Parliament Hill Rehabilitation Project

[rocketphish]

@gmarshall You lined up that shot beautifully!

[rocketphish]

NCC studies ways to 'gift wrap' Centre Block during renovations

Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: January 14, 2016 | Last Updated: January 14, 2016 7:49 PM EST

When the Centre Block begins renovations in 2018, it may be gift-wrapped — covered in a screen with a giant image of the building itself to preserve its historic feeling.

The National Capital Commission confirmed Thursday it’s studying the technique, which is used widely in Europe and was used on a section of the National Gallery in 2013.

Ottawa Tourism is pushing for it, saying tourists want to see the building one way or another.

And in Philadelphia, where historic Independence Hall was wrapped during renovations in a giant “scrim,” or decorative screen, Maiti Gallen says visitors love seeing a faux building superimposed on the real one.

“People loved it. They thought it was great,” she said.

“We know so many people who come here who had already planned their trip before they knew the restoration was going to happen. They want that picture of themselves in front of Independence Hall. We didn’t want that to be lost.”

Gallen’s organization, Friends of Independence National Historical Park, donated the $38,000 U.S. cost of wrapping the historic 12-storey tower in a synthetic mesh material. This scrim was attached to the outside of the scaffolding in long strips.

“We were worried that a day with a gusty wind would hurt the building” by pulling hard on the wrap, Gallen said. But with tiny holes everywhere the scrim let the wind through well. It never tore, never blew away. “It held up really well. It’s very sturdy material.”

Ottawa Tourism president Dick Brown wants the same technique used on the Centre block.

“That is probably the most important building in the country,” he said. “To have it just wrapped in scaffolding with the traditional construction wrap, we think, does a disservice to Ottawa and the country.

“We’re asking the Public Works folks to use the technology that is used in many cities in Europe when they are rehabilitating historic buildings, and that is to reproduce the façade of the building on the scaffolding’s screening,” he said.

“So visitors to the capital can still … take their picture and it will appear as if the building is in the background.”

The technique is known as trompe l’oeil, literally deceiving the eye.

A National Capital Commission spokesman said Thursday the commission is seriously looking at the idea, and has asked for a study of different artistic ways to cover the scaffold, including any safety issues.

“We’re not there yet but it’s definitely something we want to keep in consideration,” he said.

In 2013, the National Gallery set out a dozens of panels forming a picture of a giant iceberg during replacement of the window in its Great Hall. The material was Valmex Super Mesh, a strong synthetic fabric with holes making up 30 per cent of the surface area of 4,645 square metres. The image was printed like a giant photograph by a specialty printing company. The whole thing attached to the scaffolding with seatbelt-type nylon.

Brown said he first saw the technique in Prague during a visit with his wife 10 years ago. They were admiring a historic building across a public square, “and later in the afternoon when we crossed the square we realized it wasn’t a building at all. It was a representation of a building, and in behind they were working on it.”

tspears@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/TomSpears1

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-...ng-renovations

[rocketphish]

This is how I saw Gaudí's La Pedrera in Barcelona 2 years ago. Up close it was very disappointing:


Source

The real thing:


Source

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by rocketphish

This is how I saw Gaudí's La Pedrera in Barcelona 2 years ago. Up close it was very disappointing:

If they built a Gaudi in Ottawa, can you just imagine how many children it would kill? And a seven-floor building? How are those people even standing up? Aren't they being killed to death by the Wind Tunnel Effect, like so many late residents of Hintonboro?

[rocketphish]

NCC signs off on massive new underground visitor centre on Parliament Hill

Don Butler, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: January 20, 2016 | Last Updated: January 20, 2016 6:50 PM EST


This artist's rendering show phase one of the new Visitor Welcome Centre on Parliament Hill.

A massive new underground visitor welcome centre under Parliament Hill, described as one of the first significant additions to the parliamentary area in a century, received unanimous approval Wednesday from the National Capital Commission’s board.

