Category: condos

Claridge, condos, LeBreton Flats

Courtyard in Condo

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This photo looking towards the downtown from the courtyard at 200 Lett Street, the first condo on the Flats. Place de Ville is the blocky building in the background. Phase two of the condo is under construction to the right. At the very back, it is still one floor short of its full podium height. Due to the angle the building sits on the site, the second phase podium has more units than the first, and it turns to partially enclose the back of the courtyard. The second tower, to be clad in yellow brick and some of the same … Continue reading Courtyard in Condo

Claridge, condos, LeBreton Flats

LeBreton Flats Condo grows

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The first phase of the first building on LeBreton Flats is towards the left. It includes a six storey podium building of yellow brick with a seven storey glass tower above. The right most wall of the podium was partially unfinished, in order to attach the second phase. The podium portion of the second phase has been poured. Six storeys high, it will be clad in yellow brick like phase one. Windows and exterior walls are being put in place. Plumbing drains have been installed on the first two floors. There will be a seven floor tower on top of … Continue reading LeBreton Flats Condo grows

Booth St, condos, infill, intensificatioin

Laying the foundations for Z6 Condo on Booth St

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Foundation forming boards still in racks as delivered into the hole by crane. Note the footings are in place around the perimeter, and part of the back concrete wall forms and re-bars have been put in place. west side The building will have a round corner facing the Balsam/Booth intersection. The square elevator base has been poured, with rebar in place to support the elevator shaft walls. Continue reading Laying the foundations for Z6 Condo on Booth St

condos, Scott street, Westboro Collection

New Scott Street Condo

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Shown above is the first elevations of a six storey condo proposed for Scott Street. Small buildings like this are called boutique buildings. It will have about 30 units, with one commercial space on the ground floor. Since the lot has access only on the Scott frontage, the building face has the storefront, main entrance, then parking garage ramp, all in a row. Exterior is brick and stucco with glass balcony railings. The building is proposed for the vacant lot immediately west of West Village Private, which joins Scott at the same intersection as does Lanark Avenue, near the Metropole … Continue reading New Scott Street Condo

condos, infill, intensificatioin

Lisgar street condo coming

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Canus Plastics,  on Lisgar, half block east of Bank Street, is slated to become another condo tower as residential infill and intensification continues in the downtown. The building is by Starwood Mastercraft, who are also building condos on Parkdale and 125 Champagne (the latter being the Acquerelo site) near Carling OTrain station. Click on the map to enlarge for readability, or go to their site http://www.sohovipclub.com/. Continue reading Lisgar street condo coming

condos, hintonburg, housing policy, infill, intensificatioin

Small Houses

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The renovated house in the top picture is on Armstrong Ave in Hintonburg. I love tiny houses, there is something so doll-house-like, so intimate, so cute about them. Maybe it’s the little-child in me wanting to curl up in a cupboard. Hidden behind the renovator’s trailer to the right of the blue and white house there is a foundation in the ground for another thin house infill. I hope the vacant lot, now for sale, gets some more tiny infill houses rather than a McMansion. I would love to see more tiny houses built in the city. I feel there … Continue reading Small Houses

condos, downtown

No lobby for the homeless

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The two new condo towers downtown on Kent Street called the Hudson have their entry keyboard on the outside rather than in the Lobby. I haven’t noticed this in Ottawa before. It is common in Vancouver, where the climate is milder. Approaching and using this key pad felt cramped and uncomfortable. It is reality today that so many buildings now have to have their exterior doors locked to prevent people moving into the comfy chairs in the lobby, but this is the first time I have seen one keep people out of the airlock entry. It’s one more step to … Continue reading No lobby for the homeless

Claridge, condos, hintonburg, infill, intensificatioin, LeBreton Flats

West Wellington Condo Mania

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A new condo is planned for 1433 Wellington, a half block east of Island Park Drive. It is almost opposite the recent Domicile building at the corner of Picadilly. The site is currently a small strip mall. I think a new mid-rise condo is a big improvement over the strip mall and worthwhile bit of intensification. The building will have vehicular access from the side facing the Loeb/Metro store. The building exterior is very much in the same style as the building at 200 Lett Street at the corner of Wellington, the first condo built in the current LeBreton Flats … Continue reading West Wellington Condo Mania

