Deteriorating Government Conference Centre gets $190M makeover
Need for interim home for Senate finally spurs federal government to act
By Don Butler, OTTAWA CITIZEN September 24, 2013 6:00 PM
The Government Conference Centre will finally get a desperately needed $190-million makeover as the federal government fits it up as a temporary home for the Senate over the next five years.
The 101-year-old heritage building on Confederation Square, originally built as Ottawa’s central train station, has not undergone major work since the 1970s and is in poor condition.
Last year, a heritage conservation plan found the building needed extensive work within the next five years to stabilize it and conserve its character-defining elements. But there was concern that the cost might be prohibitive.
According to Public Works and Government Services Canada, the urgent need to fix up the Conference Centre coincided with the government’s requirement to find an interim home for the Senate, which must vacate the Red Chamber to make way for a decade-long rehabilitation of the Centre Block set to begin in 2018.
The Conference Centre’s proximity to Parliament Hill and its design make it a “good fit” for the Senate’s temporary home, says Public Works. Shifting the Senate there also enables the government to rehabilitate an important heritage building that is in “critical condition,” the department says.
A recent tender from Public Works described the rehabilitation of the Conference Centre as “a high-profile project of national significance requiring a significant investment of public funds.”
The estimated total project cost of $190 million includes hard construction costs of $91.4 million and $25 million for “connectivity,” furniture, signage and equipment, says the tender, which invited applications from architectural firms to act as the project’s prime consultant. It stresses that the budget is firm and must be respected.
The schedule for the project is aggressive, Public Works acknowledges. Work must begin as soon as the building is vacated next June, and must be finished by September 2018, when the Senate will move in.
The project involves the creation of an interim Senate Chamber, 21 offices, three committee rooms and other support spaces. The work includes selective demolition, limited excavation, structural and envelope upgrades, the replacement of base building systems, new IT and security infrastructure, a new loading dock and interior fit-up.
The Senate will occupy the building until the Centre Block rehabilitation — expected to take until 2028 — is finished. Long term, the building will revert to its current use as a conference centre.
With that in mind, the Senate’s requirements for its temporary home will be restricted to “basic necessities” needed to support its ongoing operations. Its requirements will also focus on the Government Conference Centre’s longer-term use to minimize later fit-up costs, the Public Works tender says.
Because of the building’s top heritage designation, the chosen consultant must adopt a “conservation approach” to the work, the document says.
The Senate is currently doing a threat and risk assessment of the Conference Centre that will help guide its future security design. The Public Works tender says the consultant must consider a number of security measures, including site hardening, blast curtains for windows and barriers such as bollards.
More than a dozen government bodies have jurisdiction over aspects of the project, including the National Capital Commission, Treasury Board, the Federal Heritage Building Review Office, Environment Canada, the City of Ottawa and various provincial ministries.
dbutler@ottawacitizen.com
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