British Columbia Parliament Buildings

From 1856 to 1860 the Legislature of the Colony of Vancouver Island met at Bachelor's Hall at Fort Victoria.Duffus, Maureen. [http://www.maureenduffus.com/history/first-legislature.html "Vancouver Island First Legislature"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929100450/http://www.maureenduffus.com/history/first-legislature.html |date=September 29, 2007 }}. Vancouver Island History. Accessed 1 September 2022. From 1860 to 1898 it was housed in the first permanent building at Legislative Hall or Legislative Council Court, a two-storey wooden building along with four other buildings (Land Office, Colonial Office, Supreme Court, and Treasury) known colloquially as "The Birdcages" because of their shape (burned 1957).Harberer, E. (8 April 1876). [http://web.uvic.ca/vv/vvplates/pages/70_04_131.html "Victoria B.C. -The Provincial Public Buildings"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041224221353/http://web.uvic.ca/vv/vvplates/pages/70_04_131.html |date=December 24, 2004 }}. Canadian Illustrated News. via University of Victoria. Accessed 1 September 2022.{{cite web |title=About Victoria: History |url=https://www.victoria.ca/EN/main/residents/about/history.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090415145304/http://www.victoria.ca/visitors/about_hist.shtml |archive-date=April 15, 2009 |website=City of Victoria |access-date=1 September 2022}}

Image:British Columbia legislature building roof close up.jpg

Image:BC-Legislative-Assembly-Chamber.jpg

Construction of a new Parliament building was first authorized by an act of the provincial legislature in 1893, the Parliament Buildings Construction Act. The province, anxious to commemorate its growing economic, social, and political status, was engaged in an architectural competition to build a new legislative building in Victoria, after outgrowing "The Birdcages", which were notoriously drafty and leaked in wet weather.{{cite web |url=http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/cgi-bin/www2i/.visual/img_med/dir_102/a_02776.gif |title=Image of the Birdcages from BC Archives |access-date=May 13, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923182831/http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/cgi-bin/www2i/.visual/img_med/dir_102/a_02776.gif |archive-date=September 23, 2015 |url-status=dead}} Francis Rattenbury, a recent English immigrant, 25 years old, entered the contest and signed his drawings with the pseudonym "A B.C. Architect". He progressed to the second round, signing his drawing "For Queen and Province" and eventually won the competition.{{cite web |title=Building of The British Columbia Legislature |url=https://hallmarkheritagesociety.ca/archives/history-articles/building-of-the-british-columbia-legislature/ |access-date=August 1, 2021 |website=Hallmark Heritage Society |language=en-US |archive-date=August 1, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210801185324/https://hallmarkheritagesociety.ca/archives/history-articles/building-of-the-british-columbia-legislature/ |url-status=live }}

Despite many problems, including exceeding budget – the original budget was $500,000; the final amount was $923,000 – the British Columbia Parliament Buildings officially began operation in 1898.{{cite web |url=http://www.villamarcopolo.com/index.php?pageid=33 |title=Attractions in Victoria, BC |access-date=May 31, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070523094947/http://www.villamarcopolo.com/index.php?pageid=33 |archive-date=May 23, 2007 |url-status=dead}} The grand scale of its {{convert|500|ft|m|adj=mid|-long}} andesite façade, central dome, and two end pavilions, the richness of its white marble, and combination of Baroque rigorous symmetry, use of domes and sculptural massing with the rusticated surfaces of the then-popular Renaissance style.

File:British Columbia Parliament Buildings illuminated at dusk.jpg

Its success garnered Rattenbury many more commissions in Victoria and other parts of the province, including the Legislative Library (constructed between 1913 and 1915 and the cornerstone of which was laid by Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught),[http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/exhibits/jubilee/chronvisit.htm "Chronology of Principal Royal Visits to British Columbia"]. British Columbia Archives. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090228124243/http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/exhibits/jubilee/chronvisit.htm |date=February 28, 2009}} the design of the Empress Hotel, the Crystal Gardens indoor swimming pool nearby, and the Vancouver Court House (now the Vancouver Art Gallery). The andesite of the British Columbia Parliament Buildings is from Haddington Island in the Alert Bay Volcanic Belt.{{Cite web |url=http://www.bedrockgranitesales.com/products.html |title=Natural Landscape Stones – Bedrock Granite Sales, Andesite, Basalt, Rhyolite, Sandstone – Vancouver, BC, Canada |access-date=April 7, 2022 |archive-date=October 11, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061011015201/http://www.bedrockgranitesales.com/products.html |url-status=dead}} The granite used to build the buildings came from Nelson Island, at the mouth of Jervis Inlet, on the Sunshine Coast.

Besides the elected members of the Legislative Assembly, two organizations have been granted the privilege of using the Legislative Chambers during the legislature's December recess: the British Columbia Youth Parliament (since 1924, except during its sessions of the late 1940s and early 1950s) and the British Columbia Universities' Model Parliament.

File:Statue of Chief Maquinna by Charles Maraga.jpg by Charles Marega]]

During the 1994 Commonwealth Games, free music concerts were held on the front lawns of the buildings, attracting as many as 40,000 people. Similar-sized crowds have gathered on the front lawn over the years, ranging from political protests and rallies, such as during the Solidarity Crisis of 1983, to celebrations of various kinds, including the BC150 ceremonies.

