The design for a $2-million Canadian naval memorial has been selected, and construction is set to begin at Richmond Landing near the Canadian War Museum in May 2010.
On Oct. 1, the five design finalists came to Ottawa to present their creations.
The five-member jury was unanimous.
The winning team from B.C. was one of 49 entrants who took part in the competition and includes artist Al McWilliams and architects Joost Bakker and Bruce Haden.
Haden says that they found out they’d won the competition during Halloween celebrations with their families.
“It was a lovely treat,” he says.
All three team members had gone to Ottawa beforehand to visit Richmond Landing and get a feel for the location.
“We wanted to use the site really well… we call it landshaping, not landscaping.”
Haden says that the team really liked the open green space near Lebreton Flats where people would go to sunbathe and fish.
The team also visited the navy base in Esquimalt, B.C., for inspiration.
The design itself incorporates the traditional navy colours of black, white and gold and features a 24.5 carat, gold-plated sphere. The monument will be surrounded by oak trees, as “Heart of Oak” is the official march of the Canadian navy and oak was a important for ship building when wood was still a primary material.
Because of the reflective characteristics of the marble and granite to be used, Haden says that in some lights the monument should be visible from Parliament Hill.
“You enter a kind of special place,” says Haden. “We wanted to create a sense of the navy in service to the Canadian people, represented by Parliament.”
Lorraine Pierce-Hull, the co-ordinator of commemorations and public art for the NCC, says that this design in particular had subtleties and navy symbolism that set it apart from the rest.
“When it comes to fruition it’s really exciting…. It’s interesting to see how the different teams could have such different concepts.”
Capt. John Pickford, the Canadian naval centennial project manager and jury member for the monument competition, says that he wasn’t sure what sort of memorial they were going to get when the navy approached the NCC three years ago to manage the competition.
They wanted some sort of legacy to the Canadian Navy to celebrate its one hundred years of existence since the Naval Service Act became law on May 4, 1910.
“It’s not just a historical look back. We’re looking forward too.”
Although the memorial is not scheduled to be unveiled until the following spring, Pickford says officials will do something on May 4 to acknowledge the memorial’s birth.
One possibility is that after the festivities at Parliament Hill, a symbolic turning of the sod will take place at Richmond Landing.
The jury also included Laura Brandon, the chief historian and curator at the Canadian War Museum, artist Joe Fafard from Saskatchewan, and landscape architects Malaka Ackaoui and Don Vaughan.
In making its decision, the jury gathered and considered comments from the public, the technical committee and the NCC’s advisory committee on planning, design and realty.
The next step, Pierce-Hull says, is to go over the design with the team and the navy and technically refine all the details.