page_title: Château Laurier
section_title: Fairmont Hotels and Resorts 1999–present
hierarchical_section_title: Château Laurier / History / Fairmont Hotels and Resorts 1999–present
caption_attribution_description: English: Chateau Laurier (HDR). Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
context_page_description: The Fairmont Château Laurier is a 660,000-square-foot hotel with 429 guest rooms in downtown Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, located near the intersection of Rideau Street and Sussex Drive and designed in a French Gothic Revival Châteauesque style to complement the adjacent Parliament buildings. The hotel is above the Rideau Canal locks and overlooks the Ottawa River. The main dining room overlooks Major's Hill Park. The reception rooms include the Wedgewood-blue Adam Room; the Laurier Room defined by Roman columns; the Empire-style ballroom and the Drawing Room featuring cream and gold plaster ornament. The hotel was designated a national historic site in 1980.
context_section_description: In 1999, it was renamed the Fairmont Château Laurier after Canadian Pacific Hotels bought the American Fairmont hotel chain and changed its name to Fairmont Hotels and Resorts. The new look was provided by Wilfrid's on the main level, its big windows giving light and views of the Parliament Buildings, the Rideau Canal locks and the Ottawa River.
  The hotel is just metres away from some of the capital's most important landmarks, including Parliament Hill, the Rideau Canal, the National Gallery of Canada, the Byward Market, the National War Memorial, the U.S. Embassy, and the CF Rideau Centre. Given its proximity to these buildings and the fact that it has served as a home and meeting place for many notable political figures over the years, the hotel has often been referred to as "the third chamber of Parliament".
  The hotel was the inspiration for the "Hotel du Canada" at the Canada (Epcot) pavilion in Orlando, Florida. In 2000, the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada chose the building as one of the top 500 buildings produced in Canada during the last millennium. Coinciding with its 100th anniversary, Fairmont Château Laurier was included amongst other architecturally interesting and historically significant buildings in Doors Open Ottawa, held 2-3 June 2012.
  In 2013 Capital Hotel Limited Partnership (an affiliate of Vancouver's Larco Investments Ltd.) purchased the hotel, but retained Fairmont to manage it. In September 2016, Larco proposed a major addition to create "long-term stay" suites. The design of the addition differs considerably from that of the original building, and has been met with criticism. Ottawa council unanimously voted to download the power to approve the renovation to city staff in June 2018. Because of an unprecedented public outcry, there was a motion to revoke Larco's Heritage permit until it submitted a design that would be more in keeping with the original structure. That motion was defeated by Ottawa Council by a vote of 13-10 on July 11, 2019 and the project proceeded.
  Despite initial proceedings, UNESCO has requested that the extension on the hotel be re-assessed, as there are concerns about the integrity of the view of the surrounding canals.
  In 2018, the hotel was the setting of the dramatic web series Chateau Laurier. Due to budget constraints, however, the series was actually filmed at the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto.
caption: Château Laurier looking northeast at dusk
exif: {}