Professional Lighting & Production - Summer 2018 | Page 19

CANADA ROOM
In 2015, the NAC secured funding from the feder-
al government for what would be the Architectur-
al Rejuvenation phase of its planned overhaul.
Whereas the NAC’s main public entrance
previously faced the Rideau Canal, the key com-
ponent of the project was a modern and sleek
addition to the facility that would relocate the
front entrance to Elgin Street while significantly
increasing the size of the lobby, adding new com-
munal spaces and meeting rooms, and expand-
ing the onsite food and beverage options.
It also included the addition of the Kipnes
Lantern – the signature, public-facing feature
of the Architectural Rejuvenation phase. By day,
it’s a three-storey hexagonal glass tower that
anchors the project’s central theme of “transpar-
ency” and ties in seamlessly with the rest of the
new addition and the existing brutalist struc-
tures comprising the NAC campus. By night, the
transparent LED screens lining four of the tower’s
six faces light up to display spectacular imagery
of Canada’s leading artists, productions, and more
for anyone with a clear sightline.
Inside the expansion’s glass walls are: a sig-
nificant overhaul to the Fourth Stage, a small but
versatile performance space; the sizeable Canada
Ballroom, which can be subdivided into smaller
public spaces; the O’Born Room, an elegant space
with a stunning panoramic view of the surround-
ing city; the Lantern Room, which, as the name
implies, is the multi-purpose hexagonal room
on the second floor of the Kipnes Lantern tower;
the smaller City Room; more washroom facilities;
improved access to the NAC’s main performance
space, Southam Hall; a relocated box office; and
public drop-in space where people are welcome
to sit, eat, meet, and even host small performanc-
es, lectures, and other activities.
When Professional Lighting & Production
speaks with Alex Gazalé, the director of the
NAC’s Production Renewal Project, he’s watch-
ing someone give a presentation at the foot of
the atrium’s wide Glass & Thorsteinson Staircase
connecting the street level with the terrace level
– an intended use for that particular feature as
indicated by some production lighting fixtures
overhead. “Anywhere can be a stage,” he says of
an underlying theme of
the project.
Gazalé has been with the NAC for nearly
30 years, occupying a range of different roles
throughout that time. Needless to say, he’s thrilled
about this series of enhancements to his longtime
professional home.
He says the roots of this project extend back
several years prior to funding being secured. About
five years ago, the NAC hired some architectural
and engineering firms to look at its campus as a
whole and report on its architectural, electrical,
mechanical, and production infrastructure. The
goal behind that assessment was to develop a plan
and outlook for the NAC for the next 50 years.
“Very quickly, those different projects merged
into one,” Gazalé explains. “There was no way to
talk about what was deficient in one spot without
talking about where it stemmed from, so we did
this massive study and integrated it so the entire
design team of architects and engineers were
working together.”
Toronto’s Diamond Schmitt Architects was the firm
that piloted the Architectural Rejuvenation portion
of the project, working with various collaborators,
including PCL Construction as the general contrac-
tor, Crossey Engineering, New York’s Fisher Dachs
Associates as the theatre consultant, and a number
of other firms for specific subsections.
The various house, architectural, and per-
formance lighting system specs that occupy the
expanded spaces came from different sources.
Christie Lites ended up being the successful bidder
on several of those, including: the architectural
lighting control systems as spec’d by Crossey (for
fixtures spec’d by Montreal’s Lightemotion), perfor-
mance venue power and control systems for the
Fourth Stage, Atrium and City Room, O’Born Room,
and Lantern Room as spec’d by Fisher Dachs; and a
direct-to-owner entertainment fixture package for
various public and performance spaces, including
the terrace-level Rossy Pavilion, G&T Staircase, and
City Room.