The first phase of the four-storey subterranean facility, which will cost about $50 million, will provide a new public entrance to the renovated and restored West Block, where Parliament will meet while the Centre Block is closed for repairs for up to a decade.

A second phase will provide an entrance and connection to the East Block and a third phase, running below grade in front of the Centre Block, will link the east and west sections.

The project has been in the works for years, with plans reviewed four times by the NCC’s advisory committee on planning, design and realty, and five times by the Federal Heritage Buildings Review Office.

Visitor access to the centre — and eventually to the Centre Block — will be through “a discreet entrance” that will be cut through the western part of the existing Vaux Wall, just northeast of the West Block.

To NCC board member Norman Hotson, however, the entrance is so discreet as to be virtually invisible.

“How are people going to find this place?” he asked Wednesday. “I don’t really think they’re going to find it. It’s really the public front door to Parliament.”

Steve Willis, the NCC’s executive director of capital planning, said the Centennial Flame is often the first place visitors go on Parliament Hill. The visitor centre entrance “is actually quite readable from the flame,” he said.

Those entering the centre will undergo security screening, then descend to a central area to begin tours or continue to appointments.

Though security is the centre’s main raison d’être, its design is based on existing interiors on Parliament Hill, making it a “welcoming and open environment,” said NCC official Fred Gaspar. “There should not be any new, jarring elements.”

The project’s first phase should be finished by December 2017, just as the Centre Block prepares to close for badly needed repairs.

dbutler@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/ButlerDon

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-...arliament-hill

[TMA-1]

One way to "gift wrap", and I assume some kind of wrapping will be a given because it's artsy, would be to continue the Christmas light show year round. Well...it would work at night.


night_D824504 by Chuck Clark, on Flickr

Originally Posted by rocketphish

NCC studies ways to 'gift wrap' Centre Block during renovations

Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: January 14, 2016 | Last Updated: January 14, 2016 7:49 PM EST

When the Centre Block begins renovations in 2018, it may be gift-wrapped — covered in a screen with a giant image of the building itself to preserve its historic feeling.

The National Capital Commission confirmed Thursday it’s studying the technique, which is used widely in Europe and was used on a section of the National Gallery in 2013.

Ottawa Tourism is pushing for it, saying tourists want to see the building one way or another.

And in Philadelphia, where historic Independence Hall was wrapped during renovations in a giant “scrim,” or decorative screen, Maiti Gallen says visitors love seeing a faux building superimposed on the real one.

“People loved it. They thought it was great,” she said.

“We know so many people who come here who had already planned their trip before they knew the restoration was going to happen. They want that picture of themselves in front of Independence Hall. We didn’t want that to be lost.”

Gallen’s organization, Friends of Independence National Historical Park, donated the $38,000 U.S. cost of wrapping the historic 12-storey tower in a synthetic mesh material. This scrim was attached to the outside of the scaffolding in long strips.

“We were worried that a day with a gusty wind would hurt the building” by pulling hard on the wrap, Gallen said. But with tiny holes everywhere the scrim let the wind through well. It never tore, never blew away. “It held up really well. It’s very sturdy material.”

Ottawa Tourism president Dick Brown wants the same technique used on the Centre block.

“That is probably the most important building in the country,” he said. “To have it just wrapped in scaffolding with the traditional construction wrap, we think, does a disservice to Ottawa and the country.

“We’re asking the Public Works folks to use the technology that is used in many cities in Europe when they are rehabilitating historic buildings, and that is to reproduce the façade of the building on the scaffolding’s screening,” he said.

“So visitors to the capital can still … take their picture and it will appear as if the building is in the background.”

The technique is known as trompe l’oeil, literally deceiving the eye.

A National Capital Commission spokesman said Thursday the commission is seriously looking at the idea, and has asked for a study of different artistic ways to cover the scaffold, including any safety issues.

“We’re not there yet but it’s definitely something we want to keep in consideration,” he said.

