ÏàƬ¼¯

National Gallery of Canada - Ottawa

Two pictures ago I posted a evening impression of the exterior of the central hall of the National Gallery in Ottawa.

Today the same part of the museum, but this time from the inside and by daylight.
In the workshop you can see an impression of the exterior of the building.

The National Gallery of Canada is not only a beautiful and attractive museum but also a marvellous designed building..
About the Building

Designed to display the art treasures of a nation, the National Gallery of Canada marks the pinnacle of Canadian and international artistic achievement.

• Architect
Moshe Safdie
Parkin/Safdie Architects Planners,
Toronto and Montreal
• Landscape Architect
Cornelia Hahn Oberlander
Oberlander worked with Moshe Safdie to create the National Gallery’s indoor and outdoor gardens. Her inspiration for the taiga garden on the southeast side, with its severe northern beauty and muted colours, came from A.Y. Jackson’s painting Terre Sauvage.
On the northeast side, a sunken garden of 12 flowering crab-apple trees is surrounded by the living rock into which the building is set. The public walkway next to the sunken garden leads to a path that zigzags up the hill toward Nepean Point.
• Cost of construction and landscaping: $122 million (CAD)
• Groundbreaking: December 1983
• Completion: April 1988
• Inauguration: 21 May 1988
• Area: 53,265 m2 (569,000 square feet)
• Height: 43 m (140 feet) in the Great Hall
• Exhibition space: 12,400 m2 (132,700 square feet)
• Concrete poured for the building: 40,200 cubic metres (52,580 cubic yards)
• Granite on floors and walls: 23,250 m2 (250,000 square feet) of Tadoussac variegated rose granite
• Popular spots: The Great Hall, the Garden Court, the Water Court, and the Rideau Chapel

The soaring windows of the Great Hall capture the Parliament Buildings, the Ottawa River and the Gatineau Hills in vertical frames. Dramatic by day and stunning by night, the Great Hall welcomes the Gallery’s visitors from all over the country and abroad every day, and hosts an array of special events – from small candle-lit dinners to galas for hundreds of guests or a spectacular reception for as many as 1,500 people.
The cathedral-like Colonnade constructed of granite and glass, which connects the main entrance of the building to the Great Hall, and glass pavilions make the museum appear open and inviting. The long approach up the incline of the Colonnade – one of the longest ramp in recent architecture – creates an agreeable sense of anticipation. From the exterior, one sees a building that celebrates movement.
Located at the end of the Concourse off the Great Hall, and across from the Contemporary galleries, the Cafétéria des Beaux-arts has its own glass rotunda, access to a private patio and an inspiring view of Nepean Point, the Ottawa River and Parliament Hill. The cafeteria is designed to serve families and groups in an informal, self-service atmosphere.
The galleries are divided into six separate areas: the Canadian collection, the European, American, and Asian galleries, the Inuit galleries, a section for contemporary art (including video), another for prints, drawings, and photographs, and a separate space for temporary exhibitions.
Expansive windows, which offer a stunning panoramic view of Parliament Hill, Nepean Point and beyond, combined with warm furnishings, create an inviting environment for readers and researchers alike at the Gallery’s Library and Archives. With approximately 250,000 documents, including books, exhibition catalogues, bound periodicals, microforms, documentation files, study photographs, institutional archives and private papers, the Library and Archives of the NGC houses the most extensive collection of visual literature in Canada.
The National Gallery of Canada also provides the visitor with glass-covered, landscaped courtyards, which serve as welcome retreats, calming and restful places to pause and reflect. The Garden Court is planted with trees and seasonal flowers whereas the Water Court contains a shallow pool of rippling water which also acts as watery skylight for the lobby below.

Building materials
Granite. The interior and exterior of the building is variegated rose granite, flame-finished to give it texture. It comes from a hillside quarry 20 kilometres north of Tadoussac, Québec. The grey granite used in interiors of the building comes from Peribonka, Québec. The charcoal-grey stone in the Garden Court in the centre of the Canadian and European Art galleries, as well as the stone in the courtyard of the Contemporary Art galleries, comes from Zimbabwe; it is known as Impala.
Wood. The floors of the Contemporary Art Galleries are of Canadian maple, coated with a special acrylic from Sweden. The wide-plank maple flooring of the Rideau Street Convent Chapel, stained dark brown, comes from Michigan. The Canadian Galleries have floors and door frames of red oak from the southern United States. The flooring of the Special Exhibitions and European Galleries is white oak from the United States. The altars (originals) of the Chapel are of cherry; the new wainscotting of this Chapel is of oak; the cherry in the Library comes from North Carolina. The ceiling (original) of the Chapel is of bass-wood, and pine. The superstructure, from which hangs the ceiling of the Chapel, is of Douglas fir.
Concrete. All of the precast concrete work for the National Gallery of Canada was done in Montréal. The formwork for concrete poured on site came from British Columbia.
Steel. Steel in the new building comes from Hamilton. The glass and steel doors are from Minnesota.
Glass. Glass in the skylights, and throughout the building, comes from Ontario. All glass is double glazed and contains a layer of plastic to prevent transmission of sound.
Carpets and Blinds. Made in Canada.

https://www.gallery.ca/en/see/building-and-grounds.php