CHÂTEAU SHOWDOWN
More stone, less glass, critics say
The city’s built-heritage subcommittee is recommending the architects of the Château Laurier addition go back to the drawing board.
The panel of councillors and heritage experts on Monday voted to recommend approval of the proposed design of a seven-storey addition only if the hotel owner and city staff make the concept “more visually compatible” with the original building.
That means adding more Indiana limestone, making the north facade less imposing and altering the design to ensure the geometric proportions relate to the historic building.
In other words, making sure the addition has some semblance to the hotel.
Barry Padolsky, an architect on the subcommittee, and Coun. Tobi Nussbaum crafted a motion that would take the politics out of the decision in the short term by leaving the final design up to city staff.
“Let’s make sure that our grandchildren, when they’re looking at it, understand that this was an addition that was built with a love of, and with a reference to, the structure as it is in 2018,” Nussbaum, the chair of the subcommittee, said after the meeting.
If the planning committee and city council agree with the subcommittee’s recommendation, the only political decision on the final design will be about making sure the concept meets the Standards and Guidelines for the Conservation of Historic Places in Canada.
However, it was the city’s own heritage staff who decided the latest design — one that was panned by Heritage Ottawa and other critics — already meets those standards.
The planning committee will consider the recommendation on June 26 and send its own recommendation to council for consideration on June 27.
Seven people addressed the built-heritage subcommittee to register their opposition to the latest design.
Andrew Waldron, representing the National Historic Sites Alliance, called for a “more intelligent and dynamic proposal,” while dismissing the latest design as a “retro-modern box.”
Carleton University professor Peter Coffman, an architectural historian, ratcheted up the pressure, suggesting the decision on the Château Laurier’s addition will be part of the built-heritage subcommittee’s legacy.
“You are the manual override,” Coffman said. “You are the driver in what otherwise could become a driverless car of process.”
Heritage Ottawa continued to call for the city’s rejection of the design application. After the meeting, president David Jeanes said he wasn’t surprised the subcommittee asked for more design tweaks.
“To push it forward and go ahead and basically approve what’s on the table right now will not work,” Jeanes said.
The hotel owner’s project team defended its glassy design for the expansion.
Peter Clewes, the architect on the project, said the new structure would be a “pavilion on the park,” which would be better than the unsightly parking garage that backed on to Major’s Hill Park. He emphasized the ability for people in the park to see through the first floor of the hotel addition. Clewes said the design will succeed if it’s beautiful, but deferential to the historic hotel.
“All the architectural language of the building needs to be about restraint,” Clewes said.
Michael McClelland, a heritage architectural consultant on the project team, said the pavilion-like addition would create two fronts to the hotel, not just the single one along Rideau Street.
Larco Investments, the hotel owner, needs city council’s permission to alter the hotel property since the land has heritage protection. The company has gone through four design iterations since 2016. The city’s heritage working group and urban design review panel have provided direction to the hotel owner.
Many members of the built-heritage subcommittee were leaning toward rejecting the design if it weren’t for Nussbaum and Padolsky’s proposal to allow another attempt. The only vote with teeth, however, will be at council next week.
Padolsky expressed skepticism that the hotel owner will be willing to produce another version of the design.
“This deserves at least one more or two more to get it right,” Padolsky said.
This isn’t the first time an owner of the Château Laurier has pitched an expansion. In 2000, before municipal amalgamation, the council of the former City of Ottawa approved a limestone addition that nearly copied the hotel design. The owner never went ahead with the addition.
Larco acquired the hotel in 2013.