Category: design

design, Nature, Ottawa, pedestrians, sewage and drains, sidewalks, streetscaping, surface water

Exciting drainage swales in urban areas

Westsideaction

Traditional engineering tries to remove as much rainwater as fast as possible. Rain falls, pavement directs it into storm sewers. Outa sight, outa mind. More recent storm water management for Ottawa streets reduces the permeability of the catch basin grate so water self-stores on the street (that’s  “puddles” to the rest of us) and runs off over time. Preston has this feature. Unfortunately, it makes walking the sidewalks within an hour or two of rainfalls a drenching experience. Some puddles remain for 24 hours. It rains a lot in the pacific northwest.  They have installed a lot of “drainage swales” in … Continue reading Exciting drainage swales in urban areas

bike path, Booth St, cycling in Ottawa, design, Montreal, planning, roads, streetscaping, walkways

Bike Path, Walkway, Bus Stop: all together now

Westsideaction

The City of Ottawa claims it cannot possibly design the new section of Booth Street running north from Albert, serving Pimisi Station and the LeBreton Flats area, to include motorists, buses, transit, and bikes. The cyclists just don’t fit. So they are being thrown under the bus. As for their partner in crime, the NCC’s vision for their new urban downtown showpiece doesn’t seem to include complete streets or cyclists. Dusk a few weeks ago, I noticed this lovely bike path – walkway – bus stop combo in Montreal, on the side of Park Lafontaine. Everyone approaching the place gets ample visual … Continue reading Bike Path, Walkway, Bus Stop: all together now

design, hintonburg, intensificatioin, little Italy1 Comment

Industrial Chic: where-ever you can find it

Westsideaction

Thanks largely to the NCC’s penchant for eliminating Ottawa’s industrial heritage, we have extraordinarily few industrial sites to convert into condos, lofts, or trendy retail. A few years back, retail pioneers took over industrial space on Elm and Spruce Streets. The trend then spread to the adjacent City Centre building which has many great industrial features: high ceilings, cheap space, lotsa concrete surfaces. I used to joke the only thing it was missing was Stephen Beckta. A similar trend has taken over the industrial garages on Beech Street, east of Preston. The baseball bat factory gave way to architect’s offices … Continue reading Industrial Chic: where-ever you can find it

Bluesfest, Booth St, Cdn War Museum, Claridge, condos, cycling in Ottawa, design, LeBreton Flats, NCC2 Comments

Three temporary landscapes on the Flats

Westsideaction

Last night the NCC held an open house to unveil 3 concepts for landscaping the Beirut  Bagdad  Syrian war zone post-apocalyptic landscape in downtown Ottawa on the south side of the Parkway between Vimy Private (the War Museum entrance road) and Claridge’s condos on LeBreton Flats. It has long been a puzzle to WSA regulars as to why bureaucrats think people would rush to buy homes with such dismal surroundings. So the new NCC, with new Leadership, responding to criticism (not least of which came from their bosses up on the Hill) of the desolate lands, announced a few weeks ago … Continue reading Three temporary landscapes on the Flats

505 Preston, condos, design

Back lanes: Ugly but Functional access to high rises

Westsideaction

As argued here yesterday, too many of our in-process high rises do not have any sort of passenger pick up or drop off facilities. For example, the new Claridge ICON building proposed for 505 Preston at Carling has no driveway. The garage entrance is directly off Norfolk, a side street. The front door faces Preston, onto a merge lane (which is to be lengthened…) for traffic turning onto Preston from Carling or Prince of Wales. How will that merge lane work when a para-transpo van is parked there for 20 minutes at 8am? Since that main entrance also serves several … Continue reading Back lanes: Ugly but Functional access to high rises

design, Gladstone CDP2 Comments

A House in the City, continued

Westsideaction

This is part 2 of reviewing and commenting on Dalziel and Cortale’s book — A House in the CIty —  promoting low rise high density housing for the inner ring neighbourhoods. Despite my criticisms in the previous post, the book is an educational read for keeners. Part 3 of their book, their take their 62 case studies from nine cities, and distill them to find the much loved classic home format that scores well against their evaluation criteria. They end up with a Georgian-style townhouse of four floors. This is enough space to be a substantial single family home, or … Continue reading A House in the City, continued

condos, design, NCC, Scott street4 Comments

Tunney’s Pasture new Master Plan (Concept Plan)

