Wellington Building

The Wellington Building in Ottawa is an imposing Beaux-Arts office building constructed between 1925 and 1927 as the Canadian headquarters of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. The original design is by D. Everett Waid, while a plainer east wing was added in 1959. Its location south of the Parliament buildings, at the intersection of Wellington and Bank Street, underscores its historical importance in Ottawa's development as a commercial center. After the insurance company moved out in 1970, the federal government took over the building, which at one point also housed the Canadian Postal Museum and, starting in 1984, accommodated members of Parliament outside Parliament Hill for the first time. Since a comprehensive renovation in 2016, it has served the House of Commons for a variety of parliamentary functions. Visitors can admire the carefully restored historic features, including a Byzantine mosaic floor in the entrance hall and a decorative glass-and-steel veranda on Wellington Street, which impressively reflects the architectural link between the formal street front and the more modest rear side on Sparks Street.