RC104 JanFeb2023 - Magazine - Page 16
TOP100 PROJECTS
STANDING
THE TEST
OF TIME
Library and Archives
Canada’s new Preservation
Storage Facility is built
to last by John Tenpenny
HE PRESERVATION OF HISTORY is a task that
never ends.
But with the recent completion
of Library and Archives Canada’s
(LAC) new state-of-the-art Preservation Storage Facility in Gatineau,
Que.—a space that will provide the conditions required to preserve documents for 500
years—that job became just a little bit easier.
The facility is the first net-zero carbon archival preservation facility in the Americas,
and the first special purpose federal facility
built to meet the requirements of Canada’s
Greening Government Strategy, and the largest automated archival facility in the world.
Plenary Properties Gatineau (PPG)—made
up of Plenary Americas, PCL and ENGIE
Services, in partnership with B+H Architects, Stantec and Lapalme Rheault Architects—was chosen by the Government of
Canada for a public-private partnership to
design, build, finance, and maintain the new
preservation facility, which was constructed
adjacent to the LAC’s existing preservation
centre.
“This new, state-of-the-art preservation
facility in the National Capital Region will
help Canada remain a leader in the preservation and promotion of our invaluable
documentary heritage. Our government is
confident that this preservation centre will
solidify Library and Archives Canada’s place
at the forefront of preservation throughout
the world, for the benefit of present and
future generations,” said Pablo Rodriguez,
Minister of Canadian Heritage and Multiculturalism at the facility’s official opening.
The project has been recognized with a
pair of awards from the Canadian Council
for Public-Private Partnerships, winning the
Silver Project Development Award in 2019,
and the Gold for the Infrastructure category
in 2022.
According to Paul Marion of PCL Construction—the design-build lead for the
project—one of the major challenges was
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16 RENEW CANADA — JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2023
LAC PRESERVATION STORAGE FACILITY QUICK FACTS
meeting the requirements from the National
Capital Commission when it came to the
exterior of the building
“The building had to be designed around
a form that lent itself well to storage and
retrieval. And that really informed the form
of the building,” says Marion.
The new archive had to complement
rather than overshadow the architecturally significant Preservation Centre, which
is now connected to the new Preservation
Storage Facility.
“The exterior of the building had to be energy efficient. It had to be something that allowed us to meet all the stringent consumption restrictions that we had for electricity.
And had to be aesthetically pleasing—sufficiently pleasing for the NCC to approve the
facility in its location,” says Marion.
To achieve the architect’s vision for the
façade, which features textures of granite,
limestone, sandstone, clay and glacial till,
PCL collaborated with the digital media
laboratory at Carleton University to develop
digital models of the stone textures which
were later fabricated into custom molds for
the 416 precast concrete panels.
“In an innovative approach, our team
worked with the formwork contractor to
develop a productive method of using backto-back blindside foundation formwork to
pour large sections of wall, which form the
28-metre-tall archival vaults,” explains Marion. “The insulated precast panels created an
energy-efficient environmental barrier from
the exterior elements.”
RENEWCANADA.NET
ROY GROGAN PHOTOGRAPH
The vaults have storage space equivalent to eight and a half Olympic-size swimming pools.
More than 590,000 containers of published and archival materials (hard copy), microfilms and motionpicture films are being moved into the facility.
Construction of the new facility began in August 2019 and was completed in June 2022.
The texture of the 416 concrete panels that cover the facility represents the geological composition of the
ground on which the building sits.
The cost of the implementation of the Gatineau 2 project and the construction of the Preservation Storage
Facility and maintenance and management of both buildings for 30 years is estimated at $580 million.
