🇨🇦Legislative Assembly of British Columbia British Columbia Parliament Building

The British Columbia Parliament Buildings (British Columbia Parliament Buildings) is located in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. It is the seat of British Columbia's legislature. ➡️ 501 Belleville St, Victoria, BC V8V 2L8

Birdcage Building The first parliament building complex called the "Bird Cage" was built on this site in 1859 and completed in 1864. The media at the time described it as "a combination of a variety of architectural styles, not only the color of the Chinese pagoda, the style of Swiss farms, but also the exquisite bird cage with elements of Italian villas." After the establishment of British Columbia in 1871, the birdcage building became the provincial government building. However, by the early 1890s, the scale of the complex was insufficient to cope with the ever-increasing population needs. In view of this, the Provincial Government of British Columbia held an architectural design competition in 1892 to select a design for the preparation of the new Provincial Assembly building. Participants from all over North America submitted a total of 65 design drawings. As a result, the 25-year-old architect Francis Mawson Rattenbury (Francis Mawson Rattenbury) won the contender. This project is his nascent task. After successfully completing the Provincial Assembly Building, he also continued to design many representative buildings for the province of British Columbia.

Parliament building design The construction of the new provincial assembly building began in 1893, was completed at the end of 1897, and officially opened on February 10, 1898. The building was gradually added from 1913 to 1920, and the construction cost totaled more than 2 million yuan. The design style of the Provincial Assembly Building has been described as "free classical", combining Renaissance and Romanesque architectural styles. Architect Leighton Bailey uses a large number of raw materials produced in British Columbia. The exterior walls of the building are all gray andesite from Haddington Island, and the foundation and main entrance steps are made from Nelson Island granite. The oxidized copper dome and the various hardwood panels used in the interior halls of the building all show the rich natural resources of British Columbia. The roof originally used slate tiles from Jervis Inlet, but was later changed to Pittsburgh slate tiles during the restoration project. After more than 70 years, the provincial assembly building was obviously damaged because it was not regularly repaired: the roof leaked, the foundation wood was decayed, and the power supply system was old and aging. The building has added signs of time. In 1972, the government was determined to spend 80 million yuan on a comprehensive restoration project for the building. This is a neo-Baroque building, facing the inner harbor, opposite to the Queen Hotel. On the front lawn is a statue of Queen Victoria and a statue of a soldier to commemorate the soldiers who died in the province in World War I, World War II and the Korean War. Above the central dome is a statue of George Vancouver.