— Musings —12.18.2018 07:40 AM
Welcome to Ottawa, where it takes several eons to build a tool shed
This tweet has gotten a lot of retweets, favourites and impressions.
Nobody in Ottawa has told me, naturally, so I ask: why the Hell does it take over a decade to renovate Centre Block? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? #cdnpoli
— Warren Kinsella (@kinsellawarren) December 17, 2018
It could take much longer than ten years in fact. Centre Block was one of the first steel-frame buildings in Canada. They won’t know the state of the steel until they pull the walls down. If it is in bad shape, the structure will have to rebuilt from the inside out. Really it would be a teardown if not for the building’s historical significance.
I have been told that the unusual combination of having to use heritage stonemasons (limited supply) and putting in seismic reinforcement is what really dominates the timeline.
Parliament Center Block is excessively decorative & architecturally complex. Renovations, if complete, require extensive preparation & planning as the restoration proceeds.
Inspectors by the dozens are dispatched stage-by-stage in the process of conducting the work. Myriad trades are brought in at different times as they can’t all work together at once.
When doing Historical work the process of restoration is made much more cumbersome by the specifications required to adhere to in the process. All materials, workmanship, and timelines are carefully predetermined beforehand but allowances for timelines are given leeway so that in the end of assessment the project delays are factored in. Structurally complex restorations have triple the restoration work to be performed compared to contemporary structures that are much less costly to process.
Lastly, all work in Parliament is non-destructive which means that extra precaution & time is taken to process the work through to satisfactory completion of the contract. One decade to rebuild is standard operating procedure in Center Block. It took a decade the last time they did it too.
RW
(insert ‘takes’, ‘took’ or ‘requires’ (or something similar) into your title, Warren…)
It’s in the water.
Our train was supposed to run for the Canada 150 – after three new dates, the mayor has stopped giving an expected opening – only 2 years (?) overdue.
The best is the Lebreton flats fiasco – the premiere piece of property in the region, on the water and in walking distance of the Peace Tower, massive, and expropriated by the government 50 years ago. Still vacant.
It must be in the water.
It will end up taking close to a decade to repair the modestly-sized mansion that is 24 Sussex Drive. One can only imagine the complexity required to fix a century-old stone “castle-like” building.
Ha Ha…you are so right!!!! How could it possibly take that long to “renovate” the house??? Crazy. I think Rome was built faster. Oh well…Merry Christmas everybody.