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It wasn't their first performing arts facility, but ever since the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts opened on University Avenue, Diamond Schmitt Architects have been in demand as a designer of such spaces in Canada and abroad. Acclaim for the lobby spaces and for the acoustics and sightlines within the performance spaces won the architecture firm commissions for the recently completed Maison Symphonique in Montreal, the very prestigious New Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, and many more. Current projects in the sector include a pair of arts facilities in St. Catharines and another in Lubbock, Texas.
Now Diamond Schmitt is taking on another performing arts venue, this one in Canada's Capital. The National Arts Centre opened in 1969. Designed in the Brutalist style by Fred Lebensold, the centre has four performance halls which seat between 150 and 2,323 people, and is home to the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra and Opera Lyra Ottawa. The centre has been criticized over the years for turning its back on the city, presenting looming concrete walls on the otherwise scenic banks of the Rideau Canal, within sight of Parliament Hill, Confederation Square, and the Chateau Laurier.
Diamond Schmitt's design will add glassed-in lobby, gathering, learning, and lounging spaces, while making the centre fully accessible. The existing performance spaces will be upgraded. A rendering above and the Google Street View image below allow the Elgin Street condition to be compared.
Below, a Google Street View image looking south across the Rideau Canal towards the centre can be compared with the following rendering showing significant new spaces which will provide both views into the venue from the city, and out to the city from the venue.
Most significantly on the exterior, a new glass tower will mark the Elgin Street entrance. Above the new main doors, HiDef video will be projected allowing for live feeds from the halls or publicizing upcoming events. Inside, the public will find significantly more room to gather in before performances or during intermissions, more options for enjoying a drink or a meal, more informal spaces for performance, and a significantly enlarged facility for catered events. Along with accessibility improvements throughout, mechanical and electrical building systems will bring the building up to modern expectations of both comfort and energy performance, targeting LEED certification.
Donald Schmitt, stated of his firm's design “The NAC will be transformed from its intimidating and grey presence in the capital to a highly visible and welcome showcase for the very best performing arts for residents and visitors from across Canada and abroad.”
Peter Herrndorf, President and CEO of the NAC emphasized “The new entrance of the NAC will be warm and inviting, and will embrace the nation’s capital for the first time. Visitors have often remarked to me that it’s unfortunate the NAC turns its back on the city. With this new design we will finally face the city and its most important square.”
The Federal Government is spending $110.5 M on the project, from its current $5.8 B infrastructure spending plan. The NAC will remain open during two years of construction with the intention of having everything complete in advance of July 1, 2017, Canada's sesquicentennial.
Shelly Glover, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, remarked “The NAC is a national treasure – a living symbol of the performing arts in Canada, and a Crown asset that needs to be restored. We are proud to renew one of our country’s most important cultural institutions just in time for Canada’s 150th anniversary in 2017.”
Want to know more about the NAC Revitalization? UrbanToronto's dataBase file for the project has more renderings and information. It's linked below. Want to talk about it? Leave your comment in the space provided on this page.
