A PLANT-led team is one of four shortlisted for the Global Affairs Canada Commemorative Artwork in Ottawa, which will honour Canada’s diplomats, consular professionals and Embassy staff who have lost their lives in foreign service. Our team’s design, The Eddy, was conceived with artists Adrian Göllner, Michael Belmore, and Pierre Poussin for a site on Green Island in the Global Affairs Canada precinct, near the confluence of the Rideau and Ottawa Rivers.

An eddy is a place in a river where a stone or tree stands against the current, causing the flow to curl back on itself. We see eddies as a metaphor for both the foreign service workers who put themselves directly in harm’s way, and the moment of calm we require to reflect on their sacrifice.

The Eddy is a defining form within the landscape and is clearly visible from Global Affairs Canada offices in the Diefenbaker and Pearson Buildings. Tracing upward from the water to the land and sky, it draws anyone in the vicinity into its slowly spiralling orbit of connecting paths and seating.

The memorial’s site, the globe-spanning duties of Canada’s foreign service workers, and the interconnectedness of the world’s waterways find integrated expression in this design concept. Names of the fallen are carved into the memorial’s tall Standing Stone, a river-inspired sculptured granite form that speaks to time and resistance.

Site plan

The Standing Stone ‘conducts’ an eddy-like swirl of berms and pathways around the ceremonial oval – the placid centre in the stone’s wake. By taking this space out of the current, the stone creates a moment of calm where individuals or a group gathered for a memorial service can slow down, reflect, and remember those we have lost.

The Eddy Concept
View from the John C. Diefenbaker Building
Ceremonial oval
Ceremonial Oval in winter
The Standing Stone
The Standing Stone, Names and Global Cause
The Standing Stone
Cross Section
Standing Stone in the eddy
View from the east

  1. A Conversation of Views
  2. Admiral Road Garden
  3. Airdrie Road Garden
  4. Airdrie Road Residence
  5. Albany Avenue Residence
  6. Alcina Garden
  7. Alexandra Park
  8. Aporia Records
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  10. – Poem
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  17. Bin-Scarth Garden
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  36. Creemore Farm
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  41. Dublin Grounds of Remembrance
  42. Duncanwoods Townhouses
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  44. Dupont-by-the-Castle BIA
  45. East Point Bird Sanctuary
  46. Eglinton Ave Forecourt
  47. Eglinton Park Master Plan
  48. Elizabeth Fry Society
  49. Ellsworth Residence
  50. Face to Face | Tête à Tête
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  53. Flyover Canada
  54. Foote’s Pond Wood
  55. Forest Hill Village Streetscape
  56. Gaze, Glimpse, Glance
  57. Global Affairs Monument
  58. Goldring Landscape, University of Toronto
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  66. Helena Ave Residence 4
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  84. Massey College Landscape Restoration
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  93. Octane Medical Campus
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  95. Osgoode Atkinson Green Competition
  96. Owl Cottage
  97. Paperstone Scissors
  98. Pendrith Residence
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  100. Pottery Road Crossing
  101. rare
  102. Ravine Forecourt
  103. Ribbon of the Lower Don
  104. Riverside BIA Master Plan
  105. Roxborough Garden One
  106. Roxborough Garden Two
  107. Schulich School of Business
  108. Sheridan College
  109. – Trafalgar Campus Master Plan
  110. Spadina Quay Wetland
  111. St. Anne's Road Garden
  112. St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts
  113. Stratford Market Square Competition
  114. Stratford Patterson Theatre Competition
  115. Superkids Dental
  116. Superlegible
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  119. Swift Medical Offices
  120. The Meadows Reconsidered
  121. The Red Sash
  122. Thick & Thin
  123. Thistletown II Townhouses
  124. Tipping Point
  125. TMU Centre for Urban Innovation
  126. TMU Science Building
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  128. Tree House Residence
  129. UBC Okanagan – The Commons
  130. UHN Tunnels
  131. University of Toronto Mississauga Welcome Centre
  132. Venice Biennale 2012
  133. Vermont Square Park
  134. Vernon Avenue Garden
  135. Walk the Walk
  136. Walmer Road Residence
  137. Welland Canal Fallen Workers Memorial
  138. Wellesley Cottages Garden
  139. Wells Street Residence
  140. Westminster Residence
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  142. With Words as Their Actions
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  144. Woven Stories
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  146. York Park
  147. Yorkwoods Townhouses