Introduction
19 Fairmont Avenue is just off Wellington Street in the Hintonburg neighbourhood of Ottawa. It is an example of 1950s modernist architecture that has drawn on industrial design and did away with ornamentation to focus on the functionality, of creativity, and the business of making and selling motion pictures.
Ottawa architects William James Abra and Watson Balharrie designed the building in 1954. It was the modern headquarters for the trailblazing production company Crawley Films Limited. Under its founders, Frank Rutherford Crawley, affectionately called "Budge," and his wife Judith Crawley, the company officially operated from 1939 to 1982 when it was sold. Budge and Judith chose Ottawa as their head office and the creative command center for their film studios and administration. From its beginning, the Crawleys and their company won multiple awards and recognition for their films. Their continuous growth in expert staff, number of productions, and revenues necessitated a building that suited their development and rise in success. It was to be a building with an architecture for the times, larger in size, optimal for its creative and technological know-how, and prominence on the cinematographic landscape in Canada and worldwide. Their headquarters had to reflect innovation in audio-visual production.
However, in a typically Canadian manner, the residents of Hintonburg and Ottawa, as well as many Canadians, were and continue to be unaware of the importance of the accomplishments and successes of those who worked at Crawley Films Limited in this building. Ottawa citizens are unaware of the story and symbolism that represents 19 Fairmont Avenue. This online exhibition intends to raise awareness and celebrate the heritage of the building within the scope of the early years of Crawley Films Limited.
Sadly, in contrast to its novelty in its heyday, the edifice now serves as an all-purpose, functional three-storey building for the Ottawa Police Services Offices.
Overall, the fate of the 1950s and 1960s modernist buildings has resulted in demolition or redesign. The reaction to constructions like the 1955 Crawley Films building has been neglect or an adverse reaction because they seem “out-of-step with current design principles.”[1] Urban leaders, citizens, and architects look to remodel and reimagine these buildings, as has been the case here with 19 Fairmont Avenue. Luckily, there is a wind of hope where there is a move to protect and conserve modernist structures.[2]
[1] Aidan While, "Modernism vs Urban Renaissance: Negotiating Post-war Heritage in English City Centres," Urban Studies 43, no. 13 (2006): 2399, JSTOR.
[2] While, "Modernism vs Urban," 2399.
