eveloping the outskirts of the Embassy

View of the Sussex Drive district in the 1930s

During the development of the plans for the Embassy, the scientific research bureaux of Canada was temporarily managing an ancient factory situated directly in front of the future legation. Eugène Beaudouin, the architect and town planner in charge of the project, wanted to found his plans in harmony with the general physiognomy of the land, and asked the government of Canada what they had planned, in the next few years, for the factory.

At the end of the meeting with the Federal Commission of Urbanism, the Canadian government requested from Beaudouin a sketch of the developments to be made for the surroundings of the Rideau Falls. He sent them a complete report. On October 1936, he met the Canadian Prime Minister, Mackenzie King, in London, and showed him his sketches. Mackenzie King was convinced.

View of the Ottawa River’s southern shore

Shortly after, the work had begun. The development design that the Canadian government had planned corresponded, in general, to what Beaudouin had hoped for and even went, in some cases, above his expectations : the old factories where the government’s Scientific Bureaux were located were demolished, Sussex road was widened, and became a large avenue connecting the downtown area to the residential hill in Rockliffe.

These works increased the value of the legation : thanks to demolishing the factories, the view of the Rideau Falls and Parliament Hill opened. The land in front of the Embassy was turned into a public garden.