Each year, Ottawa (and many other cities) host an event called Doors Open. It’s usually a day or two of letting the public tour places they wouldn’t get access to on a normal basis. Think of it as a way to keep the amount of urban explorers out there sated/dissuaded (depending on the person). Either way, it’s usually a fun experience no matter which camp you may belong to.
Last year (June 2025) I ended up visiting Rogers Studios, Library and Archives Canada, the Library of Parliament (Sparks Street location, they don’t like being confused with the one at Parliament Hill), and the Rideau Club.
Rogers Studios:
This is where radio and television production takes place for Rogers-branded media outlets, at least locally. It’s a fairly large building located at 475 Richmond Road. According to the tour guide, they are mostly a volunteer organization. Most of the local Rogers-affiliated radio stations and TV stations were recently amalgamated at this location. Seems like a redundancy issue and a way to cut costs all around (it definitely is). Still, a very cool place to visit.
Staff were amazing to deal with and were more than happy to show me around personally for a bit behind the main tour group.
Library and Archives Canada:
This absolute behemoth of a building at 395 Wellington Street houses, you guessed it, the Library and Archives of Canada. They are in the process of merging this operation with the new Ottawa Library Main Branch at LeBreton Flats (not super far away) when it’s finished being constructed. The building will remain under Library and Archives control when all is said and done (it is a massive amount of storage space they’d be giving up if they didn’t).
The tour went ALL through the building with stops on most floors, including the uppermost with the small square windows that you can see from the outside. If you can think of something historical, they’ve likely got it squirreled away in a back corner somewhere. I was able to find old pictures of the mall in my hometown showing the movie theater that had once been there and an entire floor seemingly devoted to old phone books. This is my kind of place!
Staff on duty were super-friendly and welcoming. You can even visit there whenever you’d like. They are always open to the public.
Library of Parliament (Sparks Street):
This Library is housed in an older bank building. Lots of books, nice architectural detail. Not much else to say about this place.
Staff seemed colder than they probably should be. Then again, this place is not normally open to the public. I don’t think they see non-governmental/politician types too often in their day-to-day.
Rideau Club:
Ended up going here not because I like snooty, high-society types, but because of the views of some neighboring buildings. Being in the penthouse of the building gives a nice vantage point for viewing the Ottawa River and Gatineau (partially obscured by Canada’s newest summer feature; wildfire smoke!) as well as the roofs of both the CBC building on Sparks Street and the even closer Bell Canada building (which used to house a Trans-Canada Microwave System tower for a short time. More on that topic another time!)
The staff here were split down the middle, some were very welcoming, while others just gave you the side-eye as you walked through. The free appetizers were top notch, of course.
The elevator to the top is only for accessing the club. There are only 2 buttons. 1 to the club, and the other back down to the ground floor.
Fancy furniture and art all around. Again, if it wasn’t for the opportunity to see the view from up there, I likely would not have gone up.
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