NCC OKs museum, monument designs
Science and Technology renovation, Holocaust memorial slated for 2017
A reborn museum and a new Ottawa landmark received design approval Wednesday from the National Capital Commission’s board of directors.
The board approved the proposed design of the remodelled Canada Science and Technology Museum and the revised design of the National Holocaust Monument. Both are scheduled to open in 2017.
The museum was closed in September 2014 when officials concluded the roof on its 50-year-old building was in danger of collapsing. Two months later, the federal government announced it would get an $80-million upgrade.
The roof and supporting structure have now been replaced, and other upgrades have been done to the building envelope.
The design includes a new v-shaped entrance bracketed by a large LED screen “so the wow factor hits just as you approach the front door,” said Fred Gaspar, the NCC’s director of federal approvals.
Because the museum hasn’t finalized the design of the screen, described as “a critical element for the esthetic of the building,” the NCC deferred its approval for now.
The museum must also develop a long-term site-management plan, with special consideration given to parking, public transit and landscape design.
The initial construction tender last winter for the Holocaust monument — to be built directly across from the Canadian War Museum — came in well over budget. The need to reduce costs prompted subtle but significant changes in the original design.
The revised design eliminates a planned roof and many of the most complex concrete walls, simplifies other walls and reduces their thickness, and reduces the snow-melting system by half, saving $150,000.
It also removes four expanded metal mesh walls and changes the fabrication technique for Edward Burtynsky’s signature photographs. They were originally to be embedded in the concrete walls but now will be painted on.
“This is actually an improved design,” Steve Willis, the NCC’s executive director for capital planning, told the board.
Several directors fretted over security for the monument, which will be open to the public around the clock. Willis said the NCC has made an arrangement with the war museum to monitor the monument’s security cameras.