Quickie: Dickinson’s Blob (1954-57)

The station just before demolition. Image: Sandy Hill (1994) in Tumak (1994): 101.
The station just before demolition. Image: Sandy Hill (1994) in Tumak (1994): 101.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a story about Ottawa’s Waller Street police station. Although its 1994 demolition wasn’t widely lamented, there were a few who took up the cause. In the December 1994 issue of the Bulletin of the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada, Edgar Tumak, then a member of the city’s Local Architectural Conservation Committee, argued that while the protection of 19th century architecture was well established, Canada had been slow to consider its midcentury gems and the police station was certainly worth saving. I’d argue that recent victories notwithstanding, we still fall short of protecting these 60-year-old gems.

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