West Block, Government building on Parliament Hill, Ottawa, Canada
West Block is a government building on Parliament Hill featuring Gothic Revival style with pointed arches, detailed stone carvings, and tall towers along its limestone exterior. The structure spans multiple stories and contains offices, meeting rooms, and parliamentary chambers used for legislative work.
Completed in 1906, architect Thomas Stent designed this federal structure as a temporary home for parliament members. It served this purpose during major renovation work on the neighbouring Centre Block building.
The building functions as a workplace where members of Parliament have their offices and hold committee meetings. You can sense the intensity of legislative activity happening within its walls.
After major renovations finishing in 2019, the building now has modern facilities and accessibility features throughout. Visitors can view the exterior and courtyard, though access to offices and chambers may be limited depending on parliamentary schedules.
During the restoration, workers removed and reinstalled more than 70,000 stones, each one individually numbered to track placement. This painstaking effort also included adding thousands of rock anchors beneath the structure for seismic protection.
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