The City Centre office and warehouse complex, 250 City Centre Avenue, opposite the Bayview OTrain station and Tom Brown Arena, is often referred to as the ugliest in the city. While not pretty, its not so bad either. I should know, I look at it from my house, and until I sold my business a few years ago, was/is the largest tennant in the industrial bays.

The night time picture was taken at 2am a few weeks ago from a window on the third floor of my house, looking across the roof of the Just Rite Storage building, aka the former Champagne Streetcar Barn and aka the former Vimy House ateliers for the War Museum. The large red sign lettering above the eighth floor has not been illuminated for several years. Curiously, the Y in City was actually a V.

The daytime picture is taken from the Somerset Viaduct (bridge) today and shows that the sign letters facing east have been removed. Presumably the ones facing south, still visible, will go too.

Removing the letters doesn’t really improve the view, as the very dirty brick spells out the name in absentia. I kinda liked the letters when they were illuminated: they reminded me that there is more to Ottawa than bland office towers full of cubicles, ie there are some industrial and manufacturing activities still here. The letters added a frisson of excitement to the skyline. Sniff.