Westsideaction

Here are some illustrations of what the Feds are proposing to do to Ottawa’s third largest employment centre, Tunney’s Pasture. Here’s the current view, looking south towards Scott, from Brooke Claxton tower. The centre boulevard space remains. Disappointingly, there were no sketches of anything to enliven that strip that Greber insisted on so we can all admire the International Style architecture of the Claxton Building. In my mind, that strip desperately needs Landscaping and People.   Most employees in the new mixed Government and private sector office buildings will arrive on the LRT. In addition to the current 10,000 employees, … Continue reading Tunney’s Pasture new Master Plan (Concept Plan)

design, O-Train, OTrain bike path, pedestrians, somerset street1 Comment

If there has to be a Somerset barrier, let it be discrete

Westsideaction

Recap: recall that in the last two posts we see the City planning to “harden” various pedestrian walks over the OTrain corridor. We don’t know if this is to prevent objects — or people —  being dropped on the OTrain, or what the priorities, if any, are.  It would be nice to know. And the City’s proposed designs for Somerset Street are simply awful. Presumably, other walks near the Otrain and possibly other transit facilities (hello transitway, hello LRT) will similarly be hardened. So a better design is urgently needed. above: the not-yet-terror-proofed Bayview Station, soon to be populated with … Continue reading If there has to be a Somerset barrier, let it be discrete

design, Ottawa2 Comments

Glass sound barriers along roads

Westsideaction

I was surprised on a recent trip to southwestern Ontario to notice some glass sound barriers along the freeway between St Catherines and NOTL.   The glass panels were mostly on the top of the sound barriers. They let light through, making the fence seem less high. I don’t know if this is for the benefit of residents or motorists. In one or two locations, near overpasses, the glass panels extended much closer to the ground, but I wasn’t able to snap a photo while driving. The glass sections were on new sections of sound barrier, and not just for … Continue reading Glass sound barriers along roads

design3 Comments

When buildings look like colour swatches

Westsideaction

The Algonquin College new building at the Baseline Station looks pretty from some angles. The coloured fins, or brise soleils, on the exterior elevate it from the drab by adding a fun element. The colour scheme on the fins is muted though. The original exterior, shown below from the internet image, was much hotter: So I was pleased to notice this residence building at Carleton U, with bright colourful panels on the exterior. I think on site the eye picks out the colours quicker than they show up in the picture: But niether holds a Pantone swatch to this building … Continue reading When buildings look like colour swatches

Booth St, design6 Comments

Demolition and new construction, Booth at Somerset

Westsideaction

    Demolition has come near the corner of Booth and Somerset, in Chinatown. For once, it is deliberate and not by fire. An elderly three storey apartment building has been demolished.   The site owner has approval to build two new triplexes on the site. The style will be modern, with lots of exposed metal bits. Here’s a view of the project circulated last year:   Locals suggested that he incorporate some of the typical neighbourhood red brick to the front façades, and possibly make some on-site use of the dressed limestone blocks from the old foundation. We also … Continue reading Demolition and new construction, Booth at Somerset

Bronson, City Hall, condos, design, Ottawa36 Comments

Making the wrong arguments to planning committee doesn’t help

Westsideaction

Yesterday, Planning Committee had an over-full agenda of contentious items. This meant huge waits for the assembled throngs. All seats were taken, and there were over 70 standees / folding chairs / sitting on the floor. For a 8+ hour meeting. The final votes were to approve various high rise developments, leading to the predictable reaction of citizen attendees that the process was unfair, rigged, or otherwise unsatisfactory. I agree the process is unsatisfactory  and might dedicate a subsequent post to suggestions to fix it. And incidentally save us all buckets of money. But a large part of the dissatisfaction yesterday … Continue reading Making the wrong arguments to planning committee doesn’t help

design, Florida, Ottawa

Celebration in Florida

Westsideaction

  Celebration is a well-known new-urbanist town near Orlando, Florida. In January 2013 I spent about two days there, and came away very impressed. Like other new urbanist towns it takes it architectural and layout cues from pre-1940 successful American towns. It is an attempt to build today neighbourhoods similar to successful walkable areas like the Glebe, Hintonburg, Westboro, Dalhousie … rather than the overtly car-centric suburban model that has dominated our cities since the mid-20th century. Does it succeed? Can we recreate the successful neighbourhoods of the past? I must say I visited with a sceptical mind. I had been there about a decade ago and … Continue reading Celebration in Florida

