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The first legislative buildings to occupy this site were originally built during the colonial period to house the colonial administration. Designed by architect Hermann Otto Tiedemann and constructed between 1859–1864, these six wood and brick structures comprised a legislative hall, an administrative building, a courthouse, a treasury, a land office and a guard house.

The buildings were described in the press at the time as “a mixed style of architecture, the latest fashion for Chinese pagoda, Swiss-cottage and Italian-villa fancy birdcages.” Owing to this unique blend of architectural elements, the buildings were nicknamed the “Birdcages.”

Following British Columbia’s entry into Canadian Confederation in 1871, the Birdcages became the home of the new province’s first fully elected assembly. By the early 1890s, however, the original buildings were no longer large enough to serve the growing province’s needs. In 1892, an architectural competition was held to select a design for new Parliament Buildings to replace the Birdcages.

Members of the first elected Parliament for the Province of British Columbia pictured in front of the original legislative hall. Six subsequent Parliaments met in the Birdcages before they were replaced by the current Parliament Buildings. The legislative hall was relocated and later destroyed by fire in 1957.

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The original legislative hall was first used by the colonial administration of Sir James Douglas, who had dual-governorship of the Colony of Vancouver Island

and the then-mainland Colony of British Columbia.

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The first legislative buildings to occupy this site were built during the colonial period

and were known as the Birdcages.

The LekwungenThe Parliament Buildings and surrounding areas are located in the traditional territories of the Lekwungen (pronounced Le-KWUNG-en) people. Now known as the Songhees and Esquimalt First Nations, these Coast Salish people have a rich culture and history dating back thousands of years.

Following the arrival of Europeans in the late-18th and early 19th centuries, the Lekwungen played an important role in the fur trade and the early development of the colony. A Lekwungen village once stood on the shores of the Inner Harbour, west of the Johnson Street Bridge.

The Knowledge Totem Pole, located on the Legislative Precinct, was carved by Coast Salish artist Cicero August.

Colonial “Birdcages”

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DesignFull of confidence and ambition, young architect Francis Mawson Rattenbury envisioned a monumental structure that would reflect the current taste for both the classicism of Europe and the more rugged, pioneering institutional architecture of North America. The style of the Parliament Buildings has been described as a combination of free classical, renaissance and Romanesque.

Describing his plans at the time, Rattenbury spoke of highlighting the Legislative Chamber as the “leading motif of the whole design.” As the symbol of parliamentary democracy in British Columbia, Rattenbury positioned the unicameral Legislative Chamber in the centre of the Parliament Buildings.

On June 16, 1892, the Department of Public Works published notices in newspapers throughout North America inviting architects to compete for the opportunity to design British Columbia’s new Parliament Buildings. Of the 65 sets of drawings submitted by competitors from across the continent, those of 25-year-old architect Francis Mawson Rattenbury were selected. Born and trained in England, Rattenbury had arrived in British Columbia only months before winning the architectural competition.

With the design selected and the architect commissioned, Premier Theodore Davie sought the support of the Legislative Assembly to pass the Parliament Buildings Construction Act, 1893. He secured an initial budget of $600,000 – an enormous sum at the time that was more than one third of the total provincial budget.

Partial view of an architectural drawing of the Legislative Chamber.

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Francis Mawson Rattenbury’s

winning design for British Columbia’s

new Parliament Buildings

Architect Francis Mawson Rattenbury

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Architectural drawing of the central dome. Rattenbury chose an octagonal, renaissance-style dome – a departure from the many circular neo-classical domes used on American state and federal capitol buildings.

Architectural Competition