Clara Kwon lead a landscape architectural team from detailed design, value engineering to contract administration on Canada’s most expensive government headquarters, with a total budget of $1.2 billion. This federal department is equivalent to the US National Security Agency. This 80-acre, LEED Gold, high-security Ottawa campus was a public-private partnership contract (design-build-finance-maintain) on a very tight schedule, requiring close coordination and collaboration with engineers, architects, security experts and contractors. The architecture and landscape were designed to be a enticing lure for top talent in cryptology and modeled after notable tech campuses. The design is nestled into a forest with cross-country ski and hiking trails, frisbee field, basketball and beach volleyball courts. Large naturalized ponds were designed with the civil engineer to function as part of the sustainable stormwater design strategy. With the security consultants, Clara worked through multiple design options to subtly embed security considerations into the landscape. Due to the fixed contract price, she worked through numerous design and costing studies to meet the budget while keeping sight of the larger design vision.

*This work was completed while project manager at DTAH, Toronto, Canada

Photo: Aerial view of construction progress (Government of Canada)