Ottawa, December 21, 2021
AFTER 40 YEARS, THE CMA IS MOVING
Suite 400 – 280 Metcalfe Street.
For anyone in the museum and heritage community, this Ottawa address has been synonymous with the Canadian Museums Association. But at the end of December, after almost 40 years calling its office above the iconic Colonnade Pizza home, the CMA is moving.
According to executive director and CEO Massimo Bergamini, the move demonstrates how sometimes disruption is a good thing.
“There are a lot of very positive memories attached to that place,” says Bergamini, of the CMA’s long-term home at 280 Metcalfe Street in downtown Ottawa. “There’s a lot of history here — but also some junk. We’re knee deep in boxes.”
The CMA’s new office will be a few blocks closer to Parliament on Albert Street.
“We will be literally a block from Parliament Hill, right across from the LRT station,” Bergamini says. “It’s really well situated.”
The lease at the old office expires at the end of December, and those 5,300 square feet of space are more than the CMA requires. Combine that with exceptional rental rates wrought by the pandemic and “the opportunity for us to reimagine our workplace was one that we couldn’t pass up.”
Bergamini says calls for change at CMA were heard at last year’s annual general meeting, but also in surveys of association staff.
Before making any decisions about the future of the current office and workplace, Bergamini wanted to know what CMA's staff thought about a possible change.
"Our staff had been forced to work from home because of the pandemic", said Bergamini. "We wanted to know how things were going for them, and how they felt about a permanent shift to a remote or hybrid work environment."
The survey results were clear: staff did not want to go back to the old workplace model.
“The vision that we’re embracing with our staff is part of a process of re-imagining the workplace, moving away from the traditional warehousing of people to creating an environment that reflects a culture that’s built around creativity, around collaboration, around synergies, and that also reflects the paradigm shift that we’re experiencing as a society,” Bergamini says.
The new space will not only have a smaller footprint — closer to 2,300 square feet — it will also have fewer walls and more open spaces, more light, and more flexibility. It’ll have a boardroom, a central kitchen area and other adaptable workspaces. It’ll serve the wishes of the vast majority of CMA employees who want a hybrid work model, usually working from home and coming together to collaborate when required, or even just desired.
Bergamini expects to be able to welcome staff to the CMA’s new home in April. In the meantime, CMA staff who need to see colleagues for planning or team building, or just to get out of the house, will have access to a downtown co-working space.
“This is part of a transition in corporate culture that will continue. This is just the first step,” Bergamini says. “It’s seizing the opportunity to take a concrete, physical step in modernizing the CMA and making sure the CMA is absolutely reaching out to tomorrow.”
More information on the CMA's new home will be available early in the new year.
Note: Please continue to send all physical mail to 400-280 Metcalfe Street, Ottawa ON K2P 1R7. We will update everyone with our new address closer to our move-in date in mid-2022.
Holiday Office Closure
Please note that the CMA staff will be out of office from December 23 to January 3 inclusive for our winter holiday break. We’re excited to have this time to recharge after our big move, and get rested for all of the great things planned for next year.
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