The National Capital Commission is planning to improve Ottawa’s night time lighting environment, especially in the downtown area around Parliament Hill.
The “Capital Illumination Plan” seeks to light up city buildings and landmarks to enhance the city’s nighttime culture for residents and tourists. The plan will also promote new light-based technology to reduce energy consumption.
Miriam MacNeil, principal urban planner for the project, says the plan is just getting started.
“Right now, we’re just gathering information as much as we can on the nighttime environment,” she says.
NCC senior architect Christopher Hoyt, a co-manager of the illumination project, says the main area of focus for the lighting plan is the Parliamentary precinct.
“If you’re standing on the terrace of the (Canadian) History Museum in Gatineau, looking back at the Parliamentary precinct, you’ll see the National Gallery, you’ll see the Supreme Court,” he says. “The goal would be to turn that — through lighting — into a cohesive panorama.”
MacNeil explains that there are already many lit buildings in the capital at night but the plan seeks to improve on existing illumination.
“There is an existing nightscape in the capital… but the motivations for lighting places or buildings are often security,” she says. “It’s not cohesive across the core of the capital.”
Some buildings in the downtown core are currently flooded with light and detract from important buildings such as Parliament, according to MacNeil.
“An institution such as the Royal Canadian Mint is very well lit at night — likely achieving their nighttime security objectives, but also by extension flooding the building façade and obscuring the building’s architectural features at night,” MacNeil explains.
She says the goal of the plan is to co-ordinate light and create a nightscape that “makes sense.”
However, no landmarks are guaranteed to be involved with the project, she says.
MacNeil says the current stage of the plan involves getting significant landmarks engaged with the illumination project.
She notes major buildings, such as the Westin Hotel and the National Gallery, are looking to make improvements to their exteriors.
“The idea is we’re hoping (these landmarks) will invest over time,” she says.
Hoyt says the NCC has asked the Westin Hotel and Chateau Laurier specifically to support the illumination project.
MacNeil says she hopes the plan will act as a set of guidelines for downtown property owners who may wish to change the exterior lighting of their buildings to support the NCC’s nighttime lighting co-ordination.
“The plan is meant to be kind of a framework and guide for future exterior lighting projects,” she says. “This initiative is really not about a specific lighting project, although we’re hoping there will be some projects that support this idea.”
Hoyt says the plan has potential to reduce energy consumption because it would make use of the latest LED lighting technology, which uses only a fraction of the power of previous lighting systems.
Rachel Dodds, a Ryerson University professor who specializes in tourism, says there is a potential for the NCC’s plan to draw in more tourists to the capital once landmarks are lit.
“Depending on how (the NCC) market and promote the illuminations, it could become a tourist draw for people coming to watch the lights,” Dodds says.
MacNeil says the illumination plan should be finished in 2016, before Canada’s 150th anniversary celebrations in 2017.
The NCC also wants to dedicate February 2017 as a “month of light” to celebrate Winterlude.
The NCC will hold a public information session in November for feedback.