National Arts Centre Redevelopment | Completed

[kevinbottawa]

This sounds like a nice project.

NAC wants to put a new “transparent and inviting” entrance on Elgin Street

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

By Maria Cook, The Ottawa Citizen

The NAC wants to “rethink how a relatively windowless and opaque presence along Elgin can be transformed into something that connects more to the city and establishes more transparency, visibility and access,” says architect Don Schmitt.

The National Arts Centre is quietly studying the creation of a new “transparent and inviting” entrance on Elgin Street, the Citizen has learned.

“It is the intent of the NAC to commence a national fundraising campaign leading to the realization of the architectural renewal project,” says an internal NAC document. The aim is to open for the celebration of Canada’s 150th anniversary on July 1, 2017, it says.

“The project will focus on the creation of a new entrance complex facing Elgin Street and Confederation Square,” says the document. “This renewal also focuses on future links to a new light rail transit (LRT) station to be constructed adjacent to the centre on the north side.”

Situated across Confederation Square from Parliament Hill, the NAC opened in 1969. Built at a cost of $46 million, it was the federal government’s flagship Centennial project and one of the key institutions created by then-prime minister Lester B. Pearson.

A request-for-proposals (RFP) document issued last month to six architecture firms outlines the project. The NAC invited the firms to compete for a contract to prepare drawings that would “serve as the inspiration for the implementation of the architectural renewal project,” and “illustrate the vision and play a central role in the national fundraising campaign.”

Last week, the NAC hired Diamond + Schmitt Architects of Toronto, whose recent work includes the new Algonquin College Centre for Construction Excellence in Ottawa.

The NAC wants to “rethink how a relatively windowless and opaque presence along Elgin can be transformed into something that connects more to the city and establishes more transparency, visibility and access,” says architect Don Schmitt.

“I think it’s been an idea for a long time but the arrival of the LRT station galvanizes them to actually want to do it,” he says.

The firm has made sketches looking at what a transparent building pavilion of up to four storeys might look like on the sidewalk in front of the NAC.

“You’re at the back of the existing performance spaces and those have to remain windowless, but there’s an opportunity to introduce building along there,” says Schmitt. “It’s really a study to figure out how can it be done and how could one enter and get to the lobbies which are down on the Canal.”

The cost of the study is less than $100,000, says the NAC.

The Crown corporation wants “a transparent and inviting entrance complex that will contain new functions designed to attract a new generation of users,” according to the RFP paper.

It envisions “an animated hub along Elgin Street that can host events, showcase informal performances, rehearsals, visual art exhibitions and commercial activities that will reinforce the NAC’s profile, identity and presence in the national capital.”

NAC spokesman Carl Martin, says the LRT system, due to open in 2018, will bring more pedestrian and commuter traffic to the area.

“We may want to attract more of those people to stay downtown after they finish work and come in to see a play, a performance,” he says. “It may mean that we increase programming.”

Martin downplayed the project as “just a planning exercise. We’re looking at possibilities. There’s no commitment to changing anything at this point, no plans for constructing anything new there. This is very early days.”

He noted that previous studies have been done and shelved.

“We’re just looking to see how connecting the transit station to the NAC could work. We’re looking for ideas. We want to make that corner more appealing. It’s just to develop how can we better use that space along Elgin Street.”

The project has been kept under wraps because “we need the space to look at these things quietly,” said Martin.

The NAC building was designed by one of North America’s foremost theatre designers — Fred Lebensold, of the Montreal architecture firm Affleck Desbarats, Dimakopoulos, Lebensold and Sise.

In 2006, the Monuments Board of Canada recognized it as a national historic site, citing it as an outstanding example of design which features striking geometry and sophisticated use of concrete.

The NAC notes that any change must respect the architecture, heritage value and character defining elements.

“There are many out there who malign the NAC’s architecture,” says Carleton University architecture professor Paul Kariouk. “In my estimation it’s an extremely fine building. It’s built with incredible quality of construction. It’s weathered the last decades fantastically. It has extremely elegant and gracious interior spaces.”

However “the one thing that doesn’t work is the entrance,” says Kariouk. “It used to have a more dynamic Elgin Street facade when it had commercial space. It’s beautiful in the warmer months to walk to the NAC along the Canal, but in winter, coming along Elgin Street, it’s pretty dismal.”

The doors open to a corridor that winds to the lobbies on the Canal side. “You don’t quite know where you’re going,” he says. “It looks like a service corridor.”

Kariouk says that any addition should contrast with rather than mimic the 1960s architecture. “I’m imagining a very glassy illuminated lantern. Given our long dark winters, it would be such a beautiful thing on the streetscape.

“There are all kinds of really beautiful terraces and garden spaces that do address the Elgin Street side,” adds Kariouk. “Maybe this new construction will make these places more obvious and populated. It’s not just about revving up the NAC as a performance centre, but also about revving it about as a beautiful urban presence. I’m thrilled they’re doing this.”

Marco Polo, an architectural science professor at Ryerson University in Toronto, finds the Elgin Street entrance “circuitous” and “inscrutable” but warns against changing the building too much.

“One of the things that’s powerful about the building now is that it’s almost like a piece of landscape, almost like a force of nature,” says Polo, who is conducting research on Canada’s Centennial projects.

“They should be cautious about undermining the severity of the building. I know that’s probably exactly what they want to do.

“It’s a very important building,” he says. “I know it’s never had a lot of love from the public. We have to be careful. Fifty years ago we didn’t value Victorian architecture very much.”

The other firms considered were The Arcop Group of Montreal, BBB Architects of Ottawa, Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects of Toronto, MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects of Halifax and Perkins + Will of Vancouver.

The NAC is calling for a “schematic design concept” which includes a site plan, floor plans, elevations, sections and exterior and interior perspective.

The firms were judged on relevant experience, qualifications, understanding of the project, design approach, work schedule and fees.

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