The library in September 2006.
The main reading room of the Library
of Parliament.
The
Library of Parliament ( ) is the main information
repository and research resource for the Parliament of
Canada
. The main branch of the library, which is the
focus of this article, sits at the rear of the Centre Block
, on Parliament Hill
, in Ottawa
, Ontario
, and is the
last untouched part of that larger building's original incarnation,
after it burned down in
1916. The library has been augmented and renovated a
number of times since its construction in 1876, the last between
2002 and 2006, though the form and decor remain essentially
authentic. The building today serves as a
Canadian icon, and appears on the
obverse of the
Canadian
ten-dollar bill.
Characteristics
Designed
by Thomas Fuller and
Chilion Jones, and inspired by the
British Museum
Reading Room
, the building is formed as a chapter house, separated from the main body of
the Centre Block by a corridor; this arrangement, as well as many
other details of the design, was reached with the input of the then
parliamentary librarian, Alpheus
Todd. The walls, supported by a ring of 16
flying buttresses, are load bearing,
double-
wythe masonry, consisting of a
hydraulic lime
rubble fill core
between an interior layer of finished stone and
rustic Nepean sandstone on the exterior, with dressed
stone trim around windows and other edges, and a multitude of
stone carvings, including
gargoyles,
grotesques, and
friezes, keeping with the
Victorian
High Gothic style of the rest of the parliamentary complex. The
roof, set in three tiers topped by a
cupola,
was originally a timber frame structure covered with slate tiles,
but is presently built of steel framing and deck covered with
copper. The initial overall combination of
colours grey Gloucester limestone, and grey Nepean, red Potsdam,
and buff Ohio sandstones, as well as purple and green slate banding
conformed to the
picturesque style known
as
structural polychromy.
The main reading room rises to a vaulted ceiling, and the walls and
stacks are lined with white pine panelling carved into a variety of
textures, flowers, masks, and mythical creatures. In the galleries
are displayed the coats of arms of the seven provinces that existed
in 1876, as well as that of the Dominion of Canada, and standing
directly in the centre of the room is a white marble statue of
Queen Victoria,
sculpted by
Marchall Wood in
1871.
The library's collection comprises 600,000 items, covering hundreds
of years of history, and tended by a staff of 300. Access to the
facility is generally restricted to those on parliamentary
business, but research publications are produced by the library and
are available to the public. The main branch on Parliament Hill is
only the central hub of a larger complex that spreads to other
parliamentary buildings, where services are offered in a number of
branch libraries and reading rooms.
History
The
Library of Parliament's roots lie in the 1790s, when the
legislative libraries of Upper and
Lower Canada were created; these
operated separately until the creation of the Province of Canada in 1841, and the
collections were amalgamated and followed the provincial capital as
it moved between Kingston
, Montreal
, Toronto
, and
Quebec
City
. The library was to be established in Ottawa
after, in 1867, Queen
Victoria chose Bytown as the new
seat for her crown in the Dominion of Canada, and the Library of
Parliament Act formed the institution in 1871.
Though construction of the present library began in 1859, and the
collection arrived in Ottawa in 1866, work was halted in 1861 and
was not completed until 1876, when the 47,000 volumes including
several donated by Queen Victoria were installed. Around 1869, the
builders discovered that they didn't have the technical knowledge
to build the domed roof, meaning that Thomas Fairbairn Engineering
Co.
Ltd.
of Manchester
had to be contracted to provide a pre-fabricated
dome within a few weeks; this gave the Library of Parliament the
distinction of being the first building in North America to have a state-of-the-art
wrought iron roof. Further, in 1883, the library's 300 gas
lights were converted to electricity. However, such additional
costs brought the library's price to $301,812, a sum added on top
of the total cost for all the parliament buildings, which had
already gone far above the original alloted budget. Within only 12
years the entire roof was stripped of its slate shingles in a
tornado that hit Parliament Hill in 1888, since when the roof has
been clad in copper.
The library's contents grew over the next five decades, and were
saved from the 1916 fire that destroyed the majority of the Centre
Block as the building was only connected to the main complex by a
single corridor, and the library clerk at the time,
Michael MacCormac, secured the library's
iron doors before the fire could spread into that area. Fire
eventually broke out in 1952, in the library's cupola, and caused
extensive damage through smoke and water. It was then necessary to
dismantle the wood panelling and ship it to Montreal for cleaning
and partial fireproofing, and a replica of the inlaid parquet floor
was installed.
The work was, however, primarily structural,
and the Centre, East
, and
West
Blocks
had received extensive climate
control and electrical upgrades since that time, but the
library was largely overlooked. These deficiencies, plus
conservation, rehabilitation, and upgrading, were addressed when a
major, $52 million renovation was researched in 1996, and
undertaken between 2002 and 2006, wherein Public Works and
Government Services Canada contracted the
Thomas Fuller Construction
Company (operated by Fuller's great-grandsons) to manage a
project that fixed leaks in the roof and crumbling mortar in the
walls on the exterior, as well as extensive repairs to the wood and
plaster work and the installation of climate control systems on the
interior. Also done at the time was a nine metre deep excavation of
the bedrock beneath the library building, in order to provide more
storage space, mechanical areas, and a link to an existing loading
dock. The project used precision survey,
laser
measurement, and
photogrammetry, as
well as the then fledgling technology of
Computer
Aided Three Dimensional Interactive Application. After four
years of work, the library was opened to the public, with tours of
the library resuming, on 5 June 2006, though Thomas Fuller
Construction filed a $21 million lawsuit against the Crown for cost
overruns.
See also
References
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