I used to think it would be fun to drive a sidewalk plow, especially when cars blocked a sidewalk I could just ram bam slam into them, crushing them out of the way. Somerset Street shows a different reality. Life has its challenges for us all. Continue reading Parking meter pinch
Everyone is familiar with the New Year’s resolutions to lose weight, to get fit, to go on a diet. For the better part of a year the Rescue Bronson group in downtown Ottawa have been pushing back against the City’s plans to rebuild Bronson without first looking at what should be done with the road. Is it so perfect today that no improvements could be made? Is its interaction with the adjacent community, landlords, tenants, businesses, pedestrians, transit users … so obviously beneficent that no one need inquire if it could be improved? Or was the city just trying to slip a 1950’s … Continue reading New Year’s Diets: for roads
A sales office trailer showed up this week on Preston at Sydney Street, just a half block north of Carling Avenue. The photo above is taken from beside the CIBC, at the foot of the Little Italy Arch. The trailer belongs to Mastercraft Starwood, the condo builder. Readers may recall that they are building a glass box condo on Parkdale opposite Tunney’s Pasture, and on Lisgar by the former plastics store (theirs are the big adverts that show a lady sitting on a …). They also bought the Aquerello site on Champagne Avenue south, beside the dog shelter. It had been rumoured they bought the … Continue reading Purely speculation, of course
This infill on Eccles is now occupied. The occupants had it designed and built for themselves. You can read about it on their blog www.37Eccles.com. The scale is compatible with other buildings on the street. Personally, I like many of the homes built in this style, with exterior plywood panels and metal siding. Actually, I prefer corrugated metal siding rather than the smooth stuff, but that’s just me. Does anyone know the name of this architectural style? I call it shoebox, because that is what it reminds me of, a stack of shoeboxes. But that doesn’t sound very complimentary, so … Continue reading Modern “shoebox” infill
Infill homes should somehow blend in with their neighborhood. Unless they stand out as radically different (see for eg, those infills that look like oversize shoe boxes with plywood and bent metal exteriors). I confess to being quite baffled about what works or doesn’t. Like porn, I know it when I see it (err, that didn’t quite come out the way I meant…). Which means it is subjective. The house above sort of blends in. It’s the right width, and shape, but suffers from a garage door front (the city doesn’t regulate garage door frontages on single family homes). Nonetheless, … Continue reading Infill near St Anthony’s school
The City owns a parking lot on the north side of Albert, between Brickhill Street and Commissioner (ie, just west of Bronson, on LeBreton Flats). On the western edge of the lot, they installed landscaping consisting of a low berm, some swizzle-stick-caliper trees, and some shrubs. It’s enough to gently direct motorists to the proper driveway entrance. Then the City sends a grader to plow the lot. Notice that a grader has its snow-clearing blade in the centre of the vehicle. To get to the edge of the parking lot, half the considerable length of the grader must extend beyond the … Continue reading Equipment size matters
Earlier this fall, the edge of the Nanny Goat Hill between Upper Lorne Place and (upper) and (lower) Primrose was chewed out and footings installed. Some previous posts showed details of the lot, and then the first floor foam block foundation system: http://westsideaction.wordpress.com/2010/06/27/cliff-becomes-hole/, and athttp://westsideaction.wordpress.com/2010/11/13/lego-build-a-house/ and at http://westsideaction.wordpress.com/2010/10/28/bumpy-stairs/ and at http://westsideaction.wordpress.com/2010/06/15/nanny-goat-hill-infill/ and at http://westsideaction.wordpress.com/2010/05/22/stairway-to-development/ The bottom two floors, (the lower Primrose levels) are foam+concrete walls. The third floor is level with Upper Lorne, and will have the garage level opening off that street. The fourth floor (when viewed from Primrose) aka the second floor (when viewed from Upper Lorne) will be half interior space and … Continue reading Infills in progress
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health: The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow. Crunchy numbers About 3 million people visit the Taj Mahal every year. This blog was viewed about 30,000 times in 2010. If it were the Taj Mahal, it would take about 4 days for that many people to see it. In 2010, there were 359 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 716 posts. The busiest day of the year was August 4th with 564 views. The most popular post that day … Continue reading 2010 in review
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
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?
