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L'Esplanade Laurier is one of the more notable buildings in downtown Ottawa, Canada. The building consists of two 22 story towers with a base consisting of a two story shopping mall. The entire structure is covered in white marble making it clearly stand out of from the other towers in the city. At 88 meters tall the two towers are the ninth and tenth tallest in the city. It is located at the intersection of two major Ottawa streets, Laurier Avenue and Bank Street. The building was built by Olympia and York in 1973- 1975 intended to be occupied by government workers. It was one of the last office towers built by the private sector on the understanding that the federal government would be the primary tenant. In the mid 1970s the government began building its own office buildings such as the C.D. Howe Building and the Place du Portage . Today it houses the main offices of the Ministry of Finance . Over 2000 public servants work there. The mall on the lower levels mostly holds stores designed to appeal to the workers, including a large food court and a number of small shops.
In 2002 the building was closed for several days after an accident caused hundreds of liters of ethylene glycol to enter the water supply. After the system was flushed the towers returned to operation.
Ottawa buildings
