Department of National Defence Headquarters (Canada)
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The Department of National Defence Headquarters (NDHQ) is the headquarters for Canada's Department of National Defence (DND) and is located in the Major-General George R. Pearkes Building at 101 Colonel By Drive in Ottawa, Ontario.
The building was constructed between 1969 and 1974, and was originally intended for use by the Department of Transport. When a planned Defence headquarters on the LeBreton Flats was not built, however, the DND acquired the Colonel By Drive structure. The concept for the building (actually a group of buildings) was developed by French town planner Jacques Gréber immediately after World War II at the invitation of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King. Gréber advised that the city redevelop the east bank of the Rideau Canal which was, at that time, covered with railway tracks leading to Ottawa Union Station (which, with the removal of the tracks, has become the Government Conference Centre).
Architects John C. Parkin, Searle, Wilby, and Rowland designed the buildings. They were conceived as the first phase of the planned redevelopment, the Rideau Centre being the second phase.
The present NDHQ building is now overcrowded and the DND has headquarters staff spread out across the National Capital Region. The threat of terrorist attacks has also lead to the permanent closure of an access road that runs beneath the connecting section of the two buildings. Recent cutbacks in high-technology companies in the Ottawa region has led the DND to consider buying a surplus JDS Uniphase campus in suburban Barrhaven at the intersection of Merivale Road and Prince of Wales Drive, west of the Ottawa International Airport. JDS's Barrhaven campus is comprised of two large buildings with extensive computer networking capacity, and is currently selling for a fraction of what it cost to construct. The location is far more secure, in being set back from public roads, and has ample parking and transit connections for the several thousand employees it was designed to support.
The National Defence building and the adjacent Rideau Centre are both served by OC Transpo's Mackenzie King Transitway station.
External Links
- *WikiSatellite view at [WikiMapia]
- *Street map from [Mapquest] or [Google Maps]
- *Satellite image from [Google Maps]
- *Topographical map from [Maptech]
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