Claridge, condos, infill, intensificatioin, LeBreton Flats

LeBreton Flats condo grows

Westsideaction

Claridge is busy building the second tower / second half of the first building at 200 Lett Street on LeBreton Flats. Now that the garage levels are in, the swiming pool cast, and the ground floor poured, the remaining floors will pour quickly, maybe one floor per week. The new building will be a seven storey podium of yellow brick, with a tower on the east side going to 14 floors, with an exterior of yellow brick and glass (same glass as first tower, but second tower will read as mostly brick). The architecture or style of this building is … Continue reading LeBreton Flats condo grows

condos, downtown, infill, intensificatioin

Slow Progress

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Minto built these stacked townhouses (a two or three-storey unit above a two storey unit, each with sidewalk-level private entrances) a few years ago. Earlier this summer, there was a fire in one of the units. The whole row of houses was evacuated, and remains empty to this day. Some units are boarded up at the rear. Others sit with six month’s accumulation of grime and dust on the windows and porches. The units are wood-frame construction. There is not a sprinkler system. In addition to townhouse-looking stacked units, a number of low-rise apartment buildings in the city are also … Continue reading Slow Progress

855 Carling, Bayview-Carling CDP, Carling Ave, condos, Dows Lake, infill, intensificatioin

Out with the old, in with the condos

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The printing establishment currently located at the corner of Hickory Street and Champagne Avenue is the only remaining industrial use in this section of the Bayview-Champagne corridor. It once was an industrial heartland of the city, with convenient rail access (the tracks were relocated into the cut in 1963, before that they ran at street level). The old Sunoco fuel depot site has been cleaned up and is currently zoned for a 40,000 sq ft building. The former Campbell Iron and Steel plant at the corner of Carling/Champagne (now a satellite parking lot for the Civic Hospital) is in process to become … Continue reading Out with the old, in with the condos

Booth St, condos, Dalhousie2 Comments

New plans on Booth Street

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Shown is the old Desjardins IGA/Loeb Booth Street, located just a few metres south of where Booth crosses Somerset. – The building has been vacant for several years. Attempts to find a new grocer have failed. A government funded study on installing a food coop floundered. The building has a typical industrial facade, but behind the facade I hear there are several old houses joined together. The result is uneven and shifting floors bridging stone foundations. – Thirty years ago Desjardins had the current Loblaws marketing plan in place. There were grocieries, and furniture, a hardware aisle, and upstairs a … Continue reading New plans on Booth Street

Claridge, condos, LeBreton Flats1 Comment

Blinding Urban Development

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It’s not often that I feel dazzled by the Claridge condo at 200 Lett Street on the Flats, but this sunset corrected that. BYW, the condo finally has a street number near the front door, but curiously confuses the viewer by showing the street number but not the street name, instead it is accompanied by the NCC marketing phrase LeBreton Flats. It’s not really 200 LeBreton Flats, it’s 200 Lett Street. Continue reading Blinding Urban Development

855 Carling, Bayview, Bayview Otrain, City Centre, condos1 Comment

Bore Hole Drilling at City Centre Complex

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The City Centre complex is a combo office tower and industrial bays located on City Centre Avenue just east of and south of Bayview Station. Built in 1960 as part of the federal-funded railway relocation project, it was a intermodal terminal for offloading rail cars onto delivery trucks. Now it is industrial bays, with a surprisingly large number of printers located there. The largest tennant in the whole complex is my old company, Cielo Print. – All last week there were two drilling rigs working the parking lot, drilling bore holes around the perimeter of the parking lot along City … Continue reading Bore Hole Drilling at City Centre Complex

Claridge, condos, LeBreton Flats1 Comment

200 Lett St condo by Claridge

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Claridge built the first yellow brick condo tower at 200 Lett Street in LeBreton Flats. While not my favorite building, it looks a lot better with (most) landscaping now installed. Construction has begun on tower 2, immediately to the south of the first building. It will be joined to the first building on the 4th through 6th floors, and will have another tower (not all glass) at the east end of the final U-shaped structure. The picture shows the bottom floor of the two floor garage. Blue drainage pipes for all the down runs have been installed, the floor gravel … Continue reading 200 Lett St condo by Claridge

aquaduct, bike path, Claridge, condos, cycling in Ottawa, LeBreton Flats, NCC, pedestrians2 Comments

Contrary results …

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NCC path (foreground); City path beyond what will the yellow line do? There must be a law or maxim somewhere that the more planning is done, the more expensive the administration, the worse the results.– A few blogs ago I lamented the apparent mismatch between the NCC section of the bikepath from new Wellington that goes south along the aquaduct behind the new Claridge condo at 200 Lett Street in LeBreton Flats.– I still cannot believe that despite all the planners, all the coordination, the high city taxes … that the City-spec’d path is two feet narrower than the NCC … Continue reading Contrary results …

