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One of the icons of Canada’s architectural heritage, the Canada’s Four Corners of Ottawa, completes a facelift just as the oldest parliamentary building, the Southeast Tower of the Eastern Bloc, begins it’s own

April 14, 2018
Newswire

Also known as the Montreal Telegraph Building, the famous Canada’s Four Corners Building, located at the corner of Sparks and Metcalfe Streets, will be dressed-up again in late February 2018 after undergoing a facelift and beauty treatment. The work was carried out by the firm Ellisdon as construction manager, and the Atwill-Morin Group.

“It has been a challenge to tackle the refurbishment of this federal building listed on the Canadian Register of Historic Places, while scrupulously respecting the elaborate Second Empire style of the building,” says the Ontario Division President of the Atwill-Morin Group, Jonathan Atwill-Morin, noting that this great witness in Canadian history was originally constructed of roughly squared stones, with contrasting smooth stone accents.

Canada’s Four Corners Building has been associated with the commercial development of Sparks Street since the early 20th century, having been designated as the heart of Ottawa’s commercial district since the 1880’s. “It required extreme meticulousness, even parsimony, to give back to this protected building its 150-year-old National Capital character.

Many of the stones and various pieces of masonry had to be removed, one by one, to be listed and evaluated ” says Mr. Morin, insisting that the masons and expert employees of the company were forced, at times, to carve new elements of architectural stone identical to the original parts that became unusable.

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