The Shaw Centre, completed in 2011, was designed to replace the 30 year old Ottawa Congress Centre which was on the same site. The building is comprised of 4 levels of meeting rooms and convention halls of various sizes framed in structural steel. The new facility includes the retention and alteration of the existing concrete structure below grade. A portion of the new facility is located over an existing parking garage which remained in operation during the construction period. Clear span trusses forming the floor system for the main conference hall are supported on the East side on 4 large columns that penetrate the garage structure, thus minimizing the impact on the operation of the garage. The design features included sloped steel tube columns on the West side of the building as part of the iconic curved glass exterior wall system developed for this project. Seven roof trusses from the previous Congress Centre were re-used as part of the framing of the roof over the main conference hall.