LRT Stations (part iv) LeBreton

There is currently a bus transitway station at LeBreton Flats. The proposed LRT station is essentially at the same location, except it extends further west under Booth Street and is a few feet south of the current station, allowing room for landscaping and breathing space between it and the aqueduct. On the aerial photo above, note also the pedestrian crossing of the aqueduct off to the left side of the picture, this is the old Broad Street right of way and ped bridge. The site analysis drawing, above, shows the proximity of the current LeBreton residential neighborhood. Blue arrows show view planes, but both are rather curiously … Continue reading LRT Stations (part iv) LeBreton

LRT Stations: (part iii) Bayview Station

The Bayview Station is quite complex to describe compared to Tunney’s or Hurdman. Basically, it is a long thin platform built atop an earthen embankment, pretty much where the bus shelters are now. But rather than have sloping pedestrian paths connect to the O-train platform about 16′ lower down, under the overpasses, the City proposes to build an escalator connection at the west end of the new platform that takes users directly down to the O-Train platform. This is a great development for users that transfer.  What complicates the Bayview Station is that it is in the middle of an … Continue reading LRT Stations: (part iii) Bayview Station

LRT Stations Revealled (part ii) Tunney’s Pasture

Tunney’s Pasture is the interm western end of the initial LRT system. At Tunney’s, riders will transfer from bus rapid transit on the transitway to LRT to go through the downtown and then on to Blair Road in the East. Tunney’s is the second largest employment node in the City, and will triple in size over the next few decades. At some point the LRT service will extend west of Tunney’s to Lincoln Fields and then out to College Square. The new LRT station will replace the existing bus station at Tunney’s, down in the cut. The train track will extend a few meters west … Continue reading LRT Stations Revealled (part ii) Tunney’s Pasture

LRT Stations Revealled (part i)

The design for the Ottawa LRT stations will be shown below. In this post, there will be the inspiration for the Ottawa design, then some initial Ottawa designs both at the surface and in the tunnel sections. In following posts, there will be the detailed station design and layout and approaches to the Tunney’s, Bayview, and LeBreton Stations. Finally, there will be the Rideau Station and Hurdman. So stow your tables, put your seat backs upright, buckle up, here we go: Interior decorators call it the “inspiration shot”, the picture of some other project that captures some of what we want to emulate. The above … Continue reading LRT Stations Revealled (part i)

From mediocre to worse

  This post originally appeared in the WalkSpace series at  www.SpacingOttawa.ca. The loss of amenity is noticeable when an attractive bit of the pedestrian realm or sidewalk is adversely affected by adjacent developments. The contrast is less sharp when a mediocre space becomes worse. Yet the result is the same: the pedestrian zone gets impinged and impoverished. I always find the C D Howe building in downtown Ottawa to be an underachiever. The building is somehow less than the sum of its parts. Inside there’s a waterfall, winter garden, soaring three storey spaces, pedestrian bridges, Jetson elevators, retail spaces, food court …. And outside offers an extra-wide sidewalk with some … Continue reading From mediocre to worse

Under the veneer

Aluminum and plastic siding is too often used to hide deteriorating structures. (Trendier materials are sometimes used today, such as corrugated metal panels). Once hidden, are those walls and soffits protected from further weathering, or is the rot ongoing but unseen? On Primrose, opposite St Vincent Hospital, is home somewhat lacking in curb appeal. For as long as I can remember, it was clad in aluminium siding, the wide stuff that was popular in the late 60’s. It is now being removed, revealing to my surprise, a brick façade underneath. A brick façade that is collapsing (foundation problems?): I haven’t a clue … Continue reading Under the veneer

Somerset dog-and-pony show — new priorities

The City held an open house last evening to explain to the public what is being done on Somerset Street this year. It was a mix of old news — the section west of Preston remains  unchanged from last year except for some details — and new news for the section east of Preston up to Booth. The new stuff comes in several formats. The consultants and city staff had all the public consultation team members on hand, with name badges, to explain what is proposed and to tell their neighbours about some of the tradeoffs that were made to get to these results. … Continue reading Somerset dog-and-pony show — new priorities

