PROJECT West Block Rehabilitation Project, Parliament Hill, Ottawa, Ontario
ARCHITECTS Architecture49 and EVOQ Architecture, architects in joint venture
TEXT Elsa Lam
PHOTOS Tom Arban Photography
In 1995, Quebec firms Arcop and Fournier Gersovitz Moss and Associates were hired by Public Works and Government Services Canada to rehabilitate the West Block on Parliament Hill. One of two buildings adjacent to Centre Block, the West Block was originally constructed in 1865 to house the Postmaster General, the Ministry of Public Works, and the Crown Lands Department. As the country and its administrative needs expanded, the building was added to in 1875-1878 and again in 1906-1909. But a century later, the masonry of the building was in a dangerous state of disrepair: protective fabric had been put in place around its towers in 2004 to protect the public from eroding mortars. A diagram shows the sequence of moves and renovation projects needed to vacate Centre Block for revitalization.
Design work began, but the project was put on hold in 1999 and did not go out to tender. Then its scope changed radically?from an already major restoration job to a comprehensive adaptive reuse that would transform the primary function of the West Block. Approaching the turn of the century, Public Works had been planning out how to perform restorative upgrades to Centre Block, which houses the House of Commons, Senate, Library of Parliament, and parliamentary offices. In 2001, they issued the first...