Architecture award presented for the Senate of Canada building

TORONTO — Diamond Schmitt Architects and KWC Architects in Joint Venture are the recipients of a North American Copper in Architecture Award for the Senate of Canada Building in Ottawa. 

Formerly Ottawa’s train station, the grand Beaux-Arts structure from 1912 features a contemporary language of interventions and materials that both complement and contrast the celebrated features of the newly restored landmark, indicates a release issued by Diamond Schmitt.

The Senate Building was the only project selected in the Interior and Ornamental Award category this year. This is the third North American Copper in Architecture Award for Diamond Schmitt.

The principle application of architectural copper alloys is in the monumental bronze panels which act as facades for three committee rooms, two of which are inserted in the station’s high-vaulted General Waiting Room, the release indicates.

The perforated panels feature photographic imagery of classic Canadian landscapes upscaled and transposed into a halftone pattern. Scenes from the Rocky Mountains and Cape Race on the Atlantic coast reveal themselves as one approaches the entrance to the rooms.

“A new layer of material expression is introduced through explorations in bronze and other materials to contemporize iconic Canadian symbols and scenes,” said Martin Davidson, principal, Diamond Schmitt Architects, in a statement. “These bronze panels are mounted on sound-absorbing insulation to attenuate sound reverberation in the large hall, so they have acoustic properties as well.”