EDITORIAL UPDATE:
Global Affairs Canada Commemorative Artwork
An update from the NCC: The Board of Directors have approved the 99% Developed Design of the Global Affairs Canada (GAC) Commemorative Artwork. This is the last approval before construction, which will be located at 111 Sussex Drive in Ottawa.
The monument will be a lasting tribute to employees of the Government of Canada working in GAC missions abroad. It will recognize their dedication and their sacrifices, and those of their families.
In 2021, Mark Thompson Brandt was part of Team Rapoport, lead by PLANT Architect founding partner Lisa Rapoport and artists Adrian Göllner, Michael Belmore and Pierre Poussin, along with former diplomat Federicka Gregory.
Read more about the submission and team’s approach below:
ORIGINAL BLOG POST (2021)
The government of Canada has released the presentation videos for the four shortlisted Global Affairs Canada Commemorative Artwork design concepts. TRACE is honoured to be a part of Team Rapoport’s design for The Eddy, a memorial dedicated to the sacrifices of Global Affairs Canada staff and their families stationed around the world, honouring those among them who have died in service to Canada.
The Commemorative Place will occupy a prominent Sussex Drive site on Green Island, at the confluence of the Rideau and Ottawa Rivers and in the heart of the Government Affairs Canada office precinct.
PLANT Architect founding partner Lisa Rapoport, leader of Team Rapoport worked with artists Adrian Göllner, Michael Belmore, and Pierre Poussin, former diplomat Fredericka Gregory and TRACE’s founding principal, Senior Conservation Architect & Urbanist Mark Thompson Brandt, as the local design/approvals and stakeholder engagement consultant.
The Eddy encapsulates the memorial’s site and its relation to the globe-spanning duties of Canada’s foreign service workers, positioning itself in the interconnectedness of the neighbouring waterways of the Ottawa and Rideau Rivers.
Congrats to the team’s designers, artists and other team members for making the shortlisted entries!
"The artwork embodies a place in a river where a stone or tree stands against the current, causing the flow to curl back on itself and pause. A tall standing stone conducts the space around itself, forming the land into sweeping berms and pathways, but leaving in its wake a placid centre. At this focal point, the names of the fallen are carved into a sculptural form that speaks to time and resistance."
The presentation videos for the four Global Affairs Canada Commemorative Artwork design concepts are now live and open for public feedback and consultation by completing this survey, which closes on December 16, 2021. You are invited to watch the design concepts interpretive videos here.
