In this installment of Art Deco in Ottawa I’ve turned my attention to the apartment buildings downtown. The Art Deco detail on these buildings is definitely not what we say in Part 1 with the office buildings but it is there.
425 Elgin Street is a compact building. Clever use of 2 tones of brick to create horizontal and vertical bands. I love the entrance of this building. And somehow they’ve managed over the course of time to protect the doors.
As little further south within the downtown core you go the more subtle the Art Deco details get. For two reasons I would think: it’s heyday was passing and budgets. In this case there are some horizontal and vertical details created by brick arrangement. The entrance is quite nice.
The building itself is quite simple. I’d be curious to know when this building was constructed. The name of the building sculpted in bas relief is great. A very Art Deco font.
The Duncannon is a great building. I’m a huge fan of leaded windows – though some of these are getting a little tired. The two tone roofline detail is very deco. I wonder what happened at the entrance Art Deco details morphed into something quite different.
The Mayfair is another great building. It also clearly has uneven deco details. The roof line – check. Building detail – perhaps. The entrance: to a point. Having lived there I can add that most suites have a faux fireplace that are very Art Deco.
333 Metcalfe has great detail on the overall building. The speckled brick effect is fun. The roof top detail is great! The entrance is good. Not one of the best Art Deco examples but good. I almost feel like I’m looking at masonic symbols above the door.
In this case I find the Art Deco details all over and quite balanced. Nice vertical detail with the brick. The stepped roof line with contrasting colour. And finally the entrance. Wow! Grat bas-relief, nice detail. Even the doors which must be original are stepped.
Things are getting a little simpler in this example. The roof line is good. Stepped and has a nice contrasting band. The entrance has gone quite simple I feel were approaching the streamline moderne or international style here but notice the stepped top of the door.
The architect liked 342 Metcalfe so much he built it a twin at 340 Metcalfe.
250 O’Connor Street is another big red brick apartment building. Details are getting a bit soft here. The roof line is stepped – good. The entrance has some nice detail art partly they are deco but perhaps periods are starting to blend. The glass and steel doors however, though functional, add nothing to the aesthetic of this building.
Now if you want exuberance at entrance look no further than the Royal York at 180 Lisgar Street. The building itself is very nice with nice detail but its the entrance that is best. Why does it make me think of Broadway? The quality of my pic is not great, sorry about that, everytime I tried to go back there was either a truck in front of people sitting on the stoop. Another time perhaps!
235 Cooper Street was built in 1935. 4 years after 180 Lisgar Street directly behind it. It has a more setback entrance than Lisgar but the same exhuberant entrance.
Meanwhile back on Lisgar just a bit down the street we find 188 Lisgar Street. Now definitely we’re flowing into the international and streamline moderne period. The Art Deco details are there but things are getting simple.
On the subject of simpler how about 729 Cooper. Now we have moved into the international style. Quite simple – I like it. Apparently I’m not the only one (I sometimes can be) as it is very well maintained. Love the way they’ve written the address – very cool!
658 Somerset will soon disappear completely behind the trees. But it’s late Art Deco details are still peeking out!
A couple of nice buildings on Gladstone. The bas-relief between the windows is great as is the detail near the roof line.
150 Argyle Avenue – The Windsor Arms is a beautiful building. It’s very hard to photograph as the trees are quite present. The stepped facade as well as the roofline detail certainly make it a classic example of Art Deco. I wonder, however, what happened at the front door. The entrance is quite in another style, more classical, even the pillars are classical. Don’t get me wrong it’s a stunning entrance but it has nothing to do with what’s going on above.
242 McLeod Street is a very cute little condo building accross from the Museum of Nature. Somewhat subtle, contained, and I’d want to say stately. The detail around the door is very nice. Nice numbers. And great door.
