The design philosophy is based on the twin requirements of an appropriate response to the physical and social context, and the need to create a focal, symbolic presence for civic government and activity in Mississauga.
The building presents at its south, civic face a formal termination to the view from Burnhamthorpe Road. Its organization is axial with the rostrum and entrance terminating the north/south axis, its council chamber terminating the east/west axis.
The building deals architecturally with several scales, the civic monumental scale and the human pedestrian scale. Tall columns across the front façade address the scale of the plaza, while half-size columns at a more frequent rhythm create the pedestrian scale of the colonnade. The scale of the interior lobby is modulated by the six-story screen and by the delicate dropped glass roof which hangs below the structural pitched roof, whose scale is appropriate to the building as viewed from the outside.
The internal spaces are not merely residual spaces created by the office envelope, but are made as large rooms with their own enclosure, definition and character. The objective is to create a series of appropriately connected spaces of grace and proportion.
The building type of the competition was derived from the large institutions with interior atria such as the Lichtof in Zurich. Such a large room was seen as a contrast to the more expedient low ceilings and small dimensions of the lobbies and malls in the existing city centre. All offices, halls and meeting rooms in the City Hall defer to the large « civic room » giving a total sense of address to all the municipal departments. The building's interior is conceived as a repository and guide for the life of the « citizen »: paying bills and taxes, attending meetings on civic issues, sending school children to council meetings to learn about the political process at work, to this end the circulation is made generous, with large open stairways at each end of the civic room riving life, action and motion within the building.
(From official publication)
This submission was admired for its sobriety, simplicity and straightforwardness as a total ensemble.
(From jury report)
3 scanned / 3 viewable
- Site Plan
- Perspective
- Perspective