The City released its first report on the test bores along the route of the proposed LRT through the downtown of Ottawa (DOTT). There was a lot of confusing fuss over the Campus Station (is there too much rock or not enough? will the tunnel there be bored or cut-and-cover? why would a open-to-the-surface slope into the tunnel cost about the same as a tunnel itself?) and not enough answers. There was also some fuss about the existence of fault lines crossing the DOTT route. Unfortunately, no one seemed to have the time to call an expert or even a geology professor at … Continue reading Finding Fault with DOTT
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
Arlington National Cemetery, Washington, DC: 5,000 wreaths donated by the Worcester Wreath Co. of Harrington, Maine. Continue reading Silent Night
If you squint your eyes just right, this porch furniture evokes the rear end of a late 50’s early 60’s big American car. You know, the era where cars were imagined as rocket ships or jet airplanes. What would our neighborhoods be without front porches? Where would we keep our bikes, our recycling bins, where would old furniture get a second chance? Continue reading Front Porch Cruisin’
Some infill houses are going in on the west end of Elm Street, near the Just Rite storage building, which formerly was the Vimy House war museum workshops, and before that the Champagne Streetcar Barn. Champagne was a mayor of Ottawa. The old barn is the building to the left, in the picture; it has a new stucco façade facing the street but the original brick walls on the residential sides. The backhoe is digging trenches in the street to connect to sewer and water mains. Looking at the piles of dirt dug up, notice all the timbers. These are … Continue reading Archeological Dig on Elm Street
Steer your footsteps towards the City Centre complex on City Centre Avenue. At the southern end of the ground floor (near the Somerset end) there is a new bakery. A big one. Artisin Bakery has until recently been primarily a wholesale bakery, with about 70 high-end hotels and restaurants as clients. Now, from their new premises at City Centre, they have opened a new retail outlet for breads, cookies, pastries, tarts, cakes, and sandwiches. Kevin Mathieson is the owner. A Winnipegger, he has had his hands in flour forever. He apprenticed with the best in New York, Paris, Monaco, and Zürich. He uses organic grains, … Continue reading Rising Action
Two items: the farmer’s market, and the snow stomp And, if you are interested in something cheaper and involved free food and friendship, the Plant Pool Recreation Assoc (PPRA) is having a snow stomp on Saturday between one and three pm., in Plouffe Park (corner of Somerset and Preston,where Little Italy meets Chinatown. It’s the Annual Rink Stomping Kickoff Event. The first stage in make ice for the hockey rink or free skating space, is packing down a snow base. Therefore, we need anyone interested in stretching their legs on their cross country skis or snowshoes to do a few laps of … Continue reading Local news
For several years Chinatown has been struggling. The arrival of big-box asian-food supermarkets in the suburbs, and the shift of Asian families to suburban living, has resulted in a number of vacancies along Somerset Street. The construction of the Chinatown Royal Arch is the first step in rejuvenating the area. The second step is the construction, in 2011, of new streetscaping from Preston up the hill to Booth. This will include new, wider brick sidewalks, lots more trees and plantings, new ped-scale lighting, benches and other street furniture. This has made a major improvement to Preston; similar but unique streetscaping should boost Chinatown’s … Continue reading Planning Exercise (v): Chinatown lives
Whilst walking on Somerset near Hartman’s, I saw workers hoisting railings up the side of a building. The hoisting rope was connected to a roof-mounted winch and arm. The rope brushed these satellite dishes, causing one to pivot a bit, and rock. This reminded me of a curious phenomenon that relates satellite dishes to “market” and “social” housing politics. Here is a social housing building. Typically for Ottawa, it is festooned with satellite dishes. Ditto for the coop seniors apartment building across the street from my house. Or the coop townhouses up the street. Or the ones in Hintonburg. It seems that … Continue reading Planning exercise (iv)
Christ Church Cathedral and their planners/architects held a public meeting last Thursday to explain their proposed real estate development on the Sparks/Bronson/Queen block. the project was well covered in the Citizen Dec 2nd: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/entertainment/Christ+Church+Cathedral+gets+promised+land/3915157/story.html and by a Nov 23rd blog post here: http://westsideaction.wordpress.com/2010/11/23/heritage-in-context/. I attended the public meeting mostly to see how the idea went over with the crowd. First up was the Dean of the Cathedral, who explained what the Church does, how much it needs money, and how real estate development would support the ongoing good works of the church. This was well presented and set a positive framework … Continue reading Planning Exercise (iii)
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)
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)
This group of stacked townhouses happens to be in Centrepointe, but similar stacked units can be found throughout the city. The ground+lower level units have a balcony; the one-floor-up+third floor bedroom levels have both a real balcony off the living level, and a tiny one on the bedroom level above. The tiny one, I was once told, is required by the fire department, who must swoop in with their ladders to rescue people trapped on the bedroom level of the burning upper units… But those townhouses shown, just like the ones in downtown Ottawa on Gloucester at Lyon, also have an additional floor, … Continue reading Loft dwelling toast
You’ve read posts here before about this house on Lisgar. A very nice garden was installed here during the summer.http://westsideaction.wordpress.com/2010/06/29/gardening-in-centretown/ It emphasizes shapes and form using plants, and there was the corrugated artwork on the right side. An architect lives here (how could we guess?) and at night large paintings