Take a peek inside West Block's House of Commons, MPs' new home for the next decade
Blair Crawford, Ottawa Citizen
Updated: June 15, 2018
The smell of fresh varnish hung in the air Friday as the government showcased the renovated West Block that will serve as “the heart of Canada’s democratic parliamentary system” for at least the next decade.
While Centre Block undergoes extensive renovations, MPs will move to the West Block in January 2019 to meet in a new interim House of Commons constructed within the rectangular interior courtyard of the edifice. It’s a 19th-century structure that pre-dates Confederation and was built long before modern building codes.
“At the end of the day, the most important objective is to make sure we deliver facilities that meet the full needs of Parliament and that will inspire future Canadians for generations to come,” said Rob Wright, assistant deputy minister of the Parliamentary Precinct Branch.
Work has been underway on West Block for more than seven years. The numbers are staggering: Some 70,000 cubic metres of bedrock — enough to fill 28 Olympic-sized swimming pools — has been hewn from beneath the building to a depth of 15 metres. Five million tonnes of structural steel (Canadian made) was added to the building to support the glass roof over the interim House and protect the building against earthquakes.
It is the largest masonry restoration project in Canadian history and involved working on the 140,000 stones in the building’s exterior walls and replacing 1.5 million bricks in the interior walls.
West Block’s renovation and restoration is expected to cost $863 million when complete.
Architecturally, the interim House of Commons melds modernity and nature — it used to be outside after all — with the heritage structure of the original West Block. The glass roof allows natural light, augmented by LED lighting necessary for it to function as a TV broadcast studio.
“The architecture here is highly significant,” said Georges Drolet, a partner in EVOQ Architecture. The design of the interim House and the new areas of West Block echo the old form in a “celebration” of the building’s neo-gothic heritage.
But the architects also wanted to recognize the landscape and nature of Canada — “this clearing of the forest,” as Drolet put it — drawing inspiration from the paintings of Tom Thomson, for example.
“You have the natural light, you can see the trees and the branches when you look up,” he said.
The woodwork, mostly birch and red oak, was done by Beaubois Group based in Quebec. The House is filled with temporary plywood desks and furniture, but those will be replaced with the real furniture from the Centre Block House of Commons.
West Block was never meant to be a public building and shoe-horning 338 MPs, Hill staff and visitors into the space meant compromises had to be made.
The public viewing gallery has 346 seats, 40 per cent fewer than the 581 seats in the Centre Block gallery. As well, public tours will not be permitted when MPs are sitting. To compensate, tour hours will be extended in the summer, during parliamentary breaks and on weekends. (Even in Centre Block, tour groups are not permitted near the House of Commons when the House is in session.)
The West Block also features a new visitor entrance and security screening area at the building’s northeast corner, the corner nearest Centre Block. Visitors will descend underground on escalators to a new entrance hall, with an adjacent gift shop.
Committee rooms, located in the newly excavated underground areas, are more modern and provide better cybersecurity than the existing rooms. The parliamentary dining room, however, is much smaller, with fewer than half the seats of the dining room in Centre Block.
The move from Centre Block was originally to have taken place in the fall of 2018, but MPs voted this week to delay it until January 2019. The Senate will move to its new location at the Government Conference Centre, across the Château Laurier, which is undergoing its own $269-million refit.
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Making the gap larger doesn't help all that much (in the winter at least) as the air in the gap warmed by the lower pane will rise and the air cooled by the upper pane will fall (basic convection). The effect can be reduced by using a more viscous gas, but it won't eliminate the problem.
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