Five teams of architects have been selected to compete for the $211 million Bank Street building design, the first new building in the Parliament Hill precinct to be built in more than 70 years. The new building will be located at the western edge of Parliament Hill, and 200, 000 square feet above grade in an area called the lower plateau which is now a parking lot at the intersection of Bank and Wellington streets. It will house 39 offices for senators and 12 committee rooms for the House of Commons. Competing teams consist of: Diamond and Schmitt Architects of Toronto and Katz Webster Clancey Associates of Ottawa; Dan Hanganu Architect of Montreal with Lemay Dorval Fortin Doyle & Associates of Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City and Mill & Ross Architects of Kingston and Ottawa; Provencher Roy of Montreal with Zeidler Grinnell of Toronto and Hotson Bakker Architects of Vancouver; Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects of Toronto with Gagnon Letellier, Cyr Architectes of Quebec City and Barry Padolsky Associates of Ottawa; and Saucier + Perrotte of Montreal with Dunlop Architects of Toronto and Cohos Evamy of Alberta. A detailed design from each competing team will be evaluated by a panel of architects, Parliamentary representatives, Public Works officials, heritage reviewers, and the National Capital Commission this fall, for planned construction beginning in 2005 and completion in 2009. The guidelines stipulate, among other measures, that the building reinforce the triadic composition of Parliament’s Centre, East and West blocks. New views from various vantage points should be created, and the building should enhance the skyline and be compatible with the character of the surroundings and night views of the precinct from the other side of the river. In addition, the maximum height should relate to the eaves of the roofs of the adjacent West Block (1859) and its facing neighbour, the 1927 Confederation Building, both in the Gothic Revival style.
