Saving The Rideau Street Convent Chapel—Heritage Ottawa 2020 Phillips Lecture

On Wednesday, February 17, Heritage Ottawa offered the 2020 Phillips Memorial Lecture to an on-line audience.  Presenter Leslie Maitland explored the history of the Rideau Street Convent Chapel, how it was rescued from demolition in the early 1970s, and eventually restored and installed in National Gallery of Canada in 1988. 

The Rideau Street Convent Chapel is one of the architectural gems of the nation; it is now a jewel in the crown of the National Gallery of Canada. A captivating space, its rows of delicate columns support intricately carved and painted fan vaults, the only such set of fan vaults in Canada. Its extraordinary design is the work of its brilliant architect, Georges Bouillon, and due in no small measure to the superb craftsmanship of the woodworkers and painters who executed his unique design.

The presentation covers the origins of the chapel, how it was saved from demolition, how it came to reside in the National Gallery, and what this saga of near-disaster and survival has to say about heritage protection in this country.

Speaker:  Leslie Maitland is an architectural historian who worked for many years for the National Historic Sites Directorate of Parks Canada.  She is a past president of Heritage Ottawa and a current board member.

The video recording will be available for streaming until March 3.  The presentation is about 50 minutes long. 
Watch it here.