Category: condos

condos, design, intensificatioin6 Comments

What are the alternatives to “too tall” ?

Westsideaction

Goldilocks knew she had 3 choices …  At the mayor’s summit meeting held this spring, Watson and Hume were blunt in telling attendees we were in for tall buildings. Lots of tall buildings.  Lots of very tall buildings. It was their tough love moment. But they glossed over explaining why.     Then the Citizen published *  an opinion piece by Sarah Jennings, developer, who argued that we could intensify to the standards of glorious Paris with a eight story height limit on main streets. I thought her argument was as glib as the Mayor’s pretending to tell us it … Continue reading What are the alternatives to “too tall” ?

Claridge, condos, LeBreton Flats, Uncategorized8 Comments

When capitalists conspire …

Westsideaction

Last April, the Dalhousie Community Association, of which I was President at the time, held its AGM. Hard pressed to come up with speaker to trump the previous year’s John Doran of Domicile speaking on the economics of condo developments, I searched around for an interesting and educational speaker. Enter Ottawa Senators founder, engineer, professor of architecture, etc etc  Dr Bruce Firestone . He agreed to give a talk on urban redevelopment in older neighborhoods, good or bad. He sure doesn’t pull punches.  In fact, he referred to a certain yellow brick condo development as being akin to a brown substance … Continue reading When capitalists conspire …

condos, downtown

Here comes the sun

Westsideaction

There is a newish condo building downtown. Very high end. The ground floor isn’t, that is to say, the building really starts one floor up and the floor at the same level as the street is windowless and contains lockers, parking, or something to be hidden behind large concrete planters that are higher than a human is tall. A bit like the Maginot Line. The high planters have rows of dense shrubs planted along their bases. Rows of identical shrubs, not for the enjoyment of passing pedestrians but designed to be seen at a glance from speeding cars when only a large mass planting … Continue reading Here comes the sun

Bayview, Bayview Otrain, Claridge, condos, design, DOTT, LeBreton Flats, LRT, NCC, O-Train6 Comments

The “Other” Iconic Station viewpoint that we lost

Westsideaction

The Confederation Square station entrance (or lack of one) is getting a lot of press.  Earlier, the proposed Rideau Station was straddling the underside of the Canal, with the east entrance coming up at the Rideau Centre and the west entrance coming up at Confederation Square. This was called the Rideau Street station as that was its primary market, and the main reason it was pushed eastward under the canal was the sharp southward curve the track took immediately upon leaving the Rideau Station heading towards Campus:   The prior plans showed the western end of the Rideau station platform connected to a long, fairly … Continue reading The “Other” Iconic Station viewpoint that we lost

Bayview, Claridge, condos, Dalhousie, intensificatioin, LeBreton Flats, NCC, Uncategorized7 Comments

Firestone Prescribes (iii)

Westsideaction

I concur with Dr Firestone that Ottawa took its eye off the ball regarding the transitway. It always has money for road widenings and intersection “improvements” and new roads, and new bridges, but not enough for transitway extensions. Ask a city politician, and you get a dirge back about it’s the provinces or fed’s fault because they aren’t funding the transitway. Funny, the feds don’t fund a lot of stuff, but that doesn’t prevent the city from spending its own money. The City, IMO, has spending problems more than it has funding problems. I must say at this point that Prof Bruce is on … Continue reading Firestone Prescribes (iii)

Claridge, condos, design, hintonburg, intensificatioin, west wellington10 Comments

Look up, way way up Jerome

Westsideaction

I am always dating myself by referring to things by their old name, or to things that no longer exist and so no one (except other older people) knows what I am referring to. Are you old enough to remember the Friendly Giant on CBC TV? I could hear the phrase “Look up, look way way up” when I saw this condo building on West Wellington near Island Park. I do wonder just how well that concrete overhang will shelter the entrance a number of floor below. Or if it will simply feel like it is about to come crashing … Continue reading Look up, way way up Jerome

Bayview, Cdn War Museum, condos, design, downtown, intensificatioin, LeBreton Flats, parks, Uncategorized2 Comments

On a Clear Day, (Dead) Councillors can see forever …

Westsideaction

Back a few months ago when there was snow on the ground, I typically played around with it a bit when sent out to conduct my onerous shovelling obligations. For the first pass, I would make my six-foot-short sidewalk have perfectly vertical snowbanks on each side. Nice straight sides, looking like the whole bank was sculpted at once. A mini Corinthian Canal: Later, when the crisp edges started to blur, I would convert the sliced-through snowbanks into a gentle glaciated valley, with the sidewalk at the bottom and then the parabolic sides. This is a useful metaphor for Ottawa’s sight lines and view cones. There are a number … Continue reading On a Clear Day, (Dead) Councillors can see forever …