In 2013, the National Gallery set out a dozens of panels forming a picture of a giant iceberg during replacement of the window in its Great Hall. The material was Valmex Super Mesh, a strong synthetic fabric with holes making up 30 per cent of the surface area of 4,645 square metres. The image was printed like a giant photograph by a specialty printing company. The whole thing attached to the scaffolding with seatbelt-type nylon.

Brown said he first saw the technique in Prague during a visit with his wife 10 years ago. They were admiring a historic building across a public square, “and later in the afternoon when we crossed the square we realized it wasn’t a building at all. It was a representation of a building, and in behind they were working on it.”

tspears@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/TomSpears1

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-...ng-renovations

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by TMA-1

One way to "gift wrap", and I assume some kind of wrapping will be a given because it's artsy, would be to continue the Christmas light show year round. Well...it would work at night.


night_D824504 by Chuck Clark, on Flickr

Amazing picture! Maybe CBC (or Rogers) should pay you for recent fly-by shots of Ottawa. The ones they show during Sens games seem to date form around 2009.

[KnoxfordGuy]

So is parliament hill going to have their renovations done around Canadas bicentennial in 2067? I can't remember the place open and clear.

[eltodesukane]

z

[eltodesukane]

z

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by KnoxfordGuy

So is parliament hill going to have their renovations done around Canadas bicentennial in 2067? I can't remember the place open and clear.

It's a 20 year project. Should be completed around 2027, marking 100 years since the completion of the Peace Tower.

[rocketphish]

Revitalized West Block slowly emerging from $863M makeover

Don Butler, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: September 15, 2016 | Last Updated: September 15, 2016 6:11 PM EDT



It’s still an active construction site. Bundles of steel rods and construction material are stacked everywhere. The future temporary home of the House of Commons is bare and lined with scaffolding. On any given day, 500 construction workers are at work there.

But progress on the $862.9-million West Block rehabilitation project and the adjacent construction of a $129.9-million mostly subterranean Visitor Welcome Centre is proceeding apace, if an eye-opening media tour Thursday led by Public Services and Procurement Canada is any indication.

It was the first time the department has lifted the veil on the West Block project since construction started five years ago. And the two-hour tour was no cursory peek.

Journalists were led up precarious scaffolding staircases to the roof of the Victorian High Gothic building, parts of which date back to 1865.

From there, we peered down through a canopy of white structural steel into the converted courtyard that will serve as the country’s interim House of Commons chamber for a decade, effective September 2018.



We were led into unfinished corridors, ceilings packed with a sea of conduits, taken to what will become the prime minister’s office — once occupied by Canada’s second prime minister, Alexander Mackenzie — then into the future chamber itself.

After that, a trip into the building’s newly excavated basement, where 44,000 cubic metres of bedrock were removed with the meticulous assistance of dynamite. Along with the construction of the new Commons chamber, that has increased the size of the building by 50 per cent.

The tour included a stop at the partially built Visitor Welcome Centre — the first newly constructed building on Parliament Hill in nearly a century — and a look at the extensive stone restoration and replacement, now largely completed after four years of painstaking effort.

At every stop, experts explained various aspects of the project, which lead architect Georges Drolet said “may be the most extensive and complex heritage rehabilitation project ever done in Canada.”

The heart of the project is the enclosure of the West Block courtyard to create a new interim House of Commons chamber.

The space is still open to the weather, but the steel skeleton that will support its glass roof is now mostly in place. Indeed, the contractors, Walters Group, will hoist the final piece of steel into place on Sept. 23, followed by a topping-off ceremony.

The canopy contains 5,000 assemblies, held together by more than 30,000 bolts. If laid end to end, said Walters Group vice-president Mark Koppelaar, the structural steel beams would extend well over seven kilometres.

The canopy is fully supported by double rows of steel columns and beams, not by the West Block’s buildings. “The whole structure hovers, literally, over the roofs of the existing buildings,” Drolet said.

