Namoirie Hall

Namoirie Hall
French: Manoir de Namoirie
Former names	Hall of Eternal Magnanimity Presidential Residence Big Red Cottage (unofficial)
General information
Architectural style	Southern Namorese (Minjianese)
Address	1 place de Namoirie
Town or city	Huimont, Isle-Royale
Country	Ainin
Current tenants	Prime Minister Marianne de Lotbinière and family
Named for	Namor
Estimated completion	1779 (1779)
Renovated	May 2, 1832 (1832-05-02)
Owner	Government of Ainin
Technical details
Floor count	Above-ground: 2 Underground: 3
Lifts/elevators	2
Other information
Number of rooms	Around 110

Namoirie Hall (French: Manoir de Namoirie), or Namor Hall, is a manor that serves as both the official residence and workplace of the Prime Minister of Ainin and as the primary meeting place of the Cabinet of Ainin.

Located in central Huimont, Isle-Royale, in the Legation Quarter, the manor was originally built in 1779 as the residence of the Hào Namorese Viceroy of Ainin. It was seized by the Republican Army in 1801, during the Aininian Revolution, and in May of that year served as the signing site of the Treaty of Huimont that ended the war.

Derelict for many years, it became the residence and office of the President of Ainin after the Old Presidential Palace burned down in an accidental fire in 1832. As additional government offices moved into the surrounding area, the manor's lush and vast gardens were progressively demolished during the 19th century to make place for buildings and avenues. Following the 1901 Constitution's creation of a parliamentary government, the now largely-powerless president no longer required a large office and relocated into a wing of the official state guesthouse, the Château des Soeurs. Namoirie Hall became the home and workplace of the newly-created post of Prime Minister.

Since its time as a vice-regal palace, Namoirie Hall has undergone extensive renovations. These have been both aesthetic, such as the replacement of the vibrant red walls with more conservative false stone brick panelling, and practical, such as the construction of a basement annex, an underground garage, and a nuclear bunker. Since a bombing attempt in 1954, the surrounding Namoirie Square has been fenced-off and public access to the site is only available by appointment.

Naming

Originally known as the Hall of Eternal Magnanimity, it was nicknamed the Big Red Cottage (French: Grand chalet rouge) by locals owing to the bright red paint adorning its walls. Upon being converted into a presidential palace, it assumed the official name of Residence of the President of Ainin but remained known as the Big Red Cottage well after its renovation that covered the red walls. After the conclusion of the Hébert Plan in 1851, which redeveloped most of Huimont along a planned city grid and replaced most Namorese-era buildings with neoclassical designs, the palace became one of the rare survivors owing to the disruption that its demolition would cause. As a result, it was nicknamed Namor Hall, which was originally demeaning by invoking Namophobic sentiments but gained a neutral connotation over the decades. By the time of its reconfiguration in 1901, the name Namoirie Hall was so widespread that it became official.

Description

The first-floor cabinet meeting room

While the building itself dates back to the 18th century, only the roof and some exterior pillars remain testament to the fact. The entirety of the interior, along with most walls, windows and doors, have been replaced over the course of many renovations since construction. The building is largely decorated in the traditional style of Aininian châteaus, as opposed to the original Southern Namorese design.

First floor

The ground floor is home to the reception and the offices of the Prime Minister and his or her immediate staff. As such, it features a large lobby complete with a grand chandelier and revolving staircase. The left wing of the manor is home to the offices of the Prime Minister, several advisors and top aides, some multipurpose meeting rooms, as well as a large conference hall used for meetings of the Cabinet of Ainin and, more rarely, the Council of State. The right wing is mostly occupied by a ballroom, a chapel and maintenance closets, as well as the main press briefing room.

Second floor

The second floor of Namoirie Hall is largely composed of the private quarters of the Prime Minister and his or her family. The quarters feature eight bedrooms and bathrooms, a living room, a private kitchen, a dining hall, two studies and a library. Also on the second floor but separate but from the quarters feature a conference room and a multipurpose hall commonly used for receptions and smaller press conferences.

Underground facilities

In addition to the better-known above-ground facilities, Namoirie Hall also includes sizable underground components. The first basement underneath the left wing is home to several support facilities, including the maids' and valets' quarters, main kitchen, and the office of the manor staff's executive director. It also houses laundry facilities and equipment rooms. Underneath the right wing is the building's garage, where the vehicles making up the Prime Minister's motorcade are stored. The wing also features the command centre and armoury of the manor's security detachment.

