[amanfromnowhere]

...and the winnner is Toronto's Diamond + Schmitt Architects:

Light-rail plans prompt NAC entrance redesign proposal
Winning Toronto firm's bid was under $100K
Ottawa's proposed light-rail system was the catalyst for a proposed "new entrance complex" for the National Arts Centre on Elgin Street, officials said.

Topics : National Arts Centre , Toronto
Toronto's Diamond + Schmitt Architects will be paid less than $100,000 to do the design work. It won the contract through a "competitive invitational" request for proposals over five other companies, the NAC said. The competitors' names and bid amounts were not disclosed.

With the city of Ottawa planning a transit station with two pedestrian access points "right outside the NAC" for 2018, the partially federally funded arts institution determined it was a good opportunity to make changes to the area, said spokesperson Carl Martin.

"The NAC has hired Diamond + Schmitt to look at how those access points can be maximized as we expect millions of transit users to use the LRT system and have easier potential access to Canada's largest performing arts centre," he wrote in an e-mail to OBJ.

Although the design work is being done, there is no guarantee that this will translate into an actual construction project, he cautioned.

"There has been no commitment made for any design or construction work at the National Arts Centre," he wrote.

"This is part of routine long-term planning that the NAC does from time to time. For example, back in 2002 the NAC went through a similar exercise and commissioned a series of schematic design concepts. Those concepts were studied and never developed for various reasons."

Should the project move forward, it would be ideally ready in 2017 for the 150th anniversary of Canada's founding on July 1, noted the request for proposals on the NAC's website.

The NAC, noted the documents, is seeking to "enhance the architectural visibility and appeal" of the 42-year-old building with a "transparent and inviting entrance complex ... to attract a new generation of users to the NAC."

But the design, the document added, will need to be respectful of the NAC's 2006 designation as a National Historic Site by the Monuments Board of Canada.

The brown-sided building was designed by the architectural firm Affleck, Desbarats, Dimakopoulos, Lebensold. Fred Lebensold, which the NAC called "one of North America's foremost theatre designers," led the project.

The NAC receives half of its funds from the federal government. The other half is raised through ticket sales, parking fees, food, performance hall rentals and fundraising.

It is managed by the National Arts Centre Corp., which Parliament established through an act in 1966.

http://www.obj.ca/Local/2011-11-30/artic...-prompt-NAC-entrance-redesign-proposal/1