Within the new chamber, things should look familiar. There will be a rectangular space with MPs’ desks on either side, a long processional entrance, government and opposition lobbies and a public gallery. Even the current House of Commons furniture will be moved to the new chamber.

The glass roof presented some design challenges — heat loss in winter, heat buildup in summer, variable light, noise control — but all have been resolved, Drolet said.

Layering the glass in the roof will create a “climate buffer zone” that will stabilize the environment inside the chamber and block out exterior noise. Absorption panels will improve the acoustics, and louvres — angled slats — will make it possible to control light quality and quantity.

As part of the project, workers removed 2,900 tonnes of asbestos-containing material from the building. “It was a tremendous amount of work,” said Rob Wright, an assistant deputy minister at PSPC. “It took a year and a half to do it. The good news is we’re entering the finishing stage.”

At the height of the project, more than 200 stonemasons were on the site, working on what David Edgar of RJW Gem Campbell Stonemasons called “the largest masonry conservation project currently happening in the world.”

They dismantled about 30 per cent of the stone fabric, replaced 20,000 stone units and used lasers to scour off more than a century of grime and dirt.

Major work on the West Block and Visitor Welcome Centre should be completed by December 2017, with both ready for occupancy by September 2018, when the decade-long restoration of the Centre Block will begin.

Photo gallery

dbutler@postmedia.com
twitter.com/ButlerDon


By the numbers

• $862.9 million: Approved budget for the West Block project
• $129.9 million: Approved budget for the Visitor Welcome Centre
• 30,000: Number of cubic metres of stone and soil excavated from the site of the Visitor Welcome Centre – enough to fill 12 Olympic swimming pools.
• 1.4 million: Number of bricks added to the West Block to reinforce it and fill seams.
• 2,900: Number of tonnes of asbestos-containing material removed from the West Block.
• 5,555: Size of the new four-storey Visitor Welcome Centre, in square metres
• 764: Number of new windows installed in the West Block, which has a total of 1,436 windows.

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-...-863m-makeover

[Admiral Nelson]

Great update, I've been itching to see a glimpse of the new interior. It's quite exciting!

Still, it's unreal that there's been a total media blackout on this landmark part of Canada's centre of government (!) for five years (!) in the context of $860 million (!) project. Certainly no Confederation Line-style weekly updates

I hope they're more transparent with the Centre Block renovations. Otherwise it'll be a very long 10 years.

[rocketphish]

It was snowing heavily as I drove past Parliament Hill tonight, and as I stopped for a red light I saw that I was perfectly lined up for a neat photo:



Oct 27, 2016
Photo by me

[TMA-1]

I've been watching this for a while. It'll be interesting to see how much of the white steel remains visible. And how long it remains white.





high noon at the west block D828219 by Chuck Clark, on Flickr

[Kitchissippi]

Originally Posted by TMA-1

I've been watching this for a while. It'll be interesting to see how much of the white steel remains visible. And how long it remains white.

Once it's glassed over it, will probably resemble a larger version of the skylight of the Wellington Building on the upper right of the photo.

[TMA-1]

I'll buy that. Another potential blinding reflection to deal with.

Originally Posted by Kitchissippi

Once it's glassed over it, will probably resemble a larger version of the skylight of the Wellington Building on the upper right of the photo.

[eltodesukane]

What are they building in the hole with the crane at the bottom of the photo?

[zzptichka]

Originally Posted by eltodesukane

What are they building in the hole with the crane at the bottom of the photo?

Parliament Welcome Center. Scroll up.

[ars]

Not sure if this is the right thread for this news, but the feds have killed the idea of the Sens hosting an NHL game on Parliament Hill:

Don Butler
‏@ButlerDon

Feds nix idea of an outdoor NHL game on Parliament Hill as part of Canada 150 celebrations. #nhljets


Don Butler
‏@ButlerDon

Aide to minister Melanie Joly says full-stadium NHL game “was not deemed feasible and is no longer one of the options being considered"