Bayview-Carling CDP, CDP, Claridge, condos, Dalhousie, design, hintonburg, intensificatioin24 Comments

What to do with a highrise (proposed)

Westsideaction

Right on the boundary of Hintonburg and Dalhousie, which is to say in the heart of the west side turf this blog purports to cover, at the intersection of Breezehill and Somerset, Claridge is proposing a 28 storey highrise. The adjacent mainstreet is lively; the views of the downtown superb. No doubt the 28 floor request is an opening gambit. If he actually gets it, bonus for him. But I suspect he will be quite happy to get 18. Why 18? Because that’s the height of the 30+ year old apartment a block west at Bayswater. Funnily enough, opponents of … Continue reading What to do with a highrise (proposed)

Bayview-Carling CDP, Claridge, condos, Dalhousie, DCA, design, hintonburg, infill, intensificatioin

From low rise to high rise …

Westsideaction

The Dalhousie and Hintonburg Community Associations will be holding a joint open house on Tuesday at 7pm at Tom Brown Arena where interested people can see just what the City is planning for the industrial and vacant lands along the OTrain corridor. Most of the emphasis will be on the area north of Somerset Street, to Bayview Station, which is shown in the illustration below. Those are 30+ storey office towers on the top centre, opposite Bayview Station; the blueish buildings are already approved by the City and NCC as part of the LeBreton project (so don’t fret, we’ll all be dead before … Continue reading From low rise to high rise …

Claridge, condos, hintonburg, housing policy, infill, intensificatioin, O-Train, somerset street10 Comments

Claridge application for 1050 Somerset West

Westsideaction

Claridge is proposing a new condo tower for their site at Breezehill and Somerset Streets, just west of the O-Train corridor. The site is between Devonshire school and Somerset, in the old Chinese market store (which was Acklands AutoSupply before that). (Pending zoning approvals etc the store is being renovated and rented out to a dollar store). Immediately to the west of the site is a four storey red brick office building, opposite that is the 18 storey residential tower that looks like it might date from the sixties or early seventies. Here in a nutshell is the neighborhood context: The left picture, a … Continue reading Claridge application for 1050 Somerset West

Bayview-Carling CDP, bike path, City Centre, condos, cycling in Ottawa, design, infill, intensificatioin, O-Train, somerset street15 Comments

Lonely house on the parking lot

Westsideaction

The area along the O-Train corridor has undergone lots of changes from its original industrial beginnings. Occasionally, an old building survives. Notice that it has a real slate roof, there are few houses or buildings left in our neighborhood with slate roofs. In this case, it probably was to provide additional fire proofing from the sparks that flew out of the many steam engines in the area. David Jeanes tells me this may have been the home of Ottawa Stair Works. Probably built right after the Great Fire in 1902, the building then faced Somerset Street which was not yet elevated up on the … Continue reading Lonely house on the parking lot

125 Hickory, 855 Carling, Bayview-Carling CDP, Carling Ave, condos, Dows Lake, housing policy, intensificatioin, O-Train, traffic volume, Uncategorized, Young street23 Comments

The Dog Shelter Condos – Is Ashcroft Serious?

Westsideaction

The Champagne Avenue area — immediately west of the O-Train near Carling Avenue — has been a hotbed for developers recently. Domicile built two red brick mid-rise condo towers and some townhouses at the southwest corner near Carling Avenue.  He has another one – Hom – starting at the corner of Hickory and Champagne. Starwood Mastercraft has the vacant lot at the NE corner of Hickory and Champagne, where they are building two towers, about 16 floors high, the Soho Champagne. Here is an aerial view of the neighborhood, taken from somewhere above the soon-to-be-demolished Sir John Carling Building (which should instead … Continue reading The Dog Shelter Condos – Is Ashcroft Serious?

175 Richmond, beaver barracks, Claridge, condos, intensificatioin, LeBreton Flats3 Comments

Real entrances or planner’s fakes?

