottawa. City Living Developments. Ottawa: City Living Ottawa, 1984, p. 15.

“You really should be working on your thesis.”

That’s something I tell myself frequently, so it was a little surprising to hear it coming from the list of building permits issued in 1947 replicated in Ottawa Building Inspector C. Maxwell Taylor’s 1947 Annual Report. What was the source of those whispers?

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Ottawa’s Building Permits, 1948

Archibald, David, and Jacob Bennett, better known by their company Principal Investments, were already active in Ottawa before they became Canada's shopping mall kings. Image: Maclean's Magazine, February 4, 1956, p. 9.
Archibald, David, and Jacob Bennett, better known by their company Principal Investments, were already active in Ottawa before they became Canada’s shopping mall kings. As the developer behind both Billings Bridge Plaza and the Carlingwood Shopping Centre, Principal Investments would bring Ottawa retailing into the modern era. Image: Maclean’s Magazine, February 4, 1956, p. 9.

Continuing to work back on the building permits issued by the City of Ottawa, what really stands out about 1948 is that there were comparatively few large-scale or expensive projects that year. At $1,188,000, the construction of Fisher Park (Collegiate) High was the most expensive project and Ottawa’s first Comprehensive high school.1Janet Keith. The Collegiate Institute Board of Ottawa: A Short History, 1843-1969 (Ottawa: Kent Reproduction, 1970): 37.

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Notes

Notes
↥1 Janet Keith. The Collegiate Institute Board of Ottawa: A Short History, 1843-1969 (Ottawa: Kent Reproduction, 1970): 37.