New Building Symbolic of ‘Special Relationship’ With U.S. : Canada Decides to Break Out of Capital’s Embassy Row

Canada is leaving the capital’s Embassy Row and building its new, $39-million embassy on Pennsylvania Avenue at the foot of Capitol Hill. The move is a bold architectural testament to Canada’s close ties with the United States.

Construction began March 17 on the airy, contemporary-style stone, white marble and glass building, designed by Vancouver architect Arthur Erickson for the 1.2-acre site diagonally across from the starkly modern East Building of the National Gallery of Art.

“It will be symbolic of our special relationship,” said Ambassador Allan Gotlieb. “It is a permanent signature of Canada in the heart of your capital.”

The chancery building, with pillared courtyard, terraced greenery and fountains, is expected to be ready in February, 1988 for the Canadian ambassador and his 300-member staff. It will have a library, conference room, art gallery and theater.

Meanwhile, the embassy staff is housed in two buildings on Massachusetts Avenue, the traditional Embassy Row, and in rented downtown offices. Since 1928, the ambassador’s offices have been in an elegant, six-story mansion, on Massachusetts Avenue near DuPont Circle, that Canada purchased from the widow of the heir to the Swift meatpacking fortune.

‘Good Citizen’ Building

“What we tried to do was to present a building that was a good citizen of Washington, but welcoming and symbolic of the security we feel as Canadians in your country,” Erickson said.

Canada bought the trapezoid-shaped site from the District of Columbia in 1978 for $5 million, with the approval of the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corp., which is overseeing the restoration of the avenue. Under a delicate agreement worked out at the time, no other foreign embassy will be allowed on the ceremonial route between the Capitol and the White House.

In this privileged and highly visible location, Canada will become the only country to conform with Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s original design for the capital, which envisioned foreign embassies clustered around Independence Mall, the green esplanade that stretches from Capitol Hill to the Lincoln Memorial.

The embassy will be a block from the Mall and flanked by federal and District of Columbia courthouses and new office buildings. Across Pennsylvania Avenue and its intersection with Constitution Avenue are the National Gallery of Art and the apex of the so-called “Federal Triangle” of neoclassical federal office buildings.

On the embassy site have stood hotels and boarding houses for members of Congress and foreign guests of state, a library, a Ford Motor Co. factory and--until recently--city government offices and a city-sponsored shelter for destitute women.

The project has been free of major controversy since seven women were arrested during a protest demonstration when the shelter was closed for demolition in 1979.