Farewell to 280 Metcalfe Street

Peter Simpson

As the Canadian Museums Association prepares to move to new offices on Albert Street in Ottawa, John McAvity recalls an even earlier move.

McAvity, who before his retirement was executive director of the CMA for 38 years, recalls his first day at the association’s offices, which in 1981 were on Cooper Street. Though his new apartment was literally steps away, also on Cooper Street, he found the offices lacking.

“I really didn’t like it, so I found the space at 280 Metcalfe,” he says, by phone from his home in Rothesay, N.B. The building was owned by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW).

“I remember negotiating the lease with Jean-Claude Parrot, who was leader of the postal union, and I out-negotiated him,” McAvity recalls, his glee still evident. “He didn’t know the difference between a gross lease and a net lease, and so we ended up getting a gross lease — that is, a fixed price with no additional charges for taxes or things like that. Then when he realized that about a year later, boy, was he ever annoyed. But he did honour the lease agreement.”

That move to Metcalfe — like the earlier move from the association’s first offices on Sparks Street — was transformative, as is the latest move. The current relocation to 130 Albert Street is but one aspect, albeit the most visible, of the association changing with the times.

Massimo Bergamini, CMA’s executive director and CEO says CMA’s members made it clear at last year’s General Meeting of Members that they wanted the organization to modernize its operations and its culture so that it can better represent the sector.

“Reimaging the workplace, moving away from the traditional warehousing of people to create a culture built around creativity, around collaboration and synergies is only part of what we’re doing,” says Bergamini. “This is one step in trying to reflect the paradigm shifts we’re experiencing as a sector and as a society.”

Just like CMA’s members, staff also made it clear they were ready to embrace a change, and with the lease on the old office expiring at the end of last year, they saw the opportunity for a decisive course correction.

“The members expressed a desire to see change; so did our staff,” Bergamini says. “Almost 90% of the staff said they much preferred the remote work and were not interested in going back to the old ways.”

The new offices will be less than half the size of the Metcalfe location and more suited as a modern workspace — brighter, more open concept and fully equipped with hotelling stations and collaborative meeting spaces for CMA staffers who work remotely but who sometimes need to (or just want to) come together in the communal space.

Many happy memories will be left behind in the old space, McAvity says.

“We had a lot of fun in the early days, which was important. I said to the staff, ‘Let’s enjoy ourselves and not get too serious.’ We were totally dedicated to what we did.”

He recalls stories such as the day an “extremely wealthy patron of the arts” arrived an hour early for a meeting “while I was probably at the YMCA. When I walked in, bango! There she was.” His secretary, fortunately, had calmed the premature guest.

Eventually CUPW sold the building to the owner of Colonnade Pizza — for years known to have the best pizza in Ottawa — and many free pizzas were sent up to CMA offices over the years. “Of course, we ate there a lot. Almost everyone who came for a meeting wanted to go down to the pizzeria.”

But for the all the memories, McAvity understands the need for change. “I can understand their idea of moving to a smaller, more flexible space,” he says.

Bergamini says the move is a first step in a “transition in corporate culture.” “Sometimes the planets align just right,” he says. “In our case, the end of our lease gave us the opportunity for a concrete, physical step in modernizing the CMA.” M