PHOTOS: Prince Albert court house recognized for restoration

“[It was] very important to us to maintain the historic value of the building and they re-did the plaster ceilings and brought it back to its original design,” he said. Moore Architects designed the restoration and RNF Ventures completed it. It cost just under $900,000.

Laberge said the project restored the original early 1900s look of the courtroom. At some point over the years, temporary drop ceilings were installed so mechanical equipment and wiring could be put in place above it.

At the time the province commissioned the work, the court house was in need of repair, Laberge said. The air and mechanical systems needed to be replaced.

Changing the ceiling did pose its challenges.

“When we reduce the ceiling height, we have that much less air to have to condition, versus when you raise it, you have that much more, so there’s always more air volume required to control the climate,” Laberge said.

During the restoration period, the court house was still open. The contractors did much of the work when the upper level court room wasn’t active with cases.

Architect Wes Moore, principal in Moore Architecture Consulting Group, said work had to be done in the “off seasons,” which made it challenging for the contractors to accommodate.

For the architects themselves, Moore said the challenge was to incorporate new into old – include the mechanical systems hidden away by the drop ceiling into the design.

“Integrating the new systems into the old character was one of the key factors to consider. We were quite fortunate that some of the highly decorated plaster elements, like the brackets on the walls were left intact. And so those didn’t have to be re-created, we didn’t have to find details and have those recreated plaster beams. Drop beams were in places quite heavily damaged by the installation of the previous suspended ceiling system.”

The architects had to research the original design in order to faithfully recreate it. The ceiling now features plaster mouldings, drop lights, and deep recesses.

The court house was built in 1927, became a municipal heritage property in 1983 and for Moore, the consideration was to get the court room back to the way it looked originally as faithfully as possible. He said he believes they’ve achieved that.

To the chair of the city’s museum and heritage advisory, Coun. Rick Orr, projects such as these are exciting because a century ago, officials decided to invest a lot of money in erecting the buildings.

“And they built these beautiful buildings that have lasted … decades and decades, and now, they need some TLC. And it’s so nice to see that the structures are so solid that it’s worth redoing,” Orr said. On the other hand, buildings that were built in the 1960s and 1970s are being replaced in the city rather than being restored because they weren’t built to the same standards as the older structures, he said.

Restoring the Court of Queen’s Bench is particularly important to Orr because it sits atop the viaduct and overlooks the whole downtown.

“The forefathers that thought about putting the court house here just picked the best location from a point of history, from a point of being able to look up and see where this is where justice and the Crown focus was in our community. I think that this building is the cornerstone of the original development in the city,” he said.

The committee chose the court house’s bid out of all of the submissions sent in for the 2013 award. The submission for the court house was made by Moore Architects. Orr said the Moores thought that the building was a prime example of the City’s heritage nomination process.

The 2012 award, the 10th annual award, went to Lorne and Phyllis Green, who restored a century old home on 14th Street West.

This year’s municipal heritage awards nominations close on Sept. 30.

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames

by Thia James

PHOTOS: Prince Albert court house recognized for restoration

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