Arvida National Historic Site of Canada

Backgrounder

Located in the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region some 250 km north of Quebec City, Arvida was designed in 1925 and built in three phases up until 1950. It is an excellent synthesis of urban planning concepts favoured at the time, such as the City Beautiful and Garden City movements. A well-preserved example of a Canadian single-industry town, it is a unique high-quality workers’ housing project, where the urban landscape was quickly built up with a great variety of housing models. Arvida’s expansion is associated with the first aluminum plant in Canada and is a testimony to growth and development related to the country’s aluminum industry. 

The city of Arvida, whose name is derived from the first letters of the name of its founder, ARthur VIning DAvis (1867–1962), president of the Alcoa aluminum company, was founded following the construction of the first aluminum smelter in 1924. Through its subsidiary Arvida Works, the company was responsible for developing the area according to a plan designed in 1926 by Harry B. Brainerd and Hjalmar Ejnar Skougor. The 270 residences in the first phase were built in only 135 days, which is why Arvida is known as the “City Built in 135 Days.” After its prosperous beginnings, the plant was affected by a sharp economic downturn in the early 1930s. However, the beginning of the Second World War prompted a substantial rebound in Alcan’s aluminum production, resulting in major expansion for the city of Arvida. The second building phase started in early 1936 with the construction of houses designed by architect Ernest Isbel Barott and erection of the Saguenay Inn in 1939. The city’s expansion, which had been managed by Alcan from the time of its foundation, came under the supervision of an urban planning commission in 1942. This period coincides with Arvida’s third construction phase, when houses were built according to the plans of architects Fetherstonhaugh and Durnford and R.H. Wiggs in 1944.

In Canada, a number of urban reforms initiated in Europe in the nineteenth century were introduced by American urban planners and landscape architects, including the City Beautiful and Garden City movements. The cohesive organization of Arvida’s original plan, the use of curved and straight lines and the presence of wide boulevards lined with buildings converging towards a public square are tangible examples of the City Beautiful movement. The functional separation of Arvida’s various zones, the presence of a greenbelt and hierarchical street patterns, as well as organic routes reflecting the site topography are influenced by the Garden City movement. Arvida was also the site of a major expression of regionalist architecture, which became popular in Quebec in the 1930s and 40s and was inspired by French Canadian architecture.

The site is especially evocative of growth and development associated with the aluminum industry in Canada. Arvida was the first aluminum plant in Canada and, by the end of the Second World War, the top ranking aluminum plant in the Western world. Since Arvida’s industrial facilities made the company a world leader in the industry, the city’s built environment had to correspond to the company’s aspirations. This quest for excellence was reflected by a top quality built environment and a well-developed and particularly successful urban plan designed by renowned designers.

 

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Hon. Catherine McKenna Parks Canada Information and Communications