Westsideaction

It is popular today that the base level of apartment buildings be visually separate from the tower above, through the use of a real three-dimensional podium, or too often in Ottawa: a drawn-on one. A further refinement is to have separate uses for the ground floor. On traditional main streets, this is usually commercial storefronts. The original Centretown plan required these on side streets too, which gives the area on both sides of Elgin such a unique atmosphere, as there are little storefronts, often with marginal businesses that cannot afford the increasingly-franchise-cluttered main street rents. Alas, what the Centretown plan cleverly called for, the … Continue reading Real entrances or planner’s fakes?

175 Richmond, Claridge, condos, design, intensificatioin, parking, Richmond road, sidewalks, streetscaping, Uncategorized, west wellington, Westboro34 Comments

Proposed condo, 175 Richmond Road

Westsideaction

Claridge is proposing a six and nine story condo buildings at the corner of Richmond and Kirkwood, opposite the Real Canadian Superstore: The lot is currently occupied by a three storey industrial building, with strip-mall type retail on the Richmond side; with undefined street/parking lot on the east side where Kirkwood sort-of runs northwards from Richmond; and with loading docks and a very industrial frontage on the north side, Wilbur Street.  The current industrial building is zero lot line on the west, where it abuts the rear lot lines of homes. This is quite similar to my own home, and I greatly … Continue reading Proposed condo, 175 Richmond Road

condos, design, housing policy, intensificatioin, Uncategorized, Westboro17 Comments

Westboro tizzy (iv) – of benefits, incentives, and selling out

Westsideaction

I was at Development Committee some time back when they voted on the Our Lady of the Condos development on Richmond Road. Then-councillor Leadman could count heads as well as anyone, and no doubt knew the vote was going against her. The audience was chock full of angry neighbours/voters. At the last minute, she changed tactics from opposing the project to one of “if you’re going to approve it, at least get some community benefits”. The charge in the air was electric. The audience was aghast. Betrayal! Selling out!  No matter the logic of the move, the optics were terrible, my sinking stomach knew Leadman had … Continue reading Westboro tizzy (iv) – of benefits, incentives, and selling out

condos, cycling in Ottawa, infill, intensificatioin, pedestrians, Richmond road, sidewalks, streetscaping, Uncategorized, Westboro27 Comments

Westboro tizzy (iii)

Westsideaction

As part of the Uniform Developments condo proposal for Roosevelt Avenue, the City/Councillor negotiated some “community benefits”. This consists of $200,000 worth of traffic calming and streetscaping to be paid for by Uniform. Here is an overview of the changes to Roosevelt (top street in pic) and Winston (lower street in pic) (transitway trench is running up the right side of the pic): Double click on the picture to enlarge it. The south end of Roosevelt Avenue, to the left in the above pic, where it meets Richmond Road, gets redesigned to be more pedestrian friendly. Midway along the block are some traffic … Continue reading Westboro tizzy (iii)

beaver barracks, condos, design, hintonburg, housing policy, infill, intensificatioin

Westboro tizzy (ii)

Westsideaction

Well, that Westboro post of a few days ago certainly got the juices going of a number of readers who took time to construct clever and insightful responses. The “comments”  that follow that post are a goldmine of intelligent views. Do read them if you haven’t yet. One wise reader send me the following link http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/inpr/su/sucopl/upload/The-Carlings-at-Arbutus-Walk-Vancouver-B-C.pdf which features a “case study” of a low-rise high-density infill, with the suggestion that the developer at Roosevelt should have tried harder to build within the zoning and height limit. I read the CMHC review of Arbutus Walk, and will add it to my bucket list of … Continue reading Westboro tizzy (ii)

500 Preston, Carling Ave, Claridge, condos, Dows Lake, Experimental Farm, intensificatioin, Soho Italia, Uncategorized13 Comments

Sim Preston: Claridge strikes again

Westsideaction

The Soho Italia project by Starwood Mastercraft has been controversial since it first became public knowledge through this blog early in the year. The + or – 35 storey condo tower put a major hole in the established urban plan for the neighborhood and multi-year traditional main street plans. The tower, a short block north of Carling Avenue, is aggressively positioned to maximize views. Not being in the “first row” along Carling, it runs the risk of being blocked by competing towers should ones be built where the CIBC is, or Dow Motors (whose site has NO height limit on it) or other vacant … Continue reading Sim Preston: Claridge strikes again

condos, design, Gladstone, housing policy, infill, intensificatioin, Uncategorized8 Comments

