Centennial buildings as National symbols 50 Years Later

They are perhaps the most visible and enduring legacy of Canada's 100th birthday. And, they are receiving renewed attention as Canada now celebrates its 150th anniversary.

They are Canada's centennial buildings and monuments.

there are roughly 900 so-called centennial buildings still standing that were constructed in each province and territory during the 1960s to celebrate Canada's 100th birthday.

So told Colin Ripley to the CBC in a recent interview.

Ripley is a Ryerson University architecture professor who co-wrote Architecture and National Identity: The Centennial Projects 50 Years On, a companion book to an exhibit on centennial projects that opened at Charlottetown's Confederation Centre of the Arts in 2014, and also ran last year at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.

The plan to provide funding for the structures was announced by then-prime minister John Diefenbaker in 1961. It was started to represent a major step in national unity at the time.

"Up until that point we had an English identity, we had a French-Canadian identity, distinct regional identities," he said.

"This was an attempt, explicit, to find out what it was to be Canadian."

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