Occupying an entire city block in Ottawa’s dense downtown core, the Bank of Canada building is a key part of the cityscape and has cultural significance for Ottawa and the Bank of Canada. The renewal  maintains architectural aspects of the original design, as well as harmonizing with the architectural styles of the nearby Confederation and Parliament Buildings. The spirit of the classical gray-granite 1930’s Centre Building lives on in the new structure, as do the more modern glass towers and the original 1979 atrium. 

Preconstruction afforded an opportunity to understand the depth and breadth of the owner’s security requirements. Construction and renewal involved three main geographical components: East and West Towers, Centre Building and atrium, and the basements and plaza. 

We staffed and scheduled these as concurrent stand-alone projects which allowed us to fast-track the entire project and meet an aggressive timeline.

We worked with CB Richard Ellis and the design team to ensure that drawings and designs were constructible, validated working sequencing and protected previously approved budgets. Senior team members reviewed and graded the major risks at workshops and agreed on a course of action. We worked daily with consultants to develop cost- and time-effective solutions that met the design intent. A control system for electronic documents pushed updated electronic documents in real time, lowering costs to reproduce drawings, and delivering critical information to the field more quickly. 

We fitted up a 19-floor building for Bank of Canada employees to work in while their head office was underway. The fit-up included new mechanical, electrical, masonry, glazing and finishes installations. Bank staff occupied the fit-up job site during the final construction phases. The building was securely monitored, and all construction personnel on-site required “Bank Reliability” security clearance status. 

The Bank of Canada did not require bulk excavation, however it required demolition of the structural cores of each building, from the rooftop penthouses down to bedrock. Once demolished, we poured new cores that meet the latest seismic and accessibility code requirements, ensuring physical stability for an institution that brings financial stability to the nation. 

The bank renewal achieved LEED Gold certification, partly achieved due to more than a third of the materials being made from recycled content, and more than half extracted and manufactured locally. Over 90% of waste, more than 23,000 metric tons, was diverted from landfills during construction.