The Thinest of the Thin Houses

Westsideaction

Very narrow houses are perfectly livable, if well designed. There are about 25 across the street from me on 12′ lots, which means they are  a bit more than 11′  wide inside. I think CCOC has a bunch a few blocks over, off Rochester. Nonetheless, very thin houses make City regulators expand with worry. A new group of thin houses is under construction at Gladstone and Cambridge. They replace the famous “yellow house” with its Charlie Brown zig-zag brown stripe. I have been anxiously awaiting their construction because they are thin – on 12′ lots. But the end unit, along Gladstone, is even thinner, being … Continue reading The Thinest of the Thin Houses

condos, Richmond road3 Comments

Treeless

Westsideaction

The new condo at 101 Richmond Road (site of the former Cdn Tire gas bar) is nearing completion. I see major appliances have been delivered to some suites; the interior walls are painted, the scaffolding is down, etc. The exterior has been divided into three layers, like an onion. The skin closest to and parallel to the street, and that also forms the podium element, is white blocks. The second skin, set just behind the first one, is that blah beige brick beloved by architects and designers which to me just looks … blah. And the backmost layer of the onion, a noir brick. … Continue reading Treeless

Bronson, condos, parking, Transit, Uncategorized4 Comments

Park and Ride, here and there

Westsideaction

There have been several stories in the media lately about park and ride lots here in Ottawa. The lots seem popular, and mostly over-used with late arrivals not being able to find a parking space. The first-come policy favours regular early morning commuters. The Ottawa lots are free. Well, not exactly free. They cost a lot of money to build, maintain, and patrol. But our municipal government doesn’t charge the users anything. It is therefore not surprising that they are full, as they are being sold (given away) wa-a-a-y below cost and wa-a-a-a-y below value. Things that are free are of course … Continue reading Park and Ride, here and there

condos, design, downtown, housing policy, infill, intensificatioin5 Comments

Faulty Prescription for Infill Problems

Westsideaction

(Above: good looking infills that may not be possible under the proposed new rules) The City is concluding its study of infill housing projects in the downtown wards. They examined every infill built over the last few years, photographed them, and analysed what went wrong. The most obvious problems related to new buildings being too massive compared to their neighbours, too hard paved in the fronts (often leaving no soft landscaping at all) and too many  garage doors that blight the street. So, they came up with some solutions. Alas, I left the public reveal of these solutions feeling rather let down and discouraged. … Continue reading Faulty Prescription for Infill Problems

beaver barracks, Claridge, condos, design, LeBreton Flats, Uncategorized11 Comments

What should go at street level? (part iii – more good)

Westsideaction

Continuing on the theme of what should go on the ground floor of new condo buildings in the downtown neighborhoods, it is easy to criticize the faults of what was built. But what about some examples of good stuff? It’s pretty easy on main streets: put in commercial space. The building is going to be there for a 100 years or more, the downtown neighborhoods are most likely to get busier, and such space will be in demand for much of the next century. Domicile’s Piccadilly building on West Wellington is pretty typical. It is currently two storefronts, but is doored and set … Continue reading What should go at street level? (part iii – more good)

500 Preston, 801 Albert, Albert St, Claridge, condos, design, downtown, Uncategorized6 Comments

What should go at street level? (part ii – the bad)

Westsideaction

I wrote this post last week for www.SpacingOttawa.ca, you should have read it there! It got a number of responses so for this version of it I have corrected and clarified some things. There are also more pictures, because that is the WSA style! Thank you for reading. __________________________________________ What should go at street level? Large property development firms are seldom compared to little domesticated birds. But in some ways they are canaries in the coal mines of the urban streetscape. And the song these messengers sing is not a cheerful tune for downtown pedestrians. Consider this not-so-old  downtown condo: … Continue reading What should go at street level? (part ii – the bad)

condos, downtown, intensificatioin, Transit, Uncategorized11 Comments

Bus Depots are Dead, thankfully

Westsideaction

City committees will shortly be discussing a redevelopment proposal for the site of the Voyageur Bus Terminal/Gare d’Ottawa. Alas, the development will proceed only if Voyageur moves out of the terminal. Bizarrely, some councillors and community activists want the bus station to stay on Catherine Street. They express concern for the price conscious users of the cheapest mode of intercity transport. I think their concern is misguided thinking that is twenty years out of date. In the old bus model, Voyageur had to have a terminal building for passengers to arrive early and line up for the bus. Passengers who wanted a good … Continue reading Bus Depots are Dead, thankfully