Description of Historic Place

The National Printing Bureau and Heating Plant is a monumental, symmetrical building composed of an austere and crisply defined, granite-clad central office pavilion with a five-bay entrance portico flanked by projecting office blocks, and modern, recessed, glass-enclosed factory wings. A blend of the Beaux-Arts and International styles, the building has a central, formalized approach and is set in an open landscape along the tree-lined Sacré-Coeur Boulevard in Gatineau, Québec. The designation is confined to the footprint of the building.

Heritage Value

The National Printing Bureau and Heating Plant is a Classified Federal Heritage Building because of its historical associations, and its architectural and environmental values.

Historical Value
The National Printing Bureau and Heating Plant is one of the major architectural developments associated with the national historic theme of the post-World War II expansion of federal government services. Between 1949 and 1953, the federal government initiated an ambitious program of post-war reconstruction, building almost two hundred new federal buildings across the country including the National Printing Bureau, in order to provide adequate social services to an expanding citizenry and to avoid high unemployment rates. Conceived as part of the Gréber Plan to decentralize federal buildings into urban nodes throughout the region, the National Printing Bureau and Heating Plant was also the first major architectural project undertaken by the federal government intended to physically integrate Hull, now Gatineau, into the National Capital District.

Architectural Value
The National Printing Bureau and Heating Plant is a significant architectural achievement, combining Beaux-Arts planning principles and classical elements with the functionality of the International style to accommodate the Bureau’s dual functions of a federal departmental office and industrial factory. A very good example of the work of the Montreal-based architect Ernest Cormier, the National Printing Bureau and Heating Plant was designed to be a state-of-the-art high-speed printing facility. The building’s excellent functional design combined the well-established system of a reinforced concrete structure and regular grid of columns used for contemporary factory construction, with the Beaux-Arts’ symmetrical and hierarchical progression of interior spaces. In so doing, the majority of the actual printing functions were accommodated in the large, flexible open spaces on the third floor, while the Bureau’s formal departmental image was reflected in the double-height entrance foyer and the ground floor’s public functions. Most noteworthy, is the rare and innovative design of the glass curtain wall containing the mechanical and plumbing distribution system, which was intended to regulate the environmental conditions of the printing production areas. Constructed of excellent quality materials and craftsmanship, the building’s dual functions of federal departmental office and industrial factory are also expressed in the design and treatment of the exterior elevations, as well as in the choice of materials used throughout the building’s interior.

Environmental Value
As a monumental building symmetrically located along a central, formalized approach and surrounded by open space on all sides, the National Printing Bureau and Heating Plant is compatible with the mixed residential and institutional character of the neighbourhoods. Visually prominent owing to its monumental scale, distinctive design and prominent location along Sacré-Coeur Boulevard, the building is a familiar landmark, well known within the city and region.

Sources: Shannon Ricketts, National Printing Bureau/Heating Plant, Gatineau, QC. Federal Heritage Buildings Review Office Report 93-117;National Printing Bureau and Heating Plant, Hull, QC. Heritage Character Statement, 93-117.

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of National Printing Bureau and Heating Plant should be respected.

Its blend of the Beaux-Arts and International styles, excellent functional design, and exceptionally high quality materials and craftsmanship, for example:
-the monumental, symmetrical composition of stepped projecting and receding rectilinear volumes;
-the contrast between the austere office pavilion with a central entrance portico flanked by two projecting office blocks, with the transparency of the recessed, glass-enclosed factory wings;
-the office pavilion’s classically-influenced elements and proportions, the projecting five-bay central entrance portico with tall, rectilinear columns, the regular fenestration, and the full-story, granite-faced base;
-the Heating Plant’s design and exterior treatment which stands separate from and to the rear of the Bureau;

-the balanced, symmetrical interior spaces and their hierarchical progression and scale from formal double-storied main entry foyer with grand staircase, to ground floor public spaces, to inner, private spaces;
-the floor to ceiling heights, fenestration patterns;
-the reinforced concrete structure with concrete columns, and the large open spaces on the third floor;
-the glass curtain wall system, that provides environmental control of the interior including heating, ventilation and light to production areas, formed by an outer glass wall and an inner wall of brick-faced concrete between which are heating pipes and an access walkway;

-the materials and exterior treatments that express the dual functions housed in the building including, Stanstead grey granite slabs in a regular grid on the office pavilion, and the light, glass curtain wall of the factory section;
-the integration and detailing of the contrasting exterior treatments, the pattern of solids and voids of the windows.
-the stone cladding and glass curtain walls of the side and rear elevations with opaque ribbed glass and clear plate glass in thin-profile aluminium frames;
-the fluted aluminium flashings and the Canadian coat of arms over the main entry;
-the main entrance foyer’s interior finishes and detailing, including the grid of polished slabs of Portland stone slabs, decorative terrazzo flooring, plaster ceilings, and concealed indirect lighting;
-the industrial-type finishes including the glazed and unglazed yellow brick of the interior wall surfaces, the Pompeian red pillars, terrazzo and terra cotta flooring, exposed concrete columns and ceiling structure.

The building’s compatibility with the mixed residential and institutional setting and landmark status, as evidenced in:
-its Beaux-Arts treatment as a monumental object in the landscape, symmetrically located on a central axis surrounded by open space;
-the building’s open, recessed relationship with the Sacré-Coeur Boulevard which assures a full view of the façade and a formal, central approach across the landscaped grounds;
-its monumental scale, the office pavilion’s Classically-inspired exterior and the modern glass curtain wall factory wings;
-its prominent location along Sacré-Coeur Boulevard.