The Wellington Building is a Roman Corinthian Revival Style office building in Ottawa, Canada. It was built between 1924 and 1927 as Canadian headquarters of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. The original structure was designed by D. Everett Waid; in 1961 the more restrained east wing of the building was added.
It is located just south of the Parliament buildings at the intersection of Wellington Street and Bank Street with its southern face on Sparks Street. It remained the home of Met Life until 1970 when the company moved to a new building to the south. It was bought by the federal government, and used as offices and for a time the home of the Canadian Postal Museum. In 1984 a shortage of office space for the MPs resulted in some of them being moved to the building. This was the first time MPs had been housed outside of Parliament Hill.
The building currently houses the administration of the House of Commons (Human Resources, Finance). There are no longer MPs offices since the opening of the Justice Building across Wellington Street. The Wellington Building is scheduled to be completely renovated due to its age and an asbestos problem.
Famous quotes containing the words wellington and/or building:
“When Wellington thrashed Bonaparte,
As every child can tell,
The House of Peers, throughout the war,
Did nothing in particular,
And did it very well:”
—Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836–1911)
“Culture is a sham if it is only a sort of Gothic front put on an iron building—like Tower Bridge—or a classical front put on a steel frame—like the Daily Telegraph building in Fleet Street. Culture, if it is to be a real thing and a holy thing, must be the product of what we actually do for a living—not something added, like sugar on a pill.”
—Eric Gill (1882–1940)