Bethany Hope Centre Redevelopment Heritage Impact Assessment

This property in the Westboro district in downtown Ottawa was developed in the early 20th century by the Salvation Army as part of a larger hospital complex. In 2012, the Salvation Army consolidated its operations at the adjacent Grace Hospital and sold the property to an Ottawa-based developer for incorporation into a mixed use residential/commercial development. Because the property had been designated under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act, and is adjacent to a public library that is Listed on the City of Ottawa’s Heritage Register, Bray Heritage was retained to prepare a Cultural Heritage Impact Statement to ensure that the property’s heritage attributes, as well as those of the adjacent property, were conserved. The Centre’s heritage attributes included the massing, architectural details and materials of the main building as well as the broad front lawn that set the building well back from the street. The project was developed in two phases, the second of which involved removal of a rear addition and incorporation of a residential tower into the rear elevation of the existing building. The resultant design retained the massing of the Centre and provided a new access to the complex alongside the original building. The front lawn was reconstructed as a publicly-accessible open space atop an underground parking structure, thus conserving this important heritage attribute. Bray Heritage prepared an addendum to the CHIS for the second phase that included detailed guidelines for the conservation and restoration of the Centre’s exterior. Carl Bray was involved throughout the design development process and worked closely with the City’s heritage planning staff to ensure that the final design addressed their concerns. The project has since been completed.