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Publication:14 August 2026Arts Court is a cultural and institutional complex located in Ottawa’s historic ByWard Market district. Constructed between 1870 and 1888 as the Carleton County Courthouse and Registry Office, it was designated under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act in 1978. Since then the site has evolved into an arts hub, first opening as the Arts Court in the 80s, and undergoing major additions in 2018. The building is at the intersection between the historic core and the redeveloped zones east of downtown.
| Location | Canada|Ontario|Ottawa |
| Typologies | Cultural architecture|Museums, art galleries and interpretation centers |
| Project type | Transformation |
Réaffectation de l'Arts Court_Carleton_#22As Canada continues to face different challenges within and around its built environment such as climate change, cultural heritage erosion, and socio-economic crises, highlighting the potential for adaptive reuse of our existing infrastructure and buildings to alleviate these issues becomes increasingly important. Carleton Architecture’s Adaptive Reuse Research Team, in collaboration with ARCH 5201 students, selected a group of case studies to better understand the challenges and solutions adaptive reuse can provide. This document outlines one of the selected case studies, Arts Court in Ottawa, ON. It provides a concise overview of the building’s context, distinctive features and existing conditions, as well as the process undertaken to facilitate its adaptive reuse.
