Martin Van Dijk, senior consultant and partner with consultants Engineering Harmonics and the primary audio-visual designer for the entire project, is an enthusiastic advocate of this technology. “The types of video walls typically used in large concert tours present too much visibility-reducing structure for this application,” he says. “We came up with the see-through idea first, and then developed that into a design, and found a company to fabricate it to our specifications. We didn’t want to have a typical video wall.”

The transparent media façade is linked to four two-storey-high video displays spaced farther along the sidewalk on the Elgin Street side of the building, such that images can be moved across the front of the building to and from the Lantern. Because they are viewable at closer range, each of these 150 sq.-ft. displays features a tighter 6-mm LED pitch.

“The other really cool thing is that you can see through the Lantern into the building, especially at night,” Van Dijk says. “One of the driving questions behind the design was, How do we make the Centre more open to the public? It has always been closed off; this used to be the rear entrance to the building. So while we were striving to be open and inviting, we didn’t want to create a barrier with a giant video wall; hence the transparent façade. You can see into the building and simultaneously have a video image. It’s really spectacular sometimes, such as when they take the production lighting and animate the interior. You can do tricks, too: one night they had a rotating cube on the display. From outside, it looked like the cube was just floating in space, because you didn’t see the video wall on account of the interior lighting,” he says.

“Peter Herrndorf, the Centre’s former president and CEO, believed that as the largest performing arts center in the country and the only federally owned one, the National Arts Centre should be more inclusive of the entire country, and he envisioned this as a beacon for the performing arts in Canada. Because Canada does not have a huge population, this what our country needs; and not just a beacon to provide information, but perhaps more importantly, a new form of canvas for the arts community. The Lantern has the potential to become a digital canvas that allows the NAC to collaborate with other arts organizations to create digital media artworks for curation and presentation here. With that in mind, the back end became a big concern, particularly selecting the type of server farm and database, because once you start doing that, the amount of data that must be managed is enormous,” Van Dijk says.

“The new National Arts Centre honors the change in the way people experience the arts now. You can look into the new public spaces and see the creative activity from the street. It is inviting you in. People who are walking by will feel welcome to go in and enjoy,” he adds.

Given its shape and extensive glazing, Van Dijk initially questioned how well the Lantern Room might function in its secondary role as a meeting room with a capacity of 72-120, sitting or standing. “It’s a coffee can. I thought it was going to be an absolute nightmare from an acoustics point of view, but Threshold Acoustics has done a great job—you can hear the results. This room has got some life, but it’s not the terrible echo chamber that it should be given its geometry,” he says, noting that absorptive acoustic panels and angular diffusors line two of the lower walls. “Visually, that gives a texture to the room—plus it sounds great.”

The authors of the NAC’s five-year strategic plan for 2015-2020 suggested that the renovation “has the potential to transform everything we do. Like the refreshed Lincoln Center in New York, or the revamped Southbank Centre in London, U.K., the re-imagined NAC will fundamentally change our relationship with the public, inviting people from all walks of life to enjoy its attractive and transparent public spaces, and allowing us to engage with our patrons in a more meaningful and contemporary way.”

That is what the architects, consultants, engineers and contractors set as their goal. As Jennifer Mallard says, “We wanted to provide increased connection with the National Arts Centre across the country, improve public accessibility and improve the ‘street to seat’ experience for patrons.” In the process, they have wrought perhaps the most luminous and welcoming facility for artists and audiences in the country.

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