Bank of Canada receives 2020 CSLA Award of Excellence

The Canadian Society of Landscape Architects (CSLA) has honoured The Bank of Canada Head Office Renewal in Ottawa with a 2020 National Award of Excellence, Small-Scale Landscapes.

The Bank of Canada has undergone a dramatic renewal of its office complex, led by Perkins + Will with DTAH as the lead landscape architects and Cornelia Hahn Oberlander as a design advisor, Plantmasters Inc. as horticulture consultants, and PCL Constructors as contractors. The transformation provided an opportunity to augment the public realm around the bank, improving and animating landscape and public amenity at a significant location in the parliamentary district. This new landscape edge improves the perimeter streetscapes and provides a new downtown public gathering space. Entrances to the Bank’s Museum and Conference Facility become more inviting, while also meeting the necessary safety and security needs. The interior garden court, a soaring, light-filled gathering space for the bank employees, remains the animated centerpiece of the building, and an indoor social focal point.

The design for the new plaza was inspired by Arthur Erickson's own fascination with the Canadian landscape through a set of abstracted elements that integrate architecture and landscape to shape a new space as the foreground for Erickson's mirrored towers. These elements appear as raked landforms, which peel up from the plaza to create three pyramids, topped with amphitheater seating and plantings overlooking the public space. After dark, these glazed surfaces radiate light onto the landscape as the bright interior glows from beneath.

For more details, see the CSLA website here.