OC Transpo’s 360-degree tour gives you a first-person view of these O-Train Line 1 stations. Please note, footage featured in the online tour was filmed prior to the September 2019 O-Train Line 1 launch. As the easternmost point of the O-Train Line 1, Blair Station is one of the system’s busiest transit hubs. It offers easy transfers between light rail and buses, as well as access to local commercial and residential areas. Lyon Station is an underground station just a few steps away from Sparks Street. A special feature is the non-integrated art piece called With Words as their Actions, created by PLANT, in Toronto. It celebrates women as keepers of history – and in particular, the 32 women who, in 1898, founded the Ottawa chapter of the Women’s Canadian Historical Society (now the Historical Society of Ottawa). Using the tour is simple: you can use your mouse to travel through the interior and change levels by clicking the station level guide in the bottom left corner. To read more about station features, click on the red and white O button seen throughout the station.

In 1978, Ottawa’s mayor recommended establishing a municipal arts centre, arts council, arts festival and a permanent art collection for the city. This building initially served as the Carleton County Court House, purpose-built in 1870-71. It was slated for demolition in 1980, but it was saved by the city and turned into the Arts Court. It officially opened in 1988.

Take a behind-the-scenes tour of Ottawa’s oldest stone building. The Bytown Museum offers tours of the Commissariat Building throughout the day. Come check out their new temporary exhibit and award-winning gallery renewal, a showcase of their historical costume collection and their vault. Enjoy a fresh lemonade next to the Ottawa lockstation, part of the Rideau Canal UNESCO World Heritage Site.

With over 17,000 artworks by over 3,000 artists, the Canada Council Art Bank houses the largest collection of contemporary Canadian art in the world. The collection houses paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs and prints by emerging and established artists, including a significant number of Indigenous artists. The collection is also regularly featured at the Canada Council for the Arts main office.

The Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI) and the Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN), special operating agencies within the Department of Canadian Heritage, were created in 1972 to advance and promote the conservation of Canada’s heritage collections. The CCI is focused on moving conservation forward through science and practice. It helps heritage institutions care for and share their collections both here in Canada and abroad. The CHIN offers valuable collections management resources to the Canadian museum community and online public access to millions of collections records. The building they occupy houses over 20 laboratories that are used for conservation and research. It also has a library, metal workshop, wood workshop, photography studio – with an industrial radiography laboratory – and over 100 offices. Visitors will note the eccentric figure that sites atop the front entrance of the building, known as “Captain Conservation.” This imposing fibreglass sculpture tells an interesting story. CCI conservator Andrew Todd came across the sculpture in an Ottawa junkyard in the early 1980s. When Todd left the CCI, he left “the Captain” behind. In the early 1990s, however, then-Director General Charles Gruchy bought the statue from Todd for $1, making the Captain the CCI’s official mascot. During the statue’s restoration, a time capsule was placed in its cement base. The capsule is scheduled to be opened in 2042. As part of Digital Doors Open, take a virtual tour of the CCI through the video below and learn more about this fascinating site.

The official name of the Canadian Museum of Nature building is the Victoria Memorial Museum Building. Most of the exhibitions and programs are offered here. This museum is proud to reside in the first building in Canada created to house a national museum. It is a national historic site and the birthplace of Canada's national museums. The Victoria Memorial Museum Building's chief architect and designer, David Ewart, created a fanciful castle-like structure that has been described as Scottish baronial in design. Ewart's structures reflect the Romanesque and medieval styles of Europe, with a combination of Tudor and Gothic features. The massing and interior articulation of the building are influenced by the beaux-arts style, which stressed symmetrical, axial plans. The architecture was intended to mirror the Centre Block of Canada's original Parliament Buildings, one mile due north of the museum's site. Despite the influence of European styles, the building is firmly rooted in Canadian reality. It is one of the first public buildings to incorporate into its design animals and plants found in Canada – in windows, exterior walls and interior embellishments, as well as the two carved moose heads that guard the main entrance. Renewal of the museum was completed and the renovated museum building was celebrated on May 22, 2010 – the International Day for Biological Diversity. The Queen dedicated the new glass tower, called the Queens' Lantern, named for both Victoria and Elizabeth II. For Digital Doors Open, visitors can watch the video below to learn more about this engaging museum. Or they can take a 3D self-guided tour and wander the halls to explore the galleries and spaces. Or take a fun and interactive virtual tour of the museum's Natural Heritage Campus and go behind the scenes to see treasures from their collections.

