The plastic owl on the roof of the Canadian Centre for Architecture, 1920 Baile St. (seen from René Lévesque Blvd. W.)

Architect Phyllis Lambert is the recipient of numerous awards for her pioneering efforts to promote the city’s architectural heritage over five decades. In 1979, she founded the Canadian Centre for Architecture, housed since 1989 in a 130,000-squarefoot building that incorporates the 1874 Shaughnessy mansion on René Lévesque Blvd. W. at Fort St. Built by railway baron Thomas George Shaughnessy (18531923), the mansard-roofed house boasts a widow’s walk surrounded by an ornate

wrought-iron railing.

If you look at the roof of the Canadian Centre for Architecture, you see an owl there.

That owl is there because, as you know, the Shaughnessy House was abandoned for quite a long time, and so the pigeons roosted there. The pigeons leave guano that defaces things. So we wondered what to do.

And the Grey Nuns had the same problem with their building at the same time. We spoke to them and they said the only thing to do was to put in pellets that would make the end of their life or something horrible like that. But we were told if you put owls, they’re afraid of owls.

So we got this plastic owl. We planted him up there. And then about two days later, we saw a pigeon standing on the head of the owl! So that was that. But seeing that (owl) makes people look at the wonderful widow’s walk at the top of the Shaughnessy House, and the great railing at the top.