Excerpt from kmai.com: The complex program and site had many restrictions, which the design team was able to resolve, providing a solution that satisfied the jury and public alike. Ultimately, the Visitor Centre has been designed and built to create a unique identity for the Fort and to further establish it as a significant cultural landmark in the city and beyond.
The project’s strategic situation along the edge of the site is noted by Jonathan Kearns: “In effect, the building became like the edge of a mini escarpment, which exists in several paintings from the early 1800's. People have expressed that we reinvented, in a contemporary manner, the original look of the edge of Lake Ontario."
The resulting ‘fortified’ edge of the site is defined by a series of monolithic weathering steel panel walls, which resonate with the design of the Fort just beyond, and which define the horizontal datum of the battlefield immediately to the north. Beyond the weathering steel wall, the building rises up toward the Fort, ultimately providing a prospect onto the entire historic site through a belvedere located on the uppermost rooftop. Going beyond the traditional belvedere's retinal emphasis, the Visitor Centre explores the idea of a 'beautiful view' as 'deep understanding.' The Visitor Center thus offers an intimate experience of the topographical history.
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