The Ottawa Hospital is a world leader in cancer research. During Doors Open, discover fascinating cancer research with a behind-the-scenes tour of a lab, and an opportunity to explore the lab’s high-tech tools. For safety reasons, visitors must be 16 years or older. Forty-minute guided tours leave every hour from the Cancer Centre lobby. Space is limited. Registration is required.

Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre (CDCC) is Carleton University’s arts, performance and learning centre, and is dedicated to providing a welcoming, professional and safe environment to foster programming that is multi-generational, diverse and inclusive. CDCC is the university’s first downtown Ottawa building and is managed by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. The centre serves a variety of user groups from the university and community at large. It strives to ignite creative exploration and rich presentation opportunities, offering a unique event experience in a historical Ottawa venue for performances, workshops, lectures, meetings, curricular programming, lifelong learning courses and beyond. Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre is a beautiful 1912 heritage building located in Centretown - showcasing unique Romanesque Byzantine architectural styles. Reaching nearly 3,700 square metres (40,000 square feet), the building includes an 870-seat main performance hall that is visually and acoustically stunning, various multi-use event and activity spaces, classrooms and its own beautiful outdoor garden. For Digital Doors Open, watch the video below to learn more about this unique site.

Chaudière Falls is a subsidiary of Hydro Ottawa Holdings Inc. and is a 29-megawatt hydroelectric facility that feeds into the provincial grid and powers 20,000 homes with clean, renewable energy, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 115,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide every year. Built entirely below ground, this facility was designed to have minimal-to-zero impacts on the visual, natural and aquatic environments. To ensure safe fish passage through the facility, they have incorporated leading technological solutions to protect migrating American eel, endangered under the Ontario Endangered Species Act (ESA). In addition, there are new spawning beds being built downstream to promote the recovery efforts associated with sturgeon (also endangered under the ESA). Chaudière Falls is home to Canada’s oldest hydroelectric station still in operation. It was responsible for lighting Ottawa’s streets with electricity and fuelled the industrial explosion of the mid-1800s by providing water power for the vast complex of lumber mills that once occupied the shoreline of the Ottawa River. The new site offers safe viewing platforms and greater public access in the form of a defined corridor on the roof of the new below-grade hydro facility. A new bridge across the intake canal is open for pedestrian and cyclist traffic. Using a restorative philosophy, they are maintaining elements of the city’s industrial past, including refurbishing the site’s oldest buildings that survived the Great Fire of 1900. As part of Digital Doors Open, enjoy a virtual tour of this site.

Built in 1872, this church was constructed to harmonize with the new Parliament buildings. Named the Cathedral of the Diocese in 1897, it continues to nurture faith in creative and traditional ways. Architectural features include soaring ceilings, magnificent windows and the bell tower, home to the 516-pound bronze bell cast for the original church in 1839.

Designed by Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki, this award-winning building serves a representational role for the Ismaili Imamat in Canada, offering a centre for building relationships, enabling quiet diplomacy, and disseminating knowledge and information while reflecting the wide-ranging humanistic and humanitarian agenda of the Aga Khan Development Network and its associated institutions. Under the general direction of His Highness the Aga Khan, Maki has translated concepts rooted in Islamic tradition into a bold, modern design. This design is inspired by the natural luminosity and multi-faceted shape of rock crystal. Throughout the site, the play of light on transparent and translucent surfaces creates a dynamic visual effect. The notion of openness and transparency is carried through the building. The Delegation of the Ismaili Imamat has received the Governor General’s Medal in Architecture (2012), and two awards from the Ontario Association of Architects: the Celebration of Excellence Award and People’s Choice Award (2010). As part of Digital Doors Open, explore this site through this engaging interactive virtual tour.

The Diefenbunker is Canada’s most significant surviving Cold War artifact. It is an impressive four-storey underground facility that operated as the country’s central communications headquarters during the Cold War, ready at any moment in case of a nuclear attack. Now a museum, the Diefenbunker offers a one-of-a-kind experiential learning environment, coupled with award-winning programs, events and exhibitions. Registration required.

Built in 1872 as Goulbourn Township’s Town Hall, this site is now the Goulbourn Museum, home to interactive and hands-on exhibits. The museum shares the story of the former township by collecting, preserving, displaying and interpreting nearly 10,000 local artifacts as well as a 40,000-piece archaeological collection. The adjacent History Centre, built in 1961, was the former clerk building. Today, it is used for collections storage, office space and meeting space. The Goulbourn Museum features such exhibits as All the Woods & Waters (which explores the colonization of the township), The Village General Store (where visitors can dress up, shop or barter for supplies) and SCORCHED: The Great Fire of 1870 (which commemorates the 150th anniversary of the fire that had devastating consequences for Goulbourn Township). During Digital Doors Open, take virtual tours of their children’s toy, archaeological and military collections.

