Contract Magazine - January 2020 - 73

"Ultimately, we were creating a front door to Parliament and it had to be tremendously welcoming."
- Carol Phillips, project architect, Moriyama & Teshima Architects

The Government of Canada Visitor Welcome Centre in Ottawa serves as the
new point of entry to Parliament Hill, the home of Canada's government that boasts
more than 350,000 visitors a year. IBI Group served as the prime consultant, in
association with Moriyama & Teshima Architects as the design architects. The first
new major addition on Parliament Hill in more than 75 years, and part of a 20-year
rehabilitation, the infill project was designed to improve security and enhance
circulation between the buildings in the precinct.
To respectfully merge contemporary and heritage design, the architects
undertook a full audit of Parliament Hill, looking at the forecourts, corridors, and
doorways of the Gothic Revival buildings for inspiration, updating forms to achieve
an unexpected sense of lightness in the subterranean structure, which measures
450,000 square feet.
Not only did the teams study the detailing of the surrounding buildings,
which date from the late 1800s to the 1920s, they also surveyed the grounds
designed by landscape architect Calvert Vaux. "We found these elliptical shapes
of Vaux's, and we were able to interpret his hand and pull it together in this
generous arch that then became the major form of our building," says Carol Phillips,
project architect, Moriyama & Teshima Architects.
The building is a gateway for tourists, government officials, and residents,
and the designers were keenly aware of its special set of requirements, but the
interior still had to be open and inviting. "The space is really a series of thresholds
of arrival, and we had to see it through those different narratives. So it was
an interesting paradox. We had to make sure it was a robust, secure entry point
but that everybody still felt that generosity as they walked through the doors,"
Phillips notes.
As a person moves in different directions underground where natural
light is limited, a feeling of disorientation can occur. The team wanted to make
the visitor experience as transparent and comfortable as possible. By creating
an overlook into the barrel-vaulted passageway called the Galleria on the lower
level, the architects were able to create a sense of expansiveness that resonates
with individuals immediately, and that is carried throughout the entire building.
Textural folds are used as a unifying element on handrails and millwork,
while columns feature a pleated profile to create a visual slimming effect,
and at the top, these pleats also serve to accentuate the spring point of the vaults.
"We were really trying to strike a balance between the verticality and the width.
We used the pleating specifically where we needed to accommodate the depth
of structure, allowing it to get shallower where we could, to create that sense of
spaciousness," Phillips says.
Such careful attention to detail extended to the material palette.
Limestone, marble, and white oak echo the materials already present on Parliament
Hill, yet they do not have the same heavy look as aged stone, metal, or wood.
"We used many of the high-end finishes befitting the dignity of Parliament Hill,
but we tooled them in a more contemporary way," explains Heather Semple
of IBI Group, the project lead.
Even with all the challenges of creating a secure building that
accommodates a variety of functions and users, at its heart the Visitor Welcome
Centre is a place of hospitality for all, and that is its greatest success. "Ultimately,
we were creating a front door to Parliament and it had to be tremendously
welcoming," Phillips says. -ANNA ZAPPIA

P RO J EC T C R EDI TS

SELE C T E D SOURC E S

Prime consultant IBI Group (Canada)
IBI Group team Diane Phillips, partnerin-charge, OAA, FRAIC; Heather Semple,
project lead, OAA, MRAIC; Farhan
Haqqani; Bernie Duquette; Jamy
Beauchamp; Mark D'Agostino; Chris
Tudin; Earl Reinke; Om Madan, OAA; Bob
Wingate, P. Eng.; Ryan Magladry; Sandy
Ng; Rosemarie Albert
Design architects Moriyama & Teshima
Architects (Canada)
Moriyama & Teshima Architects team
Diarmuid Nash, partner-in-charge,
OAA, FRAIC (PP); Carol Phillips, project
architect, OAA, FRAIC; Emmanuelle
van Rutten, OAA, MRAIC; Chen Cohen,
IDC, NCIDQ, ARIDO; Amanda Gilbert;
Greg Perkins, OAA, MRAIC; Will Klassen,
MRAIC; Chris Ertsenian; Shawn Geddes;
Maria Pavlou; Mei Chow; Claudia
Cozzitorto; Hamia Aghaiemeybodi
Interior designer Moriyama & Teshima
Architects
Contractor PCL Constructors Canada Inc.
Lighting Gabriel Mackinnon Lighting
Design
Structural Adjeleian Allen Rubeli
Limited / WSP Global
Mechanical Pageau Morel
Electrical Pageau Morel
Civil IBI Group
Landscape Lemay
Acoustician State of the Art Acoustik Inc.
Heritage DFS Inc. Architecture & Design
Wayfinding Jaan Krusberg Design
Sustainability/building envelope/
code Morrison Hershfield
Elevator KJA Consultants Inc.
Hardware Upper Canada Specialty
Hardware
Costing Hanscomb Limited

Wallcoverings Architectural
Components Group (Microperf acoustic
wood ceiling and wall tile)
Exterior limestone and sandstone
RJW Stonemasons
Decorative metals Mariani Metal
(bronze)
Interior dimension stone Gem
Campbell (Danby marble); Arriscraft
(Adair limestone)
Flooring Franklin Terrazzo
(Cementitious terrazzo)
Ceramic tile Olympia Tile + Stone
Acoustical ceiling tile USG/CGC
(Halcyon acoustical panels)
Acoustic plaster BASWA acoustic
Door hardware Upper Canada Specialty
Hardware
Security doors Ambico
Decorative metals Carleton
Iron Works (steel)
Millwork Beaubois

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Contract Magazine - January 2020

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