The sculpture on the buildings was designed by the provincial librarian, E.O.S. Scholefield and executed by Charles Marega and his assistant Bernard Carrier. For the exterior of the library Marega created 14 figures: Chief Maquinna, Captain George Vancouver, Sir Matthew Baillie Begbie, Dr. John McLoughlin, Hon. John Sebastian Helmcken, Captain James Cook, Sir James Douglas, Sir Francis Drake, Sir Alexander McKenzie, Simon Fraser, Lord Lytton, Sir Anthony Musgrave, David Thompson, and Col. R.C. Moody. Carrier produced twelve figures of women, all allegorical, three around each of the building's four domes.{{cite book |editor-last=Segger |editor-first=Martin |title=The British Columbia Parliament Buildings |url=https://archive.org/details/britishcolumbiap0000unse_a2f4/page/66/mode/2up?q=carrier |publisher=Associated Resource Consultants |location=Vancouver |year=1979 |pages=66–67 |access-date=1 September 2022 |isbn=978-0-9208-9401-9}}

File:Rotunda of BC Parliament Building.jpg

In 1932, artist George Southwell was commissioned to paint murals in the rotunda depicting scenes from British Columbia history from 1792 to 1843. The work was completed three years later.{{cite news |url=https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/murals-of-bare-breasted-natives-to-come-down/article683786/ |title=Murals of bare-breasted natives to come down |last=Matas |first=Robert |date=April 24, 2007 |newspaper=The Globe and Mail |location=Toronto |access-date=April 27, 2008 |archive-date=December 1, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191201091721/https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/murals-of-bare-breasted-natives-to-come-down/article683786/ |url-status=live }} Decades later, controversy arose over the depiction of West Coast Indigenous peoples in the murals, which in modern times is now regarded as degrading, and amounting to cultural appropriation. One mural, entitled Labour, portrays bare-breasted Indigenous women hauling timber while a white man watches. In another entitled Justice, an Indigenous chief is shown standing before a judge (said to be Matthew Baillie Begbie), suggesting the subjugation of natives to colonial law.{{citation needed|date=May 2009}} However, Southwell's daughter claimed that her father depicted the chief as standing before another judge, one who championed Indigenous rights.{{Cite web |last=Pendergast |first=Denton |date=March 14, 2016 |title=British Columbia Legislature |url=https://www.victoriaharbourhistory.com/locations/inner-harbour/british-columbia-legislature/ |access-date=April 7, 2022 |website=Victoria Harbour History |language=en-CA |archive-date=September 29, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220929110140/https://www.victoriaharbourhistory.com/locations/inner-harbour/british-columbia-legislature/ |url-status=live }}

A 2001 report, commissioned by the New Democrat government of the day, recommended that the murals be relocated to a museum where they could be given historical perspective.Peter Seixas and Penney Clark, "Obsolete Icons and the Teaching of History," New Possibilities for the Past: Shaping History Education in Canada, ed. Penney Clark (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2011), 284. However, as the murals are painted on to the walls of the rotunda, the cost of removing them was estimated at $280,000.{{cite news |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-legislature-murals-coming-down-1.679524 |title=B.C. legislature murals coming down |date=April 25, 2007 |website=CBC News |access-date=April 27, 2008 |archive-date=May 11, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170511030943/http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-legislature-murals-coming-down-1.679524 |url-status=live }} In April 2007, the legislature voted to remove murals, with only 3 of the 71 members voting against the motion.{{cite web |url=https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/environment/natural-resource-stewardship/consulting-with-first-nations/first-nations-negotiations |title=First Nations Negotiations |website=Ministry of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation |access-date=April 7, 2022 |archive-date=March 27, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220327183337/https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/environment/natural-resource-stewardship/consulting-with-first-nations/first-nations-negotiations |url-status=live }} Since that vote, the murals have been fully restored and hidden from public view behind false walls.

The main axis of the BC Parliament Buildings is oriented 12 degrees east of true north, symbolically aligning it with the City of Vancouver. Atop the dome of the building, a statue of Captain Vancouver gazes towards the city that bears his name. This particular alignment also points towards the peak of Mount Douglas, the highest point in the Victoria area and a significant survey landmark used in mapping the region.{{Cite web |title=Friends of Mount Douglas Park Society Fall 2018 Newsletter |url=https://mountdouglaspark.ca/web/Newsletters/2018-Fall.pdf |access-date=September 9, 2023 |archive-date=May 24, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190524221417/http://mountdouglaspark.ca/web/Newsletters/2018-Fall.pdf |url-status=live }}

{{Commons category|British Columbia Parliament Buildings}}

• Douglas Obelisk
• Knowledge Totem Pole
• Legislative buildings of Canada

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Category:Government buildings completed in 1898

Category:Buildings and structures in Victoria, British Columbia

Category:Legislative buildings in Canada

Parliament Buildings

Category:Government buildings with domes

Category:Francis Rattenbury buildings

Buildings

Category:Historic buildings and structures in British Columbia