Source: Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen
Date: February 8, 2018.
The city’s built-heritage subcommittee on Thursday turned down the Uganda High Commission’s application to demolish a Sandy Hill building that was once home to former prime minister Lester B. Pearson.
The subcommittee sent the file back to city heritage staff, instructing them to complete an independent engineering study on 231 Cobourg St.
Some subcommittee members were disappointed in city heritage staff for recommending the demolition without providing additional geotechnical documentation.
A lack of information is “a little bit of a theme this week, you could say,” according to Coun. Tobi Nussbaum, who chairs the subcommittee and who has also raised questions separately about the LRT construction contract.
The Uganda High Commission owns the property at 231 Cobourg St. It wants to tear the building down and build a modern three-storey building, keeping some of the historic design elements of the current structure, such as the flat roof and an octagonal window.