Indigenous Peoples Space, Federal heritage building at Wellington Street, Ottawa, Canada

The Indigenous Peoples Space occupies the three-storey, cube-like Beaux-Arts building at 100 Wellington Street, designed by American architect Cass Gilbert and finished in Indiana limestone with carved classical details on its main facades. Inside, Vermont marble and floor-to-ceiling oak panels line the grand circulation spaces. Three Indigenous architectural firms are adapting the shell to reflect Indigenous values.

The building was completed in 1931 to house the first permanent United States Embassy in Canada, designed by American architect Cass Gilbert; it opened as an American Legation in 1932 and as a full embassy in 1934. After the embassy moved west of Parliament Hill in 1999, the building stood vacant. On National Indigenous Peoples Day 2017, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced it would become the Indigenous Peoples Space for First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples.

The building is intended to represent First Nations, Inuit and Métis cultures together, a partnership that grew to four when the Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation was added after Grand Chief Verna Polson's 41-hour hunger and water strike at the entrance in summer 2019. The Algonquin Nation's claim rests on the site standing on its unceded territory. The Indigenous Task Force of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, 30 Indigenous architects, students and academics, objected that the Beaux-Arts style recalls colonial authority.

The building stands at 100 Wellington Street, immediately south of Parliament Hill in Block 2 of the Parliamentary precinct, with 119 Sparks Street attached. The building is closed to the public while three Indigenous architectural firms carry out its adaptive reuse, so the exterior is what can be seen for now. Its Indiana limestone facades face a row of similarly scaled buildings along the precinct.

The Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation, on whose unceded territory the building stands, was initially excluded from the project. Grand Chief Verna Polson began a hunger and water strike at the main entrance in summer 2019; after 41 hours the federal government made the Nation a fourth partner.