Cadillac Fairview’s Rideau Centre is a full-scale shopping center located in the heart of historic downtown Ottawa. With a nod to the past and an eye on the future, the property has undergone a major renovation and expansion that will contribute to the city center transformation and the Ottawa shopping experience.

The expansion includes a 550,000-square-foot addition to accommodate four levels of retail space; an underground parking structure; an oval, four-level atrium with a central skylight; and the portal beneath the mall that connects it to an underground Light Rail Transit (LRT) station. 

In Ottawa when they say everything old is new again, CF Rideau Centre will come to mind. We built the mall expansion, in part, on the site of the former Ogilvy Building, a historical landmark. To meet City of Ottawa heritage requirements and to pay tribute to the city’s history, we catalogued every brick and wooden window frame from the building’s demolition and stored it for reuse on the CF Rideau Centre exterior. The design included a facelift for the heritage building’s façade using a combination of curtain wall, glazing, porcelain and aluminum to integrate the past with the present. 

Two aged pedestrian bridges connected CF Rideau Centre to a prominent department store on the north side of Rideau Street. We closed one bridge temporarily for a complete renovation and removed the second as it was no longer necessary. Rideau Street is a major artery running through downtown Ottawa and the bridge removal posed traffic inconveniences which weren’t ideal. The best option for removal was a fine-tuned, cost-saving solution where we removed the bridge over five days, instead of the originally proposed four months. With the help of a 300-ton crane, we cut and removed the bridge piece by piece in time for the City of Ottawa to begin tunneling below for the LRT line.

CF Rideau Centre’s expansion and renovation continues to impress shoppers with an amazing retail experience. The redevelopment contributes to the overall revitalization of the Rideau Street area, which continues to attract tourists and residents for an unforgettable experience in the heart of Canada’s capital.