Plenary Properties Gatineau, a consortium consisting of Equans Services Inc., Plenary Group (Canada) Ltd., PCL Investments Inc., PCL Constructors Eastern Inc. and B+H Architectshas recently closed a 33-year public-private partnership contract with Library and Archives Canada (LAC) to design, build, finance, maintain and operate a new preservation facility to be constructed adjacent to the existing Preservation Centre in Gatineau, Quebec.
The new preservation facility will be the first “net zero carbon” building dedicated to the preservation of archives in America. It is also the first Government of Canada building built to the requirements of Canada’s Greening Government Strategy, and the world’s largest preservation facility equipped with the advanced technology of an automated storage and retrieval system for archival materials.
With its unique expertise, innovative approach and capacity to provide Canadian taxpayers a specialized, flexible and durable physical infrastructure with a strong quality to price ratio, the Plenary Properties Gatineau consortium offered the best proposal to receive the award of the contract. Equans’s international experience in managing critical environmental conditions in preservation centres and venues such as The Louvre Museum in Paris and Australia’s Sydney Opera House provided invaluable insight to the design team.
Equans will provide comprehensivefacility management, including energy performance and lifecycle rehabilitation works for two of LAC’s facilities located on the Gatineau Preservation Campus throughout the 33-year term of the contract. Equans will also take on the operations and maintenance of the existing facility. Equans Services worked with Axima and Equans UK & Ireland on this project.
Operations of the existing Preservation Centre are planned to begin in April 2020, and Equans is already mobilizing resources. Commissioning of the new building planned for 2022. Once the construction period is completed, Equans Services will operate and maintain the new system through to 2052.