The Supreme Court of Canada expects to move into a temporary home this summer and stay there for at least a decade, years longer than previous estimates.
The Supreme Court building, which the
government says is in “critical condition,”
has long been slated for a major overhaul.
The government has earmarked more than $1 billion for the major revitalization project that includes repairs to the nearby West Memorial Building, which will serve as the court’s temporary home for the duration of renovations.
The repairs are a long time coming.
Buildings that earn a critical designation from the federal government are
those in frequent need of emergency maintenance
, and the much-needed modernization will remove asbestos, restore walls and windows, replace electrical and bring the structure up to current earthquake building codes.
But despite the decaying condition of the more than 80-year-old building, construction has been pushed back repeatedly.
Renos well behind schedule
In 2017, the federal government
announced it would move forward
with the Supreme Court rehabilitation project, intending to start work in 2023 and complete it in 2028.
But work can’t begin until the court’s nine judges and their staff have somewhere to go.
The West Memorial Building, their new temporary home located a short walk down Wellington Street, is another heritage asset that was left in a state of disrepair for years.
The building hadn’t undergone major repairs until construction work started in April 2020. It has sat vacant since 2008.
Pandemic-related delays and unforeseen challenges pushed the timeline back for completing the rehabilitation. As part of work on the building, crews reinforced concrete walls, removed contaminated soil and stripped lead paint from the steel roof structure.
That work isn’t done yet, but the court expects to move in at the end of the judicial year, according to spokesperson Vanessa Racine.
The Supreme Court breaks for the summer at the end of July and returns sometime in the fall, often hearing its first case of the next judicial year sometime in mid-September.
Racine said the court will return from summer break to a new building that retains historical elements, such as the red carpeting and judge’s bench, but also incorporates new features, such as a skylight “to symbolize the openness and transparency of the court.”
Maintaining everything down to ‘grillwork and furnishings’
The Supreme Court building was constructed between 1938 and 1940, and the court heard its first case there in 1946.
Because the building has federal heritage status, any construction work will require careful attention to detail.
The building was designed in the classical tradition by Ernest Cormier, a prominent Montreal architect.
Cormier’s work appears elsewhere across Quebec and the National Capital Region, including the National Printing Bureau on Sacré-Coeur Boulevard in Gatineau.
Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC), which manages the building, said the “significant undertaking” is still in the “planning phase,” and a detailed timeline is still being developed.
“The Supreme Court of Canada rehabilitation is a highly complex heritage project aimed at fully modernizing an asset that has exceeded its life cycle,” Michèle LaRose, a PSPC spokesperson, said in an email.
As a heritage building, plans for the Supreme Court will go before the Federal Heritage Review Office, which advises government departments on how to manage their heritage properties.
The review office
has some specific thoughts
about how to preserve the building.
For the exterior, the office advises against additions to the building and would like all “dressed stone and the intricate metalwork” to be “meticulously preserved.”
It would also prefer to see PSPC ditch the surrounding parking spots “if possible.”
On the inside, the review office wants the layout and all the decorative finishes to be maintained.
“The original marble, walnut, mahogany and bronze finishes were carefully selected and detailed by the architect, whose work is characterized by a consistent attention to detail, from large scale decisions about access and layout to the smallest items of grillwork and furnishings,” according to a government website.
Once the work is done and the Supreme Court moves back in, the plan is for the West Memorial Building to serve as federal office space.
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