$10M renovation for Victoria's Government House

By Mark Halsall

British Columbia’s capital city has a rich heritage that’s exemplified in the picturesque gardens and historically significant structures found throughout Victoria. One of them is Government House, home to the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia since 1865.

The building that stands at 1401 Rockland Avenue in Victoria today, though, is not the original Government House. That one burned down in 1899 and its replacement was also destroyed by fire nearly 60 years later.

The current Government House has the original stone ‘porte cochere’ on the front of the building, and the rest of structure is very similar architecturally to previous Government Houses as it was built to resemble its predecessors.

Not much has been done to the 60,000-square-foot building since it opened in 1959, which is why it is undergoing $10-million worth of needed renovations. The project is focused primarily on infrastructure upgrades, so the aesthetics of the building, which was designated a National Historic Site in 2002, will remain unchanged.

While the grounds and some outlying buildings remain open to the public on the site, Government House itself is closed during construction. Victoriabased Kingsview Construction Ltd. is the general contractor for the project, which started in August 2020 and is expected to wrap up in August 2021.

Kingsview Construction Ltd. is owned by Cameron Barnes and Todd Pickard, who are construction manager and site superintendent respectively for the project. Barnes says the first task was packing up items for storage and making arrangements for moving Lt. Gov. Janet Austen and her staff out of Government House and into another location, which turned out to be quite a big job.

“We had to get all kinds of specialty items relocated. There were antiques and potentially millions of dollars’ worth of artwork, and we had to build specialty crates for each piece,” says Barnes. “That took quite a bit of time, but once the client was moved, all of the work has gone very well.”

Much of the scope of the renovation work revolves around mechanical and electrical upgrades. MGM Mechanical Limited is the sub-contractor for the mechanical work, which includes installing a new fire suppression system and replacing a gas boiler and other improvements to the HVAC system.

The electrical work, which includes overhauling the main electrical system, installing a new emergency generator, and upgrading all of the lighting, is being performed by Thomis Electric Ltd. The project also includes an upgrade to the security system that’s being done by Paladin Technologies.

Barnes believes there’s no question Government House was due for a facelift. “The building is very dated. It really hasn’t had any sort of infrastructure within the walls put in or significant upgrades made since the rebuild after it burned down,” he says. “It’s exciting to be part of a high-profile project like this and the challenges that come along with it.”

He also notes that preserving the integrity of the interior design is an essential consideration for everyone working on the project — not an easy task considering there are plaster walls and all kinds of finely detailed architectural work found throughout the building.

Barnes says in rooms such as the Royal Suite, where the Queen stays when visiting Victoria, the finishings are particularly opulent. “Ripping them all apart and then having to restore them to their pre-existing condition is definitely a unique aspect of this project,” he says.

Lee Kupiak of Thomis Electric Ltd. agrees that maintaining the integrity of design and retrofitting a historical building like Government House is a complex undertaking.

“As we go along, there have been challenges with some existing site conditions,” say Kupiak. “I think our past experience doing complex renovations has enabled us to problem solve more efficiently than another contractor who’s not quite as familiar with that style of work.”

Kupiak says it also helps that Kingsview Construction Ltd. has assembled a great team of sub-trades to work on the project. “Everyone is on the same page, so it’s going smoothly,” he says.