Building for Democracy: The History and Architecture of the Legislative Buildings of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Building for Democracy: The History and Architecture of the Legislative Buildings of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick Geoffrey Simmins Building for Democracy: The History and Architecture of the Legislative Buildings of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick. James W. Macnutt . Halifax: Formac Publishing, 2010. Pp. 128, $24.95 paper Building for Democracy, also available in a French edition, is an attractive book aimed at educable tourists who might pick it up while visiting the legislative assembly buildings in Halifax, Charlottetown, and Fredericton. These three buildings, Macnutt writes in his preface, symbolize the workings and symbolic appurtenances of a 'functional democracy in the British Parliamentary tradition'; to consider them in detail helps readers 'understand them as architectural compositions and representations of the most significant collective function we as a people can have: self-governance in a democratic form.' The organization of the book is straightforward and logical, with a general introduction followed by three chapters devoted to the legislative buildings in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. A factual overview of the each building and its stylistic antecedents is followed by a longer section devoted to a description of the building's setting, its exterior, and its interior. This spatial and sequential descriptive approach reinforces the impression that the book is intended for someone who is using it on-site. It is helpful and important to be reminded of the ways that these buildings were sited and [End Page 555] the impact that their landscaped grounds had on both users and passersby. The book is enhanced by a useful glossary of terms, representative drawings of each building (a principal elevation and first- and second-floor plans drawn by Philip Jefferson), a brief but serviceable bibliography, and attractive photographs by Michael Needham. Aiming at a general audience rather than a scholarly one, Macnutt explains architectural and legal terms as he goes (which presumably explains a lack of footnotes, even for direct quotations). Building for Democracy is Charlottetown lawyer James W. Macnutt's fourth book written or co-authored in the past five years treating architecture and heritage buildings in Atlantic Canada. The others are: Heritage Houses of Prince Edward Island: Two Hundred Years of Domestic Architecture (2006), Inside Island Heritage Homes: Two Hundred Years of Domestic Architecture on Prince Edward Island (2008), and The Historical Atlas of Prince Edward Island: The Ways We Saw Ourselves (2009). One of the main contributions of the book is that Macnutt explores the ways that ceremony is enhanced through processional movement through spaces. For example, when describing what the Nova Scotia legislature might have looked like during Charles Dickens's 1842 visit to Halifax, he shifts into the historic present tense to describe the lieutenant-governor's procession through the city. This approach might be jarring for some, but others will find it useful to be reminded of how nineteenth-century users of the building would have moved in it - and into it from the city in which it was located. Perhaps the single largest issue raised with this book concerns the author's stated conviction that democracy is symbolically and perfectly reflected through the architecture of these legislative buildings. Macnutt looks on them as 'expressions of purpose [that are] intended by their designers to speak to future generations' (11). He imputes to the buildings favourable moral qualities in circular logic based on his admiration for British parliamentary traditions. Indeed, Macnutt goes so far as to personify the buildings, writing, 'They are, after all, the people in brick and stone' (11). This approach tends to romanticize and mythologize the buildings. Commenting on this approach, reviewer Paul Bennett observed in the Halifax Chronicle Herald, The whole story treats these secular institutions with the respect normally accorded our churches. The three legislative buildings are lovingly recreated in photographs that exude a certain purity or perhaps virginity. Looking closer at the glowing visual images, the built heritage begins to resemble a beautiful tableau without any scratches. . . . Building for Democracy is near picture perfect, but democracy itself can be, at times, messy. [End Page 556] Messy and at times contradictory: for some, at least, these buildings may not have stood for...