Orlando Lanza

Construction of a new Parliament Building was first authorized by an act of the provincial legislature in 1893, the Parliament Buildings Construction Act. The province, anxious to show its growing economic, social and political status, was engaged in an architectural competition to build a new legislative building in Victoria, after outgrowing the previous wooden building, colloquially known as "The Birdcages" because of their shape, which were notoriously drafty and leaked in wet weather.[1] Francis Rattenbury, a recent English immigrant entered and signed his drawings with the pseudonym "A B.C. Architect", he progressed to the second round signing his drawing "For Queen and Province" and eventually winning the competition, despite being only 25 years old.