Long road nearly over for BoC revamp

Famed Canadian architect Arthur Erickson isn't around to see the $460-million overhaul of one of his signature works – the Bank of Canada's Ottawa headquarters.

But Mr. Erickson, who died in 2009, would like most of what has been done to turn his 1970s modernist creation into a secure, energy-efficient and wired 21st-century office building, former associates say.

Governor Stephen Poloz and roughly 1,600 bank staff are moving back into the building in phases over the next couple of months, after three years working out of another building in downtown Ottawa.

"I am so excited to go back to this extraordinary building, where we will work and thrive," Mr. Poloz said. "It's a unique structure, filled with history."

They'll re-enter a building that has undergone massive changes – both visible and hidden – right down to the concrete core. After nearly four decades, the bank says a major renovation was needed to make the building more secure and accommodate vital technology and because the building's ventilation and safety systems had reached the end of their lifespans. It was also anxious to create more open and flexible work spaces.

"We have tried to find a balance between what you need in today's work environment and add elements of the past," says Dale Fleck, an adviser at the bank and head of the office-renewal project.

It's been a long and difficult journey.

There have been public clashes with heritage experts over key elements of the project, including the fate of an interior garden courtyard. During demolition in 2014, a 45-year-old construction worker was crushed to death beneath a collapsed cinder-block wall.

And there is still lingering controversy over the addition of large spires and earth-and-glass pyramids on a plaza along the east side of the 836,000-square-foot complex, located on a prominent block of Wellington Street across from the Supreme Court, the Justice Department and the Parliament buildings.

Change did not come easily, or cheaply, for the staid and ultra-conservative central bank. The bank worked with heritage experts and former colleagues of Mr. Erickson to preserve key design features amid the chaos of the demolition and reconstruction.

Prodded by heritage advocates, the bank agreed to restore the mounded indoor gardens and a 21-metre-long Douglas fir trellis that are the centrepieces of a soaring 12-storey atrium.

Meanwhile, the bank's original 1930s headquarters, now partially encased in glass at the centre of the complex, was stripped to its core, and brought back to its former glory, accented with period colours, furniture and light fixtures.

Largely unseen to visitors are the modern building features – fibre-optic cabling, sprinklers, air ducts, earthquake proofing and security technology. These are now concealed beneath raised floors, ceilings, elevator shafts and up on the roof. The twin green-glass towers also have a new inner skin that makes them more comfortable and cuts down on heating and cooling costs.

"I'm glad that the essence of what we did is seen as valuable and that it's being updated," says Toronto architect Keith Loffler, who worked with Mr. Erickson on the 1970s addition. "He would be pleased with a lot of things and a bit disappointed in other aspects."

The key elements of the Erickson design have been largely preserved, including the tree-like concrete columns between floors, the open spaces and the courtyard garden, Mr. Loffler points out.

Few Canadians will ever get to see any of it.

Gone are the decorative pools in the courtyard, along with the open-door policy. When the building reopens, public access will be limited to a currency museum, now relocated to underground space on the east side of the complex – part of the $5-million to $10-million spent to protect the bank from terrorist attacks and other security threats. The vast atrium will now be space for employees to mingle and collaborate.

"This facility has seen a significant investment on increasing our security posture – in the interior and around the building," explains Filipe Dinis, the bank's chief operating officer. "It was important for us to blend in with our neighbours. While we have the security posture in place, for the naked eye, it's probably not visible."

But those features inevitably mean a loss of part of what Mr. Erickson tried to create when the building opened in 1979.

"He [Erickson] would comment on how sad it is that the security requirements make it so this garden court isn't open to the public," laments Mr. Loffler, who recently joined other architects and heritage experts on a tour of the renovated site. "That was a big thing back then. It was supposed to be the open, welcoming part of the bank design. It's sad that the security concerns make that openness impossible."

Renowned landscape architect Cornelia Oberlander applauds the bank for restoring the interior garden, which she describes as "perfect … and beautifully done."

But she expressed dismay about the redesigned outdoor plaza, where a grove of trees has been replaced by large irregular-shaped pyramids and spires jutting out of the square.

"It's not my style," says Ms. Oberlander, who designed the interior and exterior gardens at the National Gallery of Canada for Moshe Safdie as well as Vancouver's Robson Square for Mr. Erickson.

Mr. Loffler is similarly unimpressed. "It's a strange architectural element to put on that plaza. It's a bit of a contradiction," he says.

Others are more forgiving, given the enormous challenges the bank faced in modernizing the building and bulking up security. David Jeanes, president of Heritage Ottawa, says the "essence of the features that were originally intended by Erickson" have largely been preserved.

Among the hurdles that the architects and builders faced was how to remove walls and create more open work spaces, while hiding mechanical and electrical equipment. To accommodate all that, workers drilled more than 7,000 holes into concrete and raised floors by nearly 6.5 centimetres. They also imbedded other features in the coffered ceilings.

"It was a real challenge to keep that exposed concrete and character of that building, and get in all the technology – the life safety and ventilation systems," says architect Matt Johnston of Perkins+Will, the lead architecture firm on the project.

The twin 12-storey towers also have a new inner glass skin, creating a 45-centimetre energy-efficient buffer zone, where air is warmed in winter and cooled in summer.

The bank also salvaged and restored dozens of pieces of tubular steel and wood desks, chairs and tables, designed specially for the 1970s building. Some of them have been dispersed throughout the building in a nod to Mr. Erickson's legacy.

"Every floor has a piece of the original Erickson furniture," the Bank of Canada's Mr. Fleck says.