design, parks, pedestrians, roads, streetscaping, walkways2 Comments

Burlington Design Smarts

Westsideaction

Every place offers new twists and variations on urban design. My fall visit to Burlington revealed some interesting ones that were not on Church Street Marketplace. (see the previous series a week or so ago on Burlington, this completes that series) One of the streets dead-ended at the lake. It terminated in a traffic circle. A mini-traffic circle. Can you imagine Ottawa’s engineers designing something so tight you couldn’t drive a 53′ tractor trailer around it at 50kmh?? At the lakefront park, they had park benches mounted as swings. They looked glorious. They looked fun. But I dunno how well they worked, … Continue reading Burlington Design Smarts

Confederation Line, design, DOTT, LRT15 Comments

Confederation Line (iii) – Baby it’s cold inside

Westsideaction

  Dashing thru the snow …. The RTG literature for the new Confederation Line assures us repeatedly that their equipment runs in cold and snowy climates. Given those frequent winter stories in the mass media that we live in the coldest (capital) city in the world, I’d feel much better knowing that our model of trains were running flawlessly in Edmonton, or Winnipeg or Moscow. Instead we are assured they run in “northern cities”. Copenhagen may well be north of us, but it has a maritime climate. The 100% low floor trains currently run in Adelaide, Lyon, Bordeaux, Paris T2, Valenciennes, Rotterdam, Buenos Aires,Madrid, Melbourne, Nice, Murcia, Barcelona, Jerusalem, Le Havre and Grenoble. With … Continue reading Confederation Line (iii) – Baby it’s cold inside

condos, design, infill, intensificatioin, Ottawa6 Comments

The tale of the virgin developer, the tiny apartment building, and Christmas presents under the Balsam

Westsideaction

From time to time, development applications appear that raise more questions than they answer. The one at 13 Balsam is for me such an application. The applicant is an Italian small-business owner, a newbie to development. He owns a single lot, upon which he proposes to build a five storey apartment building. It would have an elevator, and all of 8 apartments (4 two bedroom; 4 one bedroom). The ground level would consist of a building lobby and the rest of the ground level would be at-grade parking, presumably closed in a garage. The application has only this one elevation, no floor … Continue reading The tale of the virgin developer, the tiny apartment building, and Christmas presents under the Balsam

design, OTrain bike path, streetscaping, walkways

New Brutalism where least expected

Westsideaction

The Somerset Viaduct is a long bridge-like structure that extends from near the Plant Rec complex to Breezehill Ave. Unlike a bridge, the underside isn’t an open space, but is earth fill. Sort of like a dam. Nonetheless, the sides of the road are elevated above the surrounding terrain, and that is what is of interest here. The viaduct has guardrails on both sides. They consist of horizontal pipes, designed to keep cars from falling off the viaduct. They are of an older, un-crash-tested design, so the city is wary about modifications. A dozen years back (or maybe two dozen) … Continue reading New Brutalism where least expected

Claridge, condos, design, intensificatioin, little Italy, Soho Italia3 Comments

Condomania on Carling: Domicile joins in

Westsideaction

Domicile has a proposal winding its way through the bureaucratic maze at City Hall. It’s for a 18 storey condo building on Rochester Street, between the Queensway and Carling Avenue, near Dow’s Lake. Here’s what the street looks like now: Domicile owns the lot running from Pamilla Street and Rochester (the intersection in the foreground) all along Rochester to the red brick wall of a 3 1/2 storey low rise.  Domicile already has permission to demolish the elderly house in the middle . Here’s an aerial view of the lot set within the south Dalhousie neighborhood: The Queensway runs east-west across the … Continue reading Condomania on Carling: Domicile joins in

design, hintonburg2 Comments

If Ikea and Disney built infill

Westsideaction

I love walking by this house. Everything is slightly off square. Disney of course is famous for its use of forced perspective and other tricks to make you think you see something you don’t. And Ikea has some great kids design furniture, with bowling pin legs and curvy sides. Why restrict it to kids? . To find those things on a simple infill – renovation in Hintonburg is something else. What else can be said? It’s a fun house.     Continue reading If Ikea and Disney built infill

