Bayview-Carling CDP, OTrain bike path, Ottawa, Preston street1 Comment

Bayview Carling report, better maps

Westsideaction

Being computer illiterate, I do have some problems sometimes getting maps or illustrations  out of reports to paste into these stories. So, here are some larger, hopefully clearer and more detailed illustrations of what George Dark and our planning dept (and developers) want to see in the west side Preston-Carling Little Italy neighbourhood. Alas, I cannot make “live” links to outside websites or previous posts (somehow, the blue letters that make links live don’t work for me…) and for these maps the key is a separate picture from the actual map. Here goes:   __________________________________________________________________       _______________________________________________________________     … Continue reading Bayview Carling report, better maps

Bayview-Carling CDP9 Comments

Bayview Carling report

Westsideaction

Recall that George Dark of Urban Strategies was employed by the City to accelerate the Bayview Carling CDP process, particularly for the Carling Avenue end of the neighborhood. Recall also that community types were pretty unhappy with the process, seeing it as somewhat biased towards the proliferation of high rises. Of course, the developers were much happier. All this was covered in some detail in previous posts, such as the Charades post:    www.westsideaction.ca/charettes-or-is-it-charades-on-the-west-side. Here are two key diagrams, outcomes of his report, which the planning dept is recommending to Council: (double click to enlarge) Continue reading Bayview Carling report

Ottawa, pedestrians, streetscaping, walkways

Sparks Street Mall SOUTH (part iii)

Westsideaction

The Burlington Church Street Marketplace had mostly older buildings along it, which gave it character and an attractive pedestrian scale. Sparks has lots of older buildings, plus some new office buildings which should generate lots of pedestrians. I did not notice any Burlington buildings with tinted-almost-black windows, like our public broadcaster. Nor was there a block of storefronts facing an indoor mall and turning their backs to the outdoor mall, a la 240 Sparks or D’Arcy McGee. The Burlington indoor mall met Marketplace outdoor mall at right angles, with corner stores facing both, complete with big windows and operable doors … Continue reading Sparks Street Mall SOUTH (part iii)

Ottawa3 Comments

reader help wanted

Westsideaction

I know someone heading to Florida for a vacation, and wanting to know what things to see that would appeal to an urbanist, or an urban fantacist. You know the stuff, nifty new or old neighborhoods, innovative architecture. Area being visited is Orlando to Miami, both coasts. I suggested rocket park at Cape Canaveral.  Miami Beach art deco, its famous parking garage, and Lincoln Mall. In Orlando, Disney’s Celebration Village. In Fort Myers, the offshore beach and urban passeo. If you have suggestions, let me know in the comment section or email me EricDarwin1@gmail.com. You can be brief, no need to … Continue reading reader help wanted

pedestrians, walkways4 Comments

Sparks Street Mall — SOUTH (part ii)

Westsideaction

The Burlington VT marketplace is in a much smaller town than Ottawa, with a metro population of about 200,000 (Ottawa is 1 million or so, depending on combien des Gatineaux you count). Yet their mall showed much more vitality than the Ottawa version. Some of this may be due to the proximity of a college; students were visible on the street. It is also surrounded by a residential and commercial hinterland, whereas Sparks is shoved off to the side of the Ottawa downtown commercial district and centretown residential areas. I saw several kindergarten or daycare rope-trains of tykes walking the … Continue reading Sparks Street Mall — SOUTH (part ii)

Ottawa, streetscaping, walkways5 Comments

Sparks Street Mall — SOUTH (part i)

Westsideaction

I was delighted to see the more proactive role taken by the Ottawa Sparks Street Mall for the New Year’s Eve celebrations. While I cannot say whether the crowds justified the event, or if it broke even, it was valiant marketing and so necessary to revitalize this mall. It made me think of another urban mall I visited in the fall: Burlington VT’s Church Street Marketplace. I don’t know when it was inaugurated  but I suspect the late sixties or seventies, and it appeared to have the original brick pavement: Most of the centre area of the mall is left open, … Continue reading Sparks Street Mall — SOUTH (part i)

Confederation Line, Minto Place, pedestrians, walkways

Where loading docks and walkways conflict

Westsideaction

One of the exciting things about being in an urban environment is the variety of people doing different things, of different vehicles, and the shear jumble of activities. Sometimes it is wise to separate these activities, sometimes not. One area I am very undecided about is delivery docks for downtown buildings. Consider the south side of Constitution Square: There are several indoor loading docks, behind the garage doors. Beyond that is a busy entrance and exit to the underground parking garage. Beyond that, is the pedestrian entrance, conveniently located mid-block, opposite the mid-block transit station. The concrete surface is all broken up … Continue reading Where loading docks and walkways conflict

Boston

Making use of a very narrow space

Westsideaction

I came across these buildings a few months ago. There are two older buildings, separated by a 3 – 4 foot gap. This gap has been built into the renovated buildings:   Both buildings were brick industrial structures, both have been partially reclad in shiny metal when renovated. The former alleyway, now a stairway, is shown in the centre. The stairs can be accessed from a small lobby at the foot of the stairs, directly from the street or from either adjacent building, giving maximum flexibility.   To further play with the odd space, the new stairs are partially see-through, … Continue reading Making use of a very narrow space

pedestrians, somerset street, streetscaping, walkways2 Comments

The joys of winter

Westsideaction

  The front of these stores on Somerset is much the worse for wear. The cause: walk  plowing. I have every sympathy for the walkway plow drivers. The pavements are uneven. Obstacles abound. Throw in hidden objects and frozen masses of snow, and its a recipe for difficulty. In this case, the plows seem to be crashing into the buildings to avoid the parking meter kiosks:   I have no doubt that the minimum 5′ gap was allowed for when positioning the parking meter kiosk. I did the walkabout with the meter installers with both the Preston and Somerset BIA’s, … Continue reading The joys of winter

