Originally when I started this series I hadn't really considered commercial buildings but I feel this one is worthy. I'm also biased as I worked here back in the very early 2000s when there was only 2 towers.
Constitution Square
Absolutely grand entrance, even by standards outside of Ottawa. That dark blue polished granite is stunning material and it pairs perfect with the tint of glass at any time of day and in any lighting condition. Even the entrance lettering is an exquisite choice.
While far from a ground breaking design it's still a great execution. The geometry nerd in me salivates at the shapes and cutaways.
I love the mirror and tint on the glass. It's just the right amount of everything. The consistency between panels is also very on point. There is little no to deviation between the panels when you step back and look at the structure as a whole. Even with all 3 towers being separately over the span of (?) years, you wouldn't know it.
This building would not look out of place in Manhattan. I'm glad in a way the middle tower is the same height. Making the center tower taller would be too obvious. I like the uniform height and cascading corners.
I love the lattice work awnings over the entranceways. It's not something that needed to be done and its a very interesting feature. It's visually busy while at the same time looking very clean and neat. I love that it's boxed in with square glass to tie it in to the rest of the structure. The paint color choice is also on point and lets it blend very well. You could walk by on the street and not notice it and then when you do notice it, it allows you to be intrigued by its internal structure.
I think I got really lucky with the time of day and the shadows. They are almost perfectly symmetrical in the cutaways. God, I love me some symmetry.
You can see here the undeniably top tier materials and craftsmanship. Those little sconces have a bit of an Art Deco flair to them which as you know tickles my fancy. They didn't have to make each side entrance look like this but they did.
Here is an average profile of a kneewall/window sill or whatever you would like to call it. Flawless materials and installation with no degradation after 20 ish years. I walked around the entire building and had a look at every inch of the high wear and tear areas along the sidewalk. Subjects to salt and plows etc and every spot of it looked exactly like this. Too often I see buildings ejecting commercial grade polyurethane 50 year caulking. Not here. Have there been issues? Perhaps? Have they been rectified by a certified professional using the same materials? Absolutely. I would be pressed to find a better maintained building than this one based on my findings.
Meh.. here's you causal B site entrance on Slater st., nothing to see here folks! This is only for the Purolator drivers. This photo was from another visit. Excuse the wash.
So in closing, I really admire this building for so many reasons. It's cool that its takes an entire city block. I suppose you could argue that it doesn't have any retail frontage like Minto Place does across the street but I will defend that by saying that it is dead center in the middle of the hardcore CBD and is surrounded by much of the same. It does have the caveat of wide sidewalks and a reasonable amount of tree planting. It also has the Baton Rouge restaurant that sets up a summer patio, plus the Starbucks patio @ Albert and Kent, so it's not a dead presence by any means. The Albert and Slater sides of the podium are finished in that beautiful dark blue granite. The Lyon and Kent facades are fully glassed but have those beautiful stonework capped entrances with the lattice canopies.
I've seen what a lot of newer retail frontages look like (silver aluminum squares) and I am willing to let that slide easy.
I guess it's story time.
Back in 2001 ish I used to work in this building. 18 year old night time security guard. Got the job from a temp agency with my buddy. The chick at the agency liked us so she placed him at PDV across the street. The only difference? They had 6 guards... they also figured out how to hook up a mini Play Station One to the back and white security monitors at the desk and played games on an 8 inch screen. My buddy would come across the street to visit me in the wee hours of the morning. They also took rotating naps in the janitors store room or something. Lucky pricks.
Anyhow, back to myself. My shift was 8pm to 8am if I recall. For the first month I was on probation. So from 8pm until ... perhaps 11? maybe midnight, I was tutored by another guard. After that I was the sole person over night for both towers (it was only 2 at that time). At 6am a second guard would show up to man the desk for the middle tower(I worked the west tower desk)
I passed probation obviously, the job was pretty easy. Twice a night go around and check each and every door handle on every floor and make sure it's locked. Oh, and don't fall asleep.
So....
On my very first night alone... at 5:30 am or whatever it was.. way before just about anyone every shows up, all these suits and various persons show up. I'm like.. "may I help you?". It's the Fire Marshall and at least a dozen firemen. They are here to test all the alarms and elevators etc. Great.. Nobody told me but ok. I know how to use the main console and turn the alarms and elevators on and off etc.
I turn the alarms and elevators to test mode. All the alarms are going off and the elevators are forced into service mode or whatever. EZ enough. 6 am comes and goes... the dude who is supposed to man the second tower is a no show. That's ok, everything is going well. Come 7:30am and change.. a few early risers show up early to the office. Alarms are going off and the elevator only functions on service mode still.
Around 8am or so the Marshall comes by and says that they are done with testing and I can turn the main alarm control off. "No problem sir!" I reach down to my trusty janitor spec key set of 200 keys... grab the main alarm key and go to shut the main off.
I shit you not... the key twisted like a stick of butter and snapped off. So now the shank of the key is stuck with the alarm in the ON position. The Marshall and I just looked at each other like ..."oh dear". Still no sign of my second dude for the other tower. It's my first morning alone. There is now a slow but steady stream of people trickling into the building.
I figure.. I have a backup set of keys.. I'll goto the console for the middle tower and try that. Nothing happens, flipping the key back and forth does nothing.
There is no building manager on site. I don't recall the exact sequence of events but I had no one to call or bail me out or anything. I'm 18 and standing here in a lobby with 30 foot ceilings, everything is polished granite and glass. I'm surrounded by all these professionals looking at me like I have the answer. I'm wearing their polyester excuse for a suit but I certainly don't have any answers. I also have long blonde hair past my shoulders and I may or may not have routinely gone to go burn a joint in the loading dock every single night after my mentor left.
So.. it's do or die. I think.
I recall on my rounds.. there was a lunchroom of some sort of the ground floor that was always unlocked. I never bothered to worry about it as the only thing in there was chairs and tables and a microwave which I used a few times. There was courtesy packets of hot chocolate mix that I would throw in a cup of water and nuke.
BUT... on that particular night.. there was a tradesmans pouch laying on the floor in front of the microwave. I recalled seeing a full set of Allen keys. I ran over and grabbed the set of keys. Using the two smallest keys I was able to coax the snapped key shank out of the cylinder. The spare keyset I had worked perfectly. Everybody just walked away like it was nothing. Meanwhile in my head I felt like I had crawled through the beaches of Normandy.
That was a good 15 minutes of people staring at me like I had answers and they are 2 or 3 times my age. I'm trying to man 2 security consoles for a combined 40 something stories of office and a dozen elevator shafts with queries from the loading dock area alone.
The irony was that I felt like I had wrapped the situation up so nicely and returned the tools and pouch to where I found them but that wasn't the end of it.
It never occurred to me to write an incident report about the broken key. I was written a like.. massive red card report about the broken key. Meanwhile.. not a word of praise about handling a massive shit storm about my first day alone, my co worker never showing up and also resolving the situation for everyone aside from the snapped key.
I ended up getting sacked a month or two later when I requested a 3 week leave absence to go visit a girl in Singapore. Still a good time though.
I hope that wasn't to long winded, but that is my personal interaction with Constitution Square.
Cheers.
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Very well said. I agree with you on every point. Great story about gushing over the actual model, I'd be in their doing the same thing. This is one of my favourite buildings in the NCR .
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