NAC faces front with new entrance on Confederation Square: Feds invest $110 M
Peter Robb, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: December 10, 2014, Last Updated: December 10, 2014 1:00 PM EST
After about four years of planning and waiting, the $110.5 renovation of the National Arts Centre came together literally in about a week and a half, NAC CEO Peter Herrndorf said on Wednesday.
It may be that an election is in the air, or it may be the stars aligned. It is certainly a result of a recent announcement by the prime minister of $6 billion in infrastructure projects for federal assets like building, bridges and bases. No matter why, Herrndorf has what he has wanted for some time: a shiny new presence for his soon to be 50 year old centre.
The project, which will see a new glittering glass facade for the 45 year-old NAC, was revealed by Herrndorf and federal cabinet ministers John Baird and Shelley Glover in a packed media conference inside the Salon Wednesday morning. In addition to creating a new entrance on Elgin Street, the project will see work done to upgrade the “patron experience” in time for the 150th anniversary of Confederation in 2017. That means, among other things, a new cafe, an expanded event space, new lobby space and — yes Virginia — new washrooms.
The most visible highlight of the renovation, though, is the glass wrap around the NAC along Elgin Street from Albert to Queen and down the rampway toward the Rideau Canal. The centrepiece of the new glass covering will be several storeys high tower that will have the ability to feature projected images and even live performances in real time from inside the centre.
“We want to make that this building will be the best building that it can be; that it embraced the national capital, that it embraced Confederation Square which is really Canada’s public square. And we hope to make that happen by 2017.”
Herrndorf says he is confident that the project will be finished by then.
Shovels are expected to hit the ground by late spring, early summer.
“These things are pretty complicated,” Herrndorf said, but I’m pretty optimistic.”
Project architect Don Schmitt says to get the project done on time will demand diligence and discipline, but “we have 30 months to get it done and we have an innovative process place to make sure we get there. We have to get there and we will get there.” Schmitt is a principal partner at the Toronto firm of Diamond Schmitt. Diamond and Schmitt has designed the Four Seasons Centre in Toronto (2006), the Maison Symphonique in Montréal (2011) and the New Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia (2013).
The project will not include a renewal of the NAC’s principal performing space, Southam Hall, Herrndorf said. There will be some tinkering with the hall’s entrances and there will be a “sound lock” put in place that will dampen the sounds of the city and protect the performances from being accompanied by an ambulance siren, for example. Herrndorf said a choice had to be made and the decision was to enhance the patron experience.
The new entrance will give the NAC a presence on Confederation Square. Originally the building was designed to face the historic Rideau Canal and a massive lagoon that was never built, but the effect of the orientation was to essentially cut the NAC off from Confederation Square, one of the most important public places in the capital and country.
The NAC is now headed towards its 50th birthday in 2019 and is also about to mark Canada’s 150th birthday in 2017 with a massive cultural event called Canada Scene, the culmination of a series of provincial scenes over the past decade or so.
The entrance will add some glitter to Confederation Square which is home to the National War Memorial and is a stone’s throw from the Parliament Buildings.
The project includes:
• A hexagonal tower of glass and steel. The entrance will be on Elgin and will connect with the mezzanine of Southam Hall. The glass can display high-definition still images, video or even live NAC performances.
• A new atrium along the north side of the building will expand to allow educational activities, pre-concert gatherings, small concerts and other public events. A new Atrium Cafe will be located on an upper level with a coffee bar, seating, free Wi-Fi and digital displays.
• The Panorama Room will expand to accommodate up to 600 people up from 225. The catering, meeting and event capacity will increase from 7,500 square feet to 18,000 square feet.
• The Fourth Stage will be renovated.
• New lobby space and washrooms will be added to bring the NAC into line with modern performing arts centres. The project will also address accessibility with the addition of ramps, elevators, walkways and wider entrances.
The announcement Wednesday is part of a string of decisions taken by the NAC over the past two years. The centre recently launched a new logo replacing the 45-year-old mark that mimicked the building as part of a rebranding plan. It also hired the 35-year-old Alexander Shelley to be the new music director for the National Arts Centre Orchestra, replacing Pinchas Zukerman. Shelley takes over next fall.
The architect’s perspective
The NAC building opened in 1969. It was designed by Fred Lebensold, of the Montreal architecture firm Affleck Desbarats, Dimakopoulos, Lebensold and Sise in the so-called Brutalist style.
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.
Architect Don Schmitt said after the news conference that the essence of the original building will remain intact.
“We will be adding new layers, new wings along Elgin, along the north (face of the building) and also along the river side. We are adding three new wings.”
The location of the NAC renovation is at the forefront of Schmitt’s mind.
He said in an interview that he is “very, very conscious” of the fact that his glass cover for the centre is on Confederation Square and a stone’s throw from the Parliament Buildings.
“It’s an extremely important place in this city and I was very conscious of its location on Confederation Square.”
But that was not the only thing that he was thinking about when he approached the design.
“I was very conscious about building on the geometries of this building and opening or pulling back the curtains to the NAC with transparency, but using that transparency and lighting in a restrained and respectful way.”
He hopes that the glass tower will be used also as a place for commemoration and not just for promotion. “We wanted a point where the entry can be seen from all around.”
He sees it displaying images that are supportive of ceremonies that might be happening at the National War Memorial, for example Remembrance Day.
“I think the NAC has always turned its back on Confederation Square and we wanted to change that.”
Schmitt says the existing largely window-less National Arts Centre offers “a very sophisticated vocabulary of pre-cast concrete elements with very deliberate ribs and very deliberately organized but it’s windowless and opaque.”
The glass, he says, should draw more people in. Glass is a natural way to display what is going on inside the centre, he added.
That does not mean Schmitt dislikes the building.
“It’s fantastic,” he said. “A lot of people are not great fans of the architecture, I am.” Why? “Because there is a geometric order to it. The geometry of this building from Canada’s Centennial was not pulled out of thin air. It’s all built upon the work of Alexander Graham Bell who was using tetrahedral geometries to build flying machines” in the early years of the 20th Century. “There was a quintessentially Canadian interest in geometry and that geometry inflects everything that happens in the building. It was very rigourous. And we totally continued that kind of vocabulary and history but in a more transparent way.”
http://ottawacitizen.com/entertainment/local-arts/nac-expected-to-get-a-new-look
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It doesn't look like there's going to be any non-glass portions on the exterior of the new wrap-around additions.
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