Department of National Defence Headquarters (Canada)

The Department of National Defence Headquarters (also NDHQ) is the headquarters for Canada's Department of National Defence (DND) and is located in the Major-General George R. Pearkes Building at 101 Colonel By Drive in Ottawa, Ontario.

The building was constructed between 1969 and 1974 and was originally intended for use by the Department of Transport. However, the planned Defence headquarters building on LeBreton Flats was not built so DND acquired the Colonel By Drive structure. The concept for the building (actually a group of buildings) was developed by French town planner Jacques Gréber immediately after World War II at the invitation of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King. Gréber advised that the city redevelop the east bank of the canal which was, at that time, covered with rail tracks leading to Ottawa Union Station.

Architects John C. Parkin, Searle, Wilby and Rowland designed the building. They were conceived as the first phase of the planned redevelopment, the Rideau Centre being the second phase.

The present NDHQ building is now overcrowded as DND has headquarters staff spread out across the National Capital district. The threat of terrorist attacks has also lead to the permanent closure of an access road that runs beneath the connecting section of the two buildings. Recent cutbacks in high-technology companies in the Ottawa region has led to DND examining the purchase of a surplus JDS Uniphase campus in suburban Barrhaven at the intersection of Merrivale Road and Prince of Wales Drive, west of the Ottawa International Airport. JDS's Barrhaven campus is comprised of 2 large buildings with extensive computer networking capacity and is currently selling for a fraction of what it cost to construct. The location is far more secure in being set back from public roads and has ample parking and transit connections for the several thousand employees it was designed to support.