The Daly Building was a historic

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...

and

office building An office is a space where an organization's employees perform administrative work in order to support and realize objects and goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific dut ...

Ottawa, Ontario Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

, Canada, that was demolished with much controversy in 1991–92. The building, designed by

Moses Chamberlain Edey Moses Chamberlain Edey (1845–1919) was an Ottawa architect who designed the Aberdeen Pavilion at Lansdowne Park, a National Historic Site and the Daly Building (1905–1992), which was Ottawa's first department store. His architectural style ...

, opened as the T. Lindsay department store on June 21, 1905 and was Ottawa's first department store. It was located at the prominent intersection of

Rideau Street Rideau Street (french: Rue Rideau) is a major street in downtown Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and one of Ottawa's oldest and most famous streets running from Wellington Street in the west to Montreal Road in the east where it connects to the Vanier ...

and

Sussex Drive Sussex Drive (french: Promenade Sussex), also known as Ottawa Regional Road93, is an arterial road in Ottawa, Ontario, the capital of Canada. It is one of the city's main ceremonial and institutional routes. Travelling roughly parallel to the Ott ...

. The building was the only Chicago Style structure built in Ottawa, and one of the few such buildings erected in Canada. Later owned by A.E. Rae & Co, it was expanded at the north end and two additional stories were added in 1913. H.J. Daly acquired the building in 1915. The Daly Building became a government office building in 1921 and served this role for many decades. Owned by the

National Capital Commission The National Capital Commission (NCC; french: Commission de la capitale nationale, CCN) is the Crown corporation responsible for development, urban planning, and conservation in Canada's Capital Region (Ottawa, Ontario and Gatineau, Quebec), i ...

(NCC), they had the

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

removed in 1964 after stone fell from it killing a pedestrian on the street below. The building was left unrenovated. In 1978 it was abandoned as unsuitable for office work. During the 1980s, the NCC tried to find a company that would restore the building, and in 1987 a Montreal firm was given a $45 million contract to restore the structure. However, when the building was examined it was found that portions were structurally unsound, and if it were to be restored large sections would have to be wholly rebuilt. Further studies found that if left alone the building posed a danger to the public, and could collapse under winter snow. The developers did not have the funds to do such an extensive project, and in a controversial decision the NCC chose not to look for a new partner and in September 1991 authorized the destruction of the building. This was the first designated heritage building destroyed in the city since the heritage guidelines were introduced in 1982. It was a hugely controversial decision in Ottawa, that drew much criticism of the NCC both for the years of neglect that let the building decline and for the final decision to demolish it. It was demolished piecemeal circa October 1991-March 1992. The Daly Building site remained vacant for more than a decade. There was much discussion of what would be built there; some advocated a park, and for a time there was a scheme to build a national

aquarium An aquarium (plural: ''aquariums'' or ''aquaria'') is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, aq ...

on the site. Eventually, the NCC leased the site to a developer who erected an 11-storey luxury apartment building, which opened in 2004.

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Further reading