The term icon as it applies to a building is malleable, but there is no more visible privately-owned heritage building in downtown Ottawa than the Château Laurier. It occupies a special place in the architectural evolution of the City and the collective image of the National Capital’s core. This is why it was critical to explore how a proposed addition that was to replace the current parking garage would interact with the existing building.
As part of the exercise, TRACE architectures worked to deeply understand the building, its design, its evolution, and its heritage value. While there was general consensus that it was an important building with significant value, the Provincial statement of significance provided little detail for consideration. In order to determine impact, one first has to identify what is being impacted and the statement of significance is typically a key piece in this effort. In the end TRACE combined the Provincial statement of significance, the National Historic Site of Canada statement of significance, and the heritage information for the adjacent Rideau Canal, into a single set of values and character defining elements. Taking it one step further, the authors also explored the notion of the broader cultural heritage landscape within which, the Château Laurier, the Parliamentary Precinct, the Rideau Canal, and the Ottawa River all rest.
THE DOCUMENT INCLUDED MORE THAN 25 MITIGATION MEASURES FOR ENHANCEMENT
The completed 2-volume Cultural Heritage Impact Statement and background documents featured over 200 pages of content and an extensive review of the initially proposed addition. This review identified over 25 mitigation measures that spoke to how the proposed addition could be enhanced to improve its relationship with the existing building and its broader site. There is likely no more difficult site to build on than this building site, and the TRACE team worked to ensure the document reflected this. In fact, it was finally determined after many other versions and other consultants, that the final approved version took much from the original design and TRACE’s recommendations.
