The Daly Building was an historic department store

Department store

A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...

 and office building in Ottawa

Ottawa

Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 that was demolished with much controversy in 1991-92.

The building, designed by Moses Chamberlain Edey

Moses Chamberlain Edey

Moses Chamberlain Edey was an Ottawa architect who designed the Aberdeen Pavilion at Lansdowne Park, a National Historic Site and the Daly Building which was Ottawa's first department store....

, opened as the T. Lindsay department store on June 21, 1905 and was Ottawa's first department store. It was located at the prominent intersection of Rideau Street

Rideau Street

Rideau Street is a major street in downtown Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and one of Ottawa's oldest and most famous streets running from Wellington Street in the west to Montreal Road in the east where it connects to the Vanier district...

 and Sussex Drive

Sussex Drive

Sussex Drive is a major street in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and one of the city's major ceremonial and institutional routes....

. The building was the only Chicago Style

Chicago style

Chicago style may refer to several things:*The Chicago Manual of Style, a guideline for writing documents and news reports*Chicago school , a style of commercial buildings...

 structure built in Ottawa, and one of the few such buildings erected in Canada. Later owned by A.E. Rae & Co, it was expanded at the north end and two additional stories were added in 1913. H.J. Daly acquired the building in 1915.

It became a government office building in 1921 and served this role for many decades. Owned by the National Capital Commission

National Capital Commission

The National Capital Commission , is a Canadian Crown corporation that administers the federally owned lands and buildings in Canada's National Capital Region, including Ottawa, Ontario and Gatineau, Quebec.The NCC was created in 1959, replacing the Federal District Commission , which had been...

, they had the cornice removed in 1964 after stone fell from it killing a pedestrian on the street below. The building was left unrenovated. In 1978 it was abandoned as unsuitable for office work. During the 1980s the NCC tried to find a company that would restore the building, and in 1987 a Montreal firm was given a $45 million contract to restore the structure. However, when the building was examined it was found that portions were structurally unsound, and if it were to be restored large sections would have to be wholly rebuilt. Further studies found that if left alone the building posed a danger to the public, and could collapse under winter snow.

The developers did not have the funds to do such an extensive project, and in a controversial decision the NCC chose not to look for a new partner and in September 1991 authorized the destruction of the building. This was the first designated heritage building destroyed in the city since the heritage guidelines were introduced in 1982. It was a hugely controversial decision in Ottawa, that drew much criticism of the NCC both for the years of neglect that let the building decline and for the final decision to demolish it. It was demolished piecemeal circa October 1991-March 1992.

The Daly Building site remained vacant for more than a decade. There was much discussion of what would be built there; some advocated a park, and for a time there was a scheme to build a national aquarium

Aquarium

An aquarium is a vivarium consisting of at least one transparent side in which water-dwelling plants or animals are kept. Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, marine mammals, turtles, and aquatic plants...

on the site. Eventually the NCC leased the site to a developer who erected an 11-storey luxury apartment building, which opened in 2004.