The Observatory Campus is located on the grounds of a National Historic Site of Canada, the Central Experimental Farm. Councillor Riley Brockington is determined to see a new hospital built on the property despite world-wide efforts to "Save the Central Experimental Farm." See the YouTube video "Ottawa preparing to hand over Historic Federal Farmland to Corporate Developers."
"Coun. Riley Brockington has been trying to lock in lease conditions that would preserve as many buildings on the property as possible, such as the Dominion Observatory." (From: "Feds say they'll pay $11.8 million to clean up new Civic site" by Dave Reevely, Ottawa Citizen, February 23, 2018.)
You are joking, right? This hospital relocation is a declaration of war against my country's astrophysical, agricultural and architectural heritage. In 1987 the federal Department of Public Works decommissioned the Gonzales Observatory at 302 Denison Road, Victoria British Columbia. The entire property was sold to the City of Victoria for $35,000 dollars.
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| The Observatory Campus near Carling Avenue in Ottawa, a few miles from where I live. For nearly 70 years The Farm has been part of the landscape of my heart. (Ingenium photo from 1966.) |
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The Calgary Alberta Planetarium at 701 11th Street S.W. is now an art museum. (1970's photo.)
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The National Capital Commission wanted to preserve The Farm in May of 1998:
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| "Interim Report on the results of public consultations on the future of the Central Experimental Farm" - May of 1998. |
The Sir John Carling Building was demolished a few years ago; the Dominion Observatory Campus may be flattened and 60 acres of CEF land were given to the Civic Hospital. Twelve acres of that 60 acre parcel will be rezoned so that condominiums and commercial buildings can be constructed along an arterial route, Carling Avenue.
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| A 1974 Ottawa Journal newspaper article. |
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