The effacing Bridge

  This story originally appeared as my WalkSpace column at Spacing Ottawa: http://spacingottawa.ca/2011/03/28/walkspace-we-can-do-better-than-a-self-effacing-bridge/ The City is conducting studies for the placement of a ped-cyclist bridge over the Rideau River connecting Somerset E to Donald Street. I think this will be a very useful link. I am also delighted that we are constructing a link based on its own merits and appeal to cyclists and peds and not just as an appendage catering to motorist origin-destination desires. From the newsletter of the study team, I espy the following comment, which is pretty typical for Ottawa:   “the design should look to enhance the natural … Continue reading The effacing Bridge

Better infills through consultation

The City has done a review of all the infill housing put up in the last few years in selected central area neighborhoods. Staff went out and photographed every house from the street. I must commend them for actually doing part of the study out in the real world and not from charts and drawings in the back room. It wasn’t that many years ago that the City reprimanded staff for actually going out in the field. It is a practice I would like to see more of (the going out in the city part) by planners. There are been a … Continue reading Better infills through consultation

585 Churchill again

Continued from previous post: This old house has a third floor. Curiously the staircase does not go up from the upstairs hall, but from one of the large bedrooms. This severely impairs the utility of that bedroom in my mind, since the third floor is itself a marvellous room. The third floor was totally flooded with light. Skylights abounded, with gorgeous tree-house-living views. The white-washed ceiling beams kept the volume of space large. The deluxe bathroom fixtures made this attic room seem more like a retreat … except the toilet is totally open to the rest of the room … … Continue reading 585 Churchill again

Winston might be comfortable here …

There was a well-worn house on Churchill. Previous owners subdivided it into apartments. Now, it has been given an “extreme makeover”. The makeover kept and modernized most of the old elements. For example, the main floor walls were left in place rather than “opened up” to a loft style. Typically for such old homes, the antiquated kitchens and baths are scarcely what would be found in decorator mags or HGTV shows today. Kitchen: So who lives there and how did I get in? No one lives there. The house has been staged … selectively furnished with impact-full pieces of furniture and artwork. All … Continue reading Winston might be comfortable here …

HOM on the Champagne

Domicle has started marketing their new condo on Champagne Avenue at Hickory Street. It’s a 12 storey tower on a podium facing Champagne with six townhouses facing Hickory. The name HOM has an accent over the O to make it sound like HOME in Swedish. The marketing scheme is interesting. It’s big on IKEA style signage. The green exterior signage vandalized (graffiti) on Sunday was cleaned up by Monday morning, so they are alert. The market package inside (kitfolder) follows through on the same Ikea theme. With the popularity of design TV — the HGTV channel, for example — viewers/consumers are becoming much more design-conscious. In this case, … Continue reading HOM on the Champagne

Pantone colour this building

I vaguely recall taking some pleasure when the new construction trades building was proposed for Algonquin College, as it has large green (planted) roof areas and a colourful exterior. Each visit to the College Station at Baseline and Woodroffe proved disappointing, as the building seemed to grow uglier each month. I know, I know, it’s reckless to knock it before it is finished. But where were the coloured windows? I checked out the building rendering on display in the front  window of the architect’s offices on Slater Street, and the windows were not colourful, just bland ole’ gray. Chalk up another victory … Continue reading Pantone colour this building

Downtown’s changing skyline

Ottawa has a curious bunch of downtown buildings dating from the Robert Campeau era (1960’s and 70’s). They all share a certain formula: towers “inspired” by famous buildings elsewhere, usually built on massive ugly windowless podiums, and with no apparent front doors. Consider the Centennial Towers, whose entrance used to be facing a drive through arch, mercifully removed during its last renovation. Or the Marriott hotel, also sitting on a rough concrete windowless podium, its entrance facing a mid-block driveway well concealed from motorists and pedestrians alike. Or the black cube Place de Ville office towers, some of which still have their entrances … Continue reading Downtown’s changing skyline

Industrial gentrification on the west side

Costco likes to locate in industrial parks. They essentially run a retail store but in industrial space. The reason for this is that they then pay industrial property taxes, which are hugely lower than retail commercial property taxes. On a smaller scale, we see the flight of retail businesses out of Westboro as it becomes “trendier” — same way as businesses fled the Glebe or New Edinburgh in their heydays of rapid gentrification. I previously mentioned that Cohen’s Vintage Lighting moved out of Westboro and onto Spruce Street. (Before that, they had been elsewhere as Architectural Antiques, then Hintonburg, then Westboro, now back to … Continue reading Industrial gentrification on the west side

A Modest Proposal for 2011

   Cities are organic creatures. They grow, we hope, as cities that decline are not exactly great places. We want growth, and new things, but want them somewhere else — easily accessible but not too close. I am getting tired of the litany of complaints about intensification. We knew when we adopted the policy that it had certain effects: house prices will rise; infill will occur in both small scale and large scale developments. Those new residents will use transit, and walk sometimes, but mostly will drive cars. Changing population demographics means new housing types are desired to meet new needs. Some … Continue reading A Modest Proposal for 2011

Who sets the street agenda?

