New Justice Building at Ottawa, Design([1907])
Ottawa, ON, Canada
Government, Court house

Client: Government of the Dominion of Canada
Architect: E. & W.S. Maxwell

Description: The New Justice Building in Ottawa was the first competition that Maxwell firm won outside the Quebec province. The competition was held in 1907 and was open to all architects in the country. The Canadian Architect & Builder, for September 1907, kept the account of the competition in which twenty-nine architects from different parts of the country participated. The judges were David Ewart, chief architect of the DPW; Edmund Burke, president of the Ontario Association of Architects; and Alcide Chaussé, president of the Province of Quebec Association of Architects. The second, third and fourth place was awarded to Darling & Pearson, Saxe & Archibald and Brown & Wallace, respectively. Unfortunately, the Maxwells’ winning scheme was not built and it was revealed in May 1910 that the government had decided to proceed with a cheaper scheme for the building designed by the DPW’s Ewart, who had judged the competition. Now called the Connaught Building, it retains many features of the Maxwells’ design. However, this project was not only significant for the Maxwell brothers. It also marked the first time since the completion of the Parliament Buildings that the federal government had dispensed with the services of a competition open to all the architects in the country. The requirements for the design were a federal courthouse and a departmental office building at the eastern edge of Majors Hill Park. Although the specific style for the design was not suggested, the government recommended that some phase of Gothic would best harmonize with the Parliament Buildings, which lay directly west across the Rideau Canal. The Maxwells acted in accordance with the proposed recommendations by designing their scheme with Gothic-inspired forms, but these were composed in a rigidly symmetrical design, evidently showing their growing interest in Beaux-Arts planning principles. The symmetrical building in a Neo-Gothic style with a central pavilion is flanked by wings terminated in octagonal rotundas. The only original document the Maxwell archive possesses regarding the proposed justice building is an elevation drawing, which appears to be a revised version of what they had submitted for the 1907 competition. The new revision had an additional floor with a central tower.

Holdings: Court house
1 Drawing: 1 photo reproduction
1 Presentation drawing: elevation
1 File folder: correspondence; clippings; pamphlet
Comment: The Maxwells submitted winning design, which was not executed.

Comments: The Maxwells submitted winning design, which was not executed.