What's Doing In Ottawa

By KATHERINE ASHENBURG; KATHERINE ASHENBURG is a radio producer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Toronto
Published: September 03, 1989

Correction Appended

It's not often that a 19th-century capital city gets two dramatic additions to its spirit and skyline in a single year. But that's what has just happened to Ottawa. A year ago, the granite and glass National Gallery of Canada, designed by Moshe Safdie, opened on a spectacular site overlooking the confluence of the Rideau Canal and the Ottawa River. At the end of June, the capital welcomed an even bolder newcomer positioned just across the bridge in Hull, Quebec - Douglas Cardinal's eccentric and visionary Canadian Museum of Civilization. Both are new homes for existing collections of international importance: it's as if the contents of the Smithsonian and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, inadequately housed for more than a century, finally got the buildings they deserved.

Ottawa is a remarkably pleasant city, bisected by the Rideau Canal, made green with parks, gardens and a daily farmers' market in the middle of the business district.

Because it is the home of the federal bureaucracy, Ottawa is probably the most thoroughly bilingual city in Canada. You may be greeted in a shop or restaurant by ''bonjour,'' but a blank look or an English word will instantly move the conversation to the country's other official language. The coexistence of two cultures gives Ottawa not only a cosmopolitan feeling but means also an increasing number of good restaurants. The Museums

The curving, throbbing limestone walls and domed roofs of the Canadian Museum of Civilization, designed by Douglas Cardinal, are something entirely new in Ottawa, and the museum's exhibits are going to be at least as controversial as its design. Purists may balk at the mix of reproductions and genuine artifacts in the same exhibit; for example, the row of West Coast Indian houses in the Grand Hall are reproductions, while the totem poles are authentic. Some may also criticize the signage, which is minimal. Unless you take a guided tour or read the brochures thoroughly, you'll miss a great deal of the carefully considered historical and anthropological content. But after all, say museum supporters, it's the size and splendor of the totem poles and the craftsmanship of the various replicas that intrigue visitors, not worries over authenticity.

One of the best things about the museum is the view it affords across the Ottawa River: The museum's guides call it ''the dollar bill view'' because it graces the back of the Canadian dollar. In addition to the copper roofs and flying buttresses of Parliament, there are other powerful Canadian totems in sight - the silvery twin spires of the Cathedral-Basilica of Notre Dame, the baronial pile of the Chateau Laurier hotel, the concrete and glass rectangles of modern office buildings and the glass turrets of the new National Gallery of Canada.

The Canadian Museum of Civilization (100 Laurier Street, Hull, Quebec; 819-953-5014) is open Tuesday to Saturday. Hours are 10 A.M. to 5 P.M., except Thursday, when the museum is open until 8. Open daily in the summer. Admission is $3.30 (in United States currency, at one Canadian dollar to 83 United States cents), and there is no charge on Thursday.

Correction: September 3, 1989, Sunday, Late Edition - Final A chart on page 10 of the Travel section today with an article about Ottawa mislabels the month for which weather statistics apply. It is September.