Originally built as the Ottawa Normal School, this site is now Ottawa City Hall. Built in the Gothic Renaissance style, it reflects the influence of the Parliament Buildings — with Italianate windows and Romanesque columns. Purchased by the municipality in 1987, the restored building opened as city hall in 2001. The Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame is now permanently housed here.

The Ingenium Centre houses Canada’s science and technology collection, with more than two million archival, trade literature and library materials, and more than 116,000 artifacts. The Centre provides a controlled environment to protect the artifacts for the benefit of generations to come, designed to properly house artifacts made of materials such as plastic, wood, paper, textiles and ivory.

Ottawa’s first high school has occupied this prime downtown location alongside the Rideau Canal since 1874. The Gothic revival building has been extended and renovated several times. It has many distinct architectural features – including an impressive 660-seat auditorium that maintains much of its original character, and an attic that students used as a shooting range during the Second World War.

The Ottawa Art Gallery (OAG) is home to the art and artists of the Ottawa-Gatineau region, now housing a collection that numbers over 1,450 works — including paintings, sculpture, graphic arts, photographs and new media. In April 2018, OAG opened this modern purpose-built space. The gallery explores and reflects on diversity and social change through a spectrum of visual arts practices.

Built in 2011, the design of the Ottawa Humane Society celebrates its strong community values and commitment to the animals. The Shirley Kearns Memorial Adoption Centre was built to provide easy viewing and visiting of animals available for adoption. In the adoption centre, cats, dogs and small animals are housed in separate areas with rooms and enclosures designed to meet the animals’ daily needs. The education centre – a large, open, naturally lit room – hosts a variety of workshops and camps to teach pet owners about responsible pet ownership and animal welfare. In a modern clinic facility, veterinarians provide regular and emergency medical treatment for animals in shelter care. The clinic includes a critical care unit for Ottawa’s neediest animals, an X-ray room and surgery theatre. Before animals are ready for adoption, they are housed in the holding area. Holding is set up with high-volume/high-changeover air handling systems and full sanitary and wash-down facilities to provide maximum sanitation and to prevent the spread of disease. Administration is adjacent to the adoption centre and holding area to allow ease of access for staff and volunteers to the animal areas. The interconnected design promotes a strong connection between staff of various departments, volunteers and the public. During Digital Doors Open, take a virtual tour of the site and learn more about the important work that they do.

The Ottawa Muslim Association and the Ottawa Mosque was incorporated in 1964 as a charitable organization, with its first phase completed in 1970. The Ottawa Mosque is the first and the oldest mosque in the city, and is one of the oldest in Canada. Its distinct architectural design includes a two-storey prayer hall, library, minaret, central dome and multi-purpose basement.

Public Services and Procurement Canada is delighted to offer a behind-the-scenes look at the work taking place at the Parliament Building (Centre Block) as part of this year’s Doors Open Ottawa. Centre Block is a familiar sight to many Canadians. And construction is well underway to restore and modernize it. Doors Open participants will discover Centre Block like never before!

Come and visit this plaza during Doors Open Ottawa. Construction is underway to restore and modernize the Centre Block and advance construction of Canada’s new Parliament Welcome Centre. Though the Centre Block is currently closed, visitors during Doors Open can view a special exhibit featuring videos, images and information about the design plans for the building and the Parliamentary Precinct.

The Senate of Canada Building is full of history, art, architecture and parliamentary treasures. It is the Senate’s temporary home in downtown Ottawa, while its permanent home (the Centre Block building with the Peace Tower) is closed for major rehabilitation work. Over the years, this building has hosted many important national events (the repatriation of the Canadian constitution) and has served many different functions (it opened in 1912 as a train station). Today, as the temporary home of the Senate, you can explore – through this virtual tour – where the Senate works.

The United States has had an official diplomatic presence in Canada since 1827. Built in 1969, the current building creates a bridge between places, peoples and ideas. Symbolizing a bridge, the building stands for partnership and alliance. As a work of architecture, the magnificence of the building is indicative of the significant relationship that the United States has with Canada.

Built in 1860 along the shores of the Rideau River, Watson’s Mill remains active as a water-powered flour mill. Nearby Dickinson House, built in 1867, displays the heritage home of the past mill owners. Dickinson Square is the only industrial heritage site in Ottawa. The site comes to life through tours by costumed interpreters and milling demonstrations.