design, LRT, O-Train, OLRT, Ottawa, streetscaping2 Comments

Multi modal transfer station design

Westsideaction

Ottawa will soon be getting a dozen or so LRT stations. We don’t know what the “final” design will be.  The PAC for those stations hasn’t met for months. I do hope it gets one last kick at the penultimate designs of the winning contractor. PACs can and do offer good advice, very practical, from the user perspective. Until then, here’s a look at the Hyannis MA multi modal transfer station. Located in the downtown (such as there is in low density America) on former rail yards, it has a passenger rail terminus, the inter city bus station for buses … Continue reading Multi modal transfer station design

Bayview-Carling CDP, Claridge, condos, Dalhousie, design, Dows Lake, infill, intensificatioin24 Comments

Charettes — or is it charades? — on the west side

Westsideaction

The City of Ottawa’s CDP on the Bayview-Carling area has long been an embarrassment. Not that its key worker bee has been lacking, but rather that the city has endlessly unfunded it, delayed it, postponed it, and frustrated it, while many of the prime lots have been spot rezoned, frequently from a two or four storey height to twenty, thirty, and now forty+ stories. But there are many more sites yet to be rezoned, and the developers are lined up four deep for rezoning, so the City flew in its favourite swat team Urban Strategies, of Toronto. Here are some impressions of the George Dark — … Continue reading Charettes — or is it charades? — on the west side

design, infill, intensificatioin12 Comments

Moving Beyond Compatible Infill and Intensification (part i)

Westsideaction

“It’s just not compatible with this neighborhood !” — so goes the cry heard every day in our fair city. It goes up whether the proposal is for a single infill house, or worse a semi, or even worse, a townhouse cluster or innovative pod of housing units. And then it becomes a banshee wail when the intensification is for an apartment building. Strangely enough, the cries are usually preceded by a faux-conciliatory “I’m all in favour of intensification but …”  We all have no doubt that the objections have nothing to do with the purely coincidental proximity of the project to the … Continue reading Moving Beyond Compatible Infill and Intensification (part i)

design10 Comments

Cow Plats in the Pasture

Westsideaction

So, PWGSC held the long-awaited open house to reveal the two schemes for the cubicle farm at Tunney’s Pasture. It would be hard to imagine a worse letdown. First, the event site was unmarked from the outside; the sidewalk along Tunney’s Drive was scattered with people wondering where the event was. Once up the incredibly hostile “entry” to the Jean Talon building, with its angular steps, brutal walls, and concealed floral beds; it was into a very unwelcoming dark lobby. Have these guys ever taken energy saving to the hilt — please, someone, buy them some lightbulbs! The display room was similarly … Continue reading Cow Plats in the Pasture

condos, design, hintonburg, intensificatioin, LeBreton Flats, LRT, OLRT, ottawa river, Richmond road, Toronto1 Comment

Distilling Our Lady of the Condos – part ii

Westsideaction

Last winter, Domtar knocked down an elderly mill building on the Islands in the Ottawa River. Great consternation arose, as they did it Without Consulting the Bureaucrats. Priceless heritage lost! Like a dog with a bone, the media and planning pundits worried about the lost potential for a vibrant outdoorsy urban waterfront à la Granville Island or The Distillery in Toronto. Few people seemed to notice that Victoria Island is one of the windiest, coldest, bleakest spots in Ottawa, a far remove from sunny* Granville Island or the spirits factory in Toronto. Numerous calls were made for the Distillery Folks to come to … Continue reading Distilling Our Lady of the Condos – part ii

Bank Street, condos, design, downtown, intensificatioin9 Comments

When condos replace offices …

Westsideaction

Vancouver has been “enjoying” a condo tower boom for some years. Early on in the boom, the demand for condos was so hot that existing office buildings were converted to condos. For example, the iconic BC Hydro building (the highrise with no ground floor) was converted. Critics began to speculate that residences would drive commercial uses right off the prime peninsula space, an interesting reversal of the usual community activist nightmare of expanding commercial uses driving out the residential uses around the core. Apartment towers differ from townhouse developments in Barrhaven and Riverside South in that the towers stick up in … Continue reading When condos replace offices …