Architectural Rejuvenation Project URBAN AND HISTORIC CONTEXT Barry Padolsky Associates Inc., Architects, Urban Design and Heritage Consultants February 13, 2015 Aerial view of National Arts Centre (2010) TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction..................................................................................................................................2 Urban and Historic Context........................................................................................................2 . The Holt/Bennett Plan ................................................................................................................4 The Gréber Plan .........................................................................................................................6 The Parkin Plan ...........................................................................................................................8 Architecture and National Identity: the Centennial Projects .......................................................9 NAC: The Architectural Challenge ............................................................................................10 The Architectural Response .....................................................................................................13 Architectural Style: Polite “Brutalism” ......................................................................................16 Re-inventing “Brutalism”..........................................................................................................17 NCC Canada’s Capital Core Sector Plan and View Protection ................................................18 City of Ottawa Downtown Urban Design Strategy ...................................................................20 City of Ottawa Downtown Moves Strategy ..............................................................................21 Heritage Considerations ...........................................................................................................22 NAC Architectural Rejuvenation: Urban Design Objectives ....................................................27 Conclusion..…………………………………………………………………………………………….32 Appendix A: Cultural Heritage Impact on the Rideau Canal World HeritageSite……………….33 References ...............................................................................................................................39 1 Bird’s Eye View of City of Ottawa (Brosius 1876) INTRODUCTION The objective of the NAC Rejuvenation project is to expand its public spaces and create an inviting entrance and transparent architectural presence on Confederation Square, in the core of Canada’s Capital. A conceptual design for the Architectural Rejuvenation has been prepared by Diamond Schmitt Architects (January 26, 2015) and described in the architect’s Project Brief (July 3, 2014). This report has been prepared to provide an urban and historic framework for the National Arts Centre Architectural Rejuvenation Project. It provides a brief summary of the major factors that influenced the original 1964 architectural design in its urban setting. It also examines the specific “Capital” and “Civic” urban design objectives that are addressed by the Architectural Rejuvenation Project a half century after the NAC’s birth. URBAN AND HISTORIC CONTEXT Although generally taken for granted, the urban context of the National Arts Centre still reflects some remarkable features deriving from the original Bytown Plan laid out by Colonel By in 1827. This legacy includes the Rideau Canal (now a World Heritage Site), a diagonal counterpoint to Bytown’s orthogonal plan that continues to excite and challenge planning initiatives today. In designing the NAC, its architects discovered that the constraint of the canal, set at approximately 30 degrees to the city grid, could be reconciled and exploited by the simple use of the hexagon, a design tool that enabled the creation of a distinct and complex architectural ensemble that grew from the genius loci. 2 Views of Second City Hall from Parliament (circa 1930) Close-up view of Second City Hall (circa 1930) Elgin Street commercial district (1910) Russell House on Elgin Street (1910) Until 1914, the future Confederation Square and NAC were part of a dense civic precinct studded with Second Empire architecture. Elgin Street, at the city’s commercial heart, was Ottawa’s first urban design achievement. Running parallel to the Rideau Canal, and lined with buildings like the Russell House Hotel and Theatre, Elgin Street consciously linked the “Capital” and “Civic” realms with its framed diagonal view of the Centre Block’s Victoria Tower at its northern terminus (Stent and Laver Architects) and Ottawa’s second City Hall at its southern terminus (Horsey and Shead Architects). With the rapid expansion of the Canadian Government’s presence in the Capital during the First World War, the balance between “Civic” and “Capital” realms began to shift. 3 Municipal and Railway Centre astride the Rideau Canal (Holt/Bennett Plan 1915) THE HOLT/BENNETT PLAN 1915 In 1915, the Federal Plan Commission for Ottawa and Hull (the Holt/Bennett Plan) was tabled with a vision to establish a more dominant and coherent federal identity for Ottawa. Led by Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden, the Holt/Bennett plan was inspired by the North American “city beautiful” movement and Sir Wilfrid Laurier’s dream of Ottawa as a “Washington of the North”. The Holt/Bennett plan imagined a grand “Government Centre” along Wellington and Sussex, now part of contemporary Confederation Boulevard. The plan also exploited the Rideau Canal as a dramatic diagonal extension to the Government Centre, incorporating an expanded Union Station as the urban railway gateway to the Capital: the Municipal and Railway Centre. 4 Municipal and Railway Centre with Elgin Street Axis enhanced (Holt/Bennett Plan 1915) Prophetically, a century before Ottawa’s current downtown LRT transit tunnel (now under construction), the Holt/Bennett plan proposed a tunnel under Ottawa’s core to seamlessly link the local public streetcar system with the intercity railway network without being constrained by the growing congestion of Ottawa’s streets. The Holt/Bennett plan also astutely exploited and enhanced the diagonal Elgin Street axis by recommending that an “Auditorium” replace the existing City Hall as the visual focal point at the southern end of the Elgin Street axis. (City Hall would be demolished and rebuilt to face the expanded Union Station and a small triangular plaza on Elgin Street). When the Borden government fell in 1920, the Holt/Bennett plan was quietly retired. 5 Gréber Plan showing “Confederation Park” (1938) THE GRÉBER PLAN In 1935, the newly elected Prime Minister Mackenzie King revived the initiative to plan and transform the Capital. The Gréber Plan, tabled in 1938, imagined a monumental “Confederation Park” along the Rideau Canal with national and civic buildings strategically located to emphasize their symbolic significance. The execution of the plan commenced with the widening of Elgin Street between Lisgar and Albert as a mini “Champs Elysée”. Utilizing the sites of the Russell House Hotel (burned 1928), and the Ottawa City Hall (burned 1931), the Post Office facing Connaught Place was demolished to make room for Confederation Square with the National War Memorial as its focal point. Although Gréber preferred the memorial to be located in Major Hill’s Park, King’s choice prevailed. The National War Memorial was unveiled in 1939. 6 Gréber presents plan (April 1949) Gréber plan showing proposed National Theatre and City Hall (1950) In 1950, the monumental Gréber plan for the core was refined and adopted. It reiterated the vision for “Confederation Park” enhanced by formal avenues, Beaux Arts buildings, and the removal of Union Station and the railway tracks. A grand East-West Bridge across the canal (Mackenzie King Bridge) would be the ceremonial centrepiece of the plan featuring a new City Hall at its eastern terminus and a National Theatre at the west end. 7 Parkin Plan showing proposed National Museum and Rideau Canal Basin (Parkin 1962) THE PARKIN PLAN 1962 In 1962, in the “heroic age” of the federal government’s efforts to implement the Gréber Plan, the NCC retained John C. Parkin, one of Canada’s respected modern architects, to update the Gréber Plan for Confederation Park. The NCC’s Parkin Plan significantly established a site for the new National Museum to define the south edge of the grand Confederation Square. The new museum would replace the historic Victoria Memorial Museum. The plan introduced the imaginative idea of re-creating the Rideau Canal basin as Confederation Square’s focal point and centrepiece. The plan also introduced a new Convention Centre (in place of Union Station) and accommodated the government’s growing need for downtown office space through the dense redevelopment of the liberated railway lands on the east bank of the Rideau Canal (the future Rideau Centre). Seemingly ambitious, the 1962 Parkin Plan was just one element in the NCC’s formidable 1960’s core area planning and building program. The program simultaneously included the expropriation and clearing of Lebreton Flats (for a National Defense HQ), the closing of Union Station, the removal of the railway tracks, the extension of Colonel By Drive, the commencing of the east bank government office complex - the NDHQ building - originally intended for Transport Canada (John C. Parkin Architect), and the expropriation and conservation