When it opened in 1912, Ottawa’s Union Station was an architectural delight that led passengers through a procession of palatial rooms to board a train. But by the time the railways moved out of downtown in 1966, tastes had changed.

Like many ornate civic buildings and temples of finance that suddenly seemed old-fashioned, it sat empty and faced demolition. The Beaux Arts-style station on Rideau Street managed to get a second life as a government convention centre, although its ornate interiors became obscured by partitions and translation booths and it was criticized for its lack of climate control and poor acoustics, says Martin Davidson, principal of Diamond Schmitt Architects.

“It wasn’t difficult making a list of what needed to be done because everything needed to be upgraded” when the company, along with Ottawa-based KWC Architects, began strategizing a total restoration in 2014, Mr. Davidson recalls.

“There were challenges with ventilation, universal accessibility and hazardous-waste remediation, and it needed a full mechanical and electrical renovation. On top of that, the building had deteriorated over 100 years and there were holes in the ceilings where birds were getting in,” he says.

But its beautiful coffered ceilings and decorative trims could be revived with application of enough tender loving care.

A multiyear restoration that transformed the station into the chambers and offices of the Senate of Canada has just received top honours for government buildings in the 2021 International Architecture Awards, a juried program that had 450 global candidates.

The challenges the project faced are one reason many architecturally significant buildings from the early 20th century ended up demolished or having only their façades saved, says Jan Kubanek, a Montreal-based senior conservation architect with ERA Architects.

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