Bronson, Ottawa, roads, somerset street, streetscaping, walkways4 Comments

Maybe the temporary on Bronson should be permanent

Westsideaction

The noisy work crews on Bronson have taken a winter break. They need one. It must be dispiriting for them to be reconstructing Bronson in the same dysfunctional 1950’s pattern of urban abuse. Our city is sometimes like a dysfunctional family, where the mistakes of the prior-generation parents are doomed to be repeated by the so-called adults of the present. Here’s a view of the Bronson-Somerset intersection prior to the construction. Note the big yellow signal lights we so love to festoon above the traffic lanes, suspended on long metal arms in turn supported by freestanding metal posts, sometimes known as “street furniture”. For … Continue reading Maybe the temporary on Bronson should be permanent

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

Ottawa7 Comments

Confederation matters (ii) – the Place de Ville Monopoly

Westsideaction

Place de Ville is a huge winner in the Confederation Line LRT scheme. Dreams of an “underground city”, or “path” system popular in Toronto and Montreal are now dead. Downtown residents and workers will have to enjoy the minus 40 winters, the high-humidity summers, and slushy in between seasons. In the City’s proposed design for the Downtown West station, there was an outlier platform entrance to the west and south of the Queen Street alignment. It was basically a pedestrian tunnel that ran west from the Downtown West underground platform to emerge somewhere along the west side of Lyon Street, … Continue reading Confederation matters (ii) – the Place de Ville Monopoly

Confederation Line, downtown, LRT, Ottawa2 Comments

Confederation matters (i)

Westsideaction

The new Confederation LRT line stations for downtown Ottawa — as proposed by the winning consortium — are very different from the previous designs worked out by the City. The City’s previous designs were very big on safety through environmental design. To that end, the downtown tunnel stations had a upper level mezzanine with the ticketing functions, that was then open to the track level one floor below. In quiet hours, someone on the mezzanine could eyeball the trackside waiting areas. People waiting on the platforms could be confident that someone could see them easily from the mezzanine. All that … Continue reading Confederation matters (i)

pedestrians, walkways1 Comment

Pedestrian safety sheds: treat people like sh*t and they won’t come!

Westsideaction

Do you recall when downtown construction sites built wooden structures along the walkways to protect pedestrians from falling objects, dust or dirt? These used to be the full width of the walk; had a waterproof roof; and ceiling lighting. Often they had wooden floors, too, for a level walking surface. I see fewer and fewer of these each year. More often, the walk is simply closed for months at a time. The Albert – Elgin – Slater construction site is an example. It’s a if pedestrian movements in the downtown are discretionary, and can be foregone when convenient. Here is … Continue reading Pedestrian safety sheds: treat people like sh*t and they won’t come!

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

Ottawa4 Comments

Stairway to Nowhere

Westsideaction

For me, one of the defining pieces of urban infrastructure in Ottawa are were the spiral staircases on the MacKenzie King Bridge. I can’t say I ever used them much, but they were so unique, so visually interesting, so “fun” looking. And now they are gone. Why are they gone? The official reason is structural decay. Hard to argue with that, eh? But I suspect other forces were at play. One is handicapism, where everything has to be designed to be universally accessible (except for roads). During the construction of the new convention centre nearby, a straight staircase and an … Continue reading Stairway to Nowhere

Ottawa4 Comments

Walking with Crackers

Westsideaction

Walking along Primrose, then along its extension east of Bronson (which is called Lisgar) I was following an uninteresting trail of debris. This debris is left by Crackers. Crackers is not a dog; Crackers is the dog’s human companion. Crackers is a half-good dog caretaker. Half good, because s/he picks up after the dog. Poop, then scoop. Into nice little tidy bags. These bags are then discarded  in their gift-wrapped state, along Primrose and Lisgar. For example:   et So, you get the pattern. But here is what makes the case, well, crackers. Right along this stretch of curb is … a … Continue reading Walking with Crackers

downtown, Ottawa, pedestrians, streetscaping, walkways

Playing Pedestrian in the Middle

Westsideaction

It’s easy to make excuses why sidewalks so often don’t meet pedestrians’ basic needs. And sometimes there are genuine instances of “falling between the gaps” Like this one Here the view westwards, along Lisgar: .Do you see it? Try this view, looking eastwards on the same sidewalk: In the foreground of pic two is Hudson Park, condo by Charlesfort. It has a wider-than-normal sidewalk, about 6′ instead of the regulated 5′. Which is good, because the walk is busy. The brick condo is by Domicile. The Domicile condo widened the walk in front of their building with cobbles and a … Continue reading Playing Pedestrian in the Middle

cycling in Ottawa, LRT, OLRT, Ottawa, pedestrians2 Comments

Side effects of the LRT construction

Westsideaction

Assuming that the LRT project about to announced on Wednesday at City Hall won’t be saying “the bids were too high, and as your fiscally prudent mayor, I am therefore cancelling it” …I think we can assume it will be going ahead. To construct it, the City is applying to close part of Old Wellington Street. Finding Wellington is rather like searching for a moving target when it crosses the Flats. Recall that the current Wellington runs down from Parliament, past the Archives building, intersects with Portage Bridge, and swings through the Flats to cross Booth and Vimy and then … Continue reading Side effects of the LRT construction