855 Carling, Bayview, Bayview-Carling CDP, bike path, Carling Ave, CDP, condos, Experimental Farm, LRT, NCC, O-Train6 Comments

855 Carling, part ii

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The Ottawa Civic Hospital Community Assoc. held a meeting on Tuesday evening. On the agenda was the 855 Carling Ave project proposed by Arnon Developments. They already own the two red brick office towers on Carling between Preston and Rochester (a site I vaguely recall might already have planning approval for a third tower?) – From their planning documents I had concluded in my post a few days ago that this was a rezoning well in advance of any project, but at the meeting it became clear that this project might proceed in the near future, and my interpretation was … Continue reading 855 Carling, part ii

aquaduct, bike path, Claridge, condos, LeBreton Flats, Tailrace

How Wide is a Bike Path ?

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in May, NCC path is laid, looking south from Wellington in August, Claridge lays path behind 200 Lett St condo Now Claridge may not be the fastest developer in town, but he is finally implementing the landscaping around the 200 Lett Street yellow-brick condo tower on LeBreton Flats. The path behind the condo, along the tailrace/aquaduct, is being laid and connected to the NCC path. The path is laid to City of Ottawa standards, as spec’d to Claridge in the subdivision agreement. Look at the not-yet-paved gravel path in picture two, which extends the NCC path. Notice that the new … Continue reading How Wide is a Bike Path ?

bike path, Bluesfest, Claridge, condos, cycling in Ottawa, LeBreton Flats, NCC, pedestrians2 Comments

Pooley’s Bridge Re-opens

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view from temporary path towards north end of Pooley’s Bridgeview north along the temp path towards Wellington –Pooley’s bridge is an historic stone arch bridge over the aquaduct/tailrace at the foot of Bronson hill. It permits pedestrians and cyclists direct access from the downtown via Commissioner St (that part of “Bronson” that extends downhill north of Albert) to LeBreton Flats. It was renovated and restored a few years ago, for pedestrian and cyclist traffic only, but then was promptly closed when Fleet Street was closed to public access during construction of residences on LeBreton Flats.–I have been part of the … Continue reading Pooley’s Bridge Re-opens

aquaduct, bike path, Claridge, condos, cycling in Ottawa, green roofs, NCC, Tailrace1 Comment

Landscaping resumes at Claridge’s Condo

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I figured that Claridge might never landscape its project on LeBreton Flats. But in the last few weeks, a lot has happened. Sod appeared on the west side of Lett Street (right side of picture 2) in front of the Beirut-style bomb crater. And on Friday, some rather large trees appeared in the front lawn of the building, along the sidewalk. Compare the size of the new trees to the ones planted a few months ago along the north side of the building, shown on the left in picture 2. _ Picture 1 is of the rear yard, or courtyard … Continue reading Landscaping resumes at Claridge’s Condo

condos, housing policy, pedestrians3 Comments

Is Infill Working?

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Proponents of ‘smart growth’ and higher density cities usually cite as benefits the smaller ecological footprint and lower cost of servicing higher density mixed use urban areas compared to suburban growth. I wonder just how true this is. In my neighborhood, on the west side of the urban core, it is possible to walk to multiple employment centres. Shopping is a bit of stretch to the Rideau Centre, and for groceries, well they do call it a ‘grocery desert’ for a reason. However, Loblaws in Westboro does deliver and with a family of teens that is well worth while (I … Continue reading Is Infill Working?

Claridge, condos, LeBreton Flats

Smart Construction techniques

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Claridge has resumed work on the condo project on LeBreton Flats. The new tower will be immediately south of the current yellow brick podium and glass tower, and will appear to be a continuation of the same building around a common courtyard. _ The rock material excavated from the parking garage hole is trucked a few hundred meters to the south and dumped. The yellow excavator is moving the rocks into the blue crusher that turns the large rocks into gravel, which is being stacked up by the red shovel. The debris piles did not look that large a few … Continue reading Smart Construction techniques

Booth St, Claridge, condos, LeBreton Flats, little Italy, Preston street

Recession Over ?

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New housing starts is a good leading indicator of economic confidence. Builders must get their product started a year or more before it is to be occupied. _ Three new residential projects have begun in the west side area. The top picture shows the excavation for the second tower of Claridge’s project on LeBreton Flats. If you look closely, you can see the base for the high crane has been installed on the right side of the hole, near Fleet Street which leads to Pooley’s Bridge and the downtown. _ Picture 2 shows the demolition of two older housing units … Continue reading Recession Over ?