Campanile Church

The Future of Modern Churches and Campanile Church

The future of the Campanile Church is difficult to predict. There are many modern buildings both in the city and province which have not been saved because of their association with modern architecture during this time period. Buildings such as the Carling building and former Ottawa Congress Center, among others, have not had as good luck and were ultimately destroyed. Even buildings in Toronto, such as the chapel on the Willowdale campus of Regis College, that have been designed by some of Canada's most popular modern architects have met an ill fate. While there was a rather large increase in the use of modern architecture for churches, the trend only lasted for around twenty years. 1980s and 1990s church architecture started to return to other architectural styles. Churches that looked more like traditional European churches inspired by the Gothic, Romanesque, Baroque, and other styles increased in popularity once again. This leaves only a short period of time in the history of the Catholic Church where modern churches such as Campanile were constructed. It represents an interesting part of history associated with the Second Vatican Council, but as more of these churches are left to decay or to be demolished throughout the city and province, it is a quickly vanishing resource and piece of the historical record. There is some hope for the Campanile Church, as it was popular with the nuns who once occupied the space as well as the community around it. The building has been abandoned since 2014, but hopes to preserve the building started long before, evidenced with documentation showing community concern for the buildings’ preservation as well as the community's efforts to bring their concerns to the city as early as the late 1990s. The Campanile Church is a rare representation of this architectural time period as few changes to the space have been made. People have described it as walking past a time capsule. Even with some decay and its abandonment, the church still stands in relatively good condition. As of now, it is very difficult to gain access to the interior of the building due to safety concerns, but this does not stop people from hoping to preserve or adapt the building for new uses.

[Project completed for ARTH3107 in Winter 2021].

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