I spent a little bit of time in Montreal over the holidays. I was struck by several huge differences between Montreal’s treatment of downtown streets vs Ottawa’s. In the following photos, notice that the traffic signal lights are pushed off to the side of the road. Their cases and mounting brackets are dark coloured, and very unobtrusive. They are mounted low, not high in the sky. The pedestrian signals, which are relatively rare in downtown Montreal compared to Ottawa, were mounted snugly close to the traffic signals.     The discreet treatment of traffic signals means that the downtown streets are not dominated or given … Continue reading Who sets the street agenda?

Richmond St apartments in Toronto

This apartment building on Richmond Street in Toronto is certainly different. I do like the colours used on it. Such an improvement over many uniform glass condo tower blocks. With all the cut-ins and cut-outs, and cantilevered sections, I do wonder how energy-efficient it is, and just how useful windows are looking into these internal spaces. The Thompkins CoOp on Albert/Preston also has some deeply recessed windows (about 16′ in from the building exterior), some of which are further sandwiched between service walls. I don’t think they add much to the livability of the interior spaces. This building also has elements that remind me … Continue reading Richmond St apartments in Toronto

Planning Exercise (ii)

There is a large parcel of land owned by the Feds. It runs from Somerset Street to Gladstone, on the east side of the OTrain corridor. At the Somerset end, it has the address 1010 Somerset Street; at the Gladstone end it is 943 Gladstone; in the middle it has an Oak Street address. Most of the site is covered with a giant brick and concrete warehouse dating from the Second World War era. Before that, it was open field, my father tells me he attended the Ringling Circus there when he was a boy in the ’30’s. The circus arrived … Continue reading Planning Exercise (ii)

Planning exercise (i)

The photo above is taken a few weeks ago, looking south along Cambridge. Primrose is behind us, Somerset and the new Chinatown Royal Arch is directly ahead. The street looks closed to automobiles, which is the idea. It was reconstructed years ago using the Dutch design principles called a woonerf. Getting closer to the woonerf, it is less constricted than it first appeared. There is, indeed, plenty of room for a car … or truck, or school bus, or fire truck … to get through. The high shrubs and planters deliberately block the view and sight lines, forcing motorists to slow down. It … Continue reading Planning exercise (i)

Doppelganger

  The suburbs get a bad rap for having endless rows of simlar houses. In fact, many streets in older areas such as the west side of the downtown also have clusters of similar if not identical houses in a row. But after 60 to 100 years, variety creeps in. I especially like spotting two or more identical/mirror image houses that have evolved very differently. Here’s a pair that tell tales about the socio-economic status of the inhabitants. Continue reading Doppelganger

Mispriced parking

  The City continues to devote enormous sums of money every year to providing free parking spaces for motorists to store their cars. Public rights of way are a limited commodity, yet the City insists that the highest and best use for these rights of way is not for street trees, wide sidewalks, or other “people” and environment benefits. The above photo is taken on Lisgar, looking west. The intersection in the distance is Bay Street. Note that all the parking spaces in the foreground are empty, at 10am on a weekday morning. The City charges for parking here, as it is … Continue reading Mispriced parking

Borrow, adapt, learn

The top two pix are of a small apartment building kitty korner the downtown Ottawa bus terminal. Its fun to look at as you walk by, the tilted windows add a nice sense of whimsy as do the flying roofs. Below is Strata Centre on the MIT campus in Boston. It is full of fun angles, and the interior spaces — a sort of atrium-cum-courtyard piazza — are fun to walk in. It has a number of architectural jokes, including heavy brick walls that start in mid air two or three floors above your head (they are suspended walls), and I … Continue reading Borrow, adapt, learn