The pond at the centre of the Faswa Garden

The second basement floor is much smaller than the three floors above it, and is composed of two facilities separately dug under each wing and inaccessible from each other. Underneath the left wing are the dormitories where gendarmes assigned to the manor guard reside. The facilities include a common room, shooting range, movie theatre and lavatories. The right wing's second basement is populated by boilers, backup electrical generators, and a reinforced concrete air-raid shelter for low-level staff without clearance to enter the main bunker.

Over 60 m underneath the manor is located the third basement, a heavily-reinforced nuclear bunker from which the Prime Minister commands the Aininian Armed Forces and ensures continuity of government in the event of a major crisis or natural disaster. Not much is known of the bunker, other than that it is CBRN-secure and capable of surviving an indirect nuclear strike. The facility is also rumoured to possess a tunnel linking it to the Huimont Métro, permitting the cabinet to be whisked away from the city on short notice.

Exterior

The traditional garden situated in the building's front was demolished in the 1830s and 1840s in favour of a more utilitarian lawn and parade square, which are now collectively known as Namoirie Place. For most of the 19th century, the president inspected and delivered orders to newly-commissioned officers of the Aininian Army and Republican Guard from the second floor balcony overlooking the square. The practice stopped in 1889 as the army's ranks swelled during the Notasian Desert War. The front yard is fenced off to prevent public access and features a large gate manned by gendarmes. The side yards are simple and consist of lawns with trees located as regular intervals, all bisected by footpaths that link the front and back yards.

The back yard is officially known as the Faswa Garden and is the last remaining part of the extensive Namorese gardens that once surrounded the manor. It features an artificial pond, several rock gardens, decorative pavillions, and many exotic and native plants. In the northeast corner, a small outdoor shrine is dedicated as a Lutheran Catholic and Muslim chapel. Unlike the rest of the exterior, it is not fenced off but rather walled off for the privacy of the manor's residents.

Security

Security for Namoirie Hall is the responsibility of the National Gendarmerie, which maintains a permanent guard detachment on the manor grounds. The guards reside in and are commanded from a basement annex, while armed sentries are posted on the above-ground floors and at all gates in the exterior perimeter. Patrols also regularly patrol the secure front courtyard (Namoirie Square) and the back garden (Lapointe Park).

Due to the importance of the Prime Minister, the residence is very heavily defended and access is strictly limited. Following the 1954 bombing, public access to the front and back yards has been restricted by the construction of a 2.5 m tall cast-iron fence, while windows have been made bullet- and shatter-resistant. Public admission into the grounds and interior of Namoirie Hall is now only available through guided tours, which must be booked six months in advance through a lottery system. Visitors are screened by gendarmes at the start of the tour and all bags and containers are prohibited.

Other security measures include the construction of a secure nuclear bunker underneath the hall and the presence of a truck-mounted active protection system in the garage. It has been deployed in the front courtyard on special days and during times of elevated threat against the building or the capital in general.

Future replacement

Namoirie Hall has been described by occupants as antiquated and lacking in space, while security reviews have often singled out the building for its multiple security vulnerabilities. In addition to issues with the structure itself, it is also located within 10 km of Huimont Gérard Hébert International Airport. As a result of heightened security requirements, the airport's runway 5/23, whose approach path takes aircraft above the Legation Quarter, has been closed to non-emergency traffic since 1987, and access to the remaining runways is done through narrow and strictly-enforced air corridors.

However, as a result of this proximity, the Prime Minister has to be evacuated to the basement bunker whenever an aircraft stays away from the air corridor, which records showed as occurring at least 39 times in 2014 alone. Prime ministers have repeatedly asked for the relocation of the residence to other areas of Isle-Royale, including Monttourres and Florissant, but such schemes have failed in light of public opposition to public funding and parliamentary disapproval. In 1998, Paul Quint even attempted to close Huimont Airport to avoid the inconvenience of airspace violations, but was thwarted in his attempt by Huimont mayor David Cheng's opposition.

Replacement of Namoirie Hall as an official residence remains a national infrastructure priority, according to the Transportation Ministry, but a replacement site is yet to be approved.

See also

• 26 National Assembly Boulevard, alternate meeting place of the Cabinet of Ainin
• Château des Soeurs, residence of the President of Ainin
• Legation Quarter, Huimont
• Palace of the National Assembly, meeting place of the National Assembly of Ainin