New Preservation Storage Facility wins two national awards

On November 21, Library and Archives Canada’s (LAC) new Preservation Storage Facility won the 2022 Gold Award for Innovation and Excellence in Public-Private Partnerships (Infrastructure category), at the annual conference of the Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships.

On November 30, the facility won a second award, the Real Property Institute of Canada Design Excellence in Building and/or Infrastructure Projects award. This award recognizes innovative design and technology.

The new facility, which officially opened on November 24, is the fruit of the Gatineau 2 Project, built via a public-private partnership with Plenary Properties Gatineau. Located next to the renowned Preservation Centre, it allows LAC to increase its capacity to preserve the country's documentary heritage.

It is the facility’s technological and innovative features, as well as the quality of the project and its delivery by the partners, that allowed the new building to stand out. This is the first building dedicated to archival preservation in the Americas built to a net-zero carbon standard, and the first special-purpose federal facility to meet the requirements of the Greening Government Strategy. It is also the largest preservation facility of this type in the world equipped with an automated storage and retrieval system.

The Preservation Storage Facility, which also just achieved LEED® Gold Certification^{Footnote *}, sets a new standard of excellence for archives and reinforces LAC’s reputation as a leader in the global documentary heritage community.

Learn more

Visit the Preservation Storage Facility web page for more information on this magnificent building.

Nathalie Ethier, Director of the Gatineau 2 Project, and Albert Iwasaki of Plenary Properties Gatineau receiving the Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships Award	Benoit Frenette, Josée Villeneuve, Scott Hamilton, Nathalie Ethier, Lane Brennan, Paul Marion, Geoff Howe, Amy Kasnickas and Lisa Hennessey during the Real Property Institute of Canada award ceremony