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Publication:17 August 2026Former boathouse of the Ottawa New Edinburgh Canoe Club, built in 1914–1925 and designated a Federal Heritage Building in 2010. The rehabilitation done by the NCC and Juxta Architects preserved the original wood siding and windows, and added universal accessibility modifications. New programs like The Ottawa Riverkeeper Museum and Laboratory, a Bistro, and a summer swimming dock were added.The building underwent major rehabilitation, notably it went from a 3-season to a 4-season facility on 2 levels. It underwent major accessibility upgrades on the shoreline as well as the introduction of a new bridge at the original, historic access level. New services were added for electrical, HVAC, and water was upgraded; a large excavation project ensued in order to connect the building to the city sewer. The fire upgrades, changes to occupancy and conversion to a 4-season use significantly changed the wall assembly of the building, making this project overall high intervention.
| Location | Canada|Ontario|Ottawa |
| Street number and name | 501 Promenade Sir-George-Étienne-Cartier |
| Typologies | Architecture of sports and leisure|Recreation centers |
| Project type | Transformation |
| End Date | 7 August 2023 |
2022
Réaffectation de la River House de la NCC_Carleton_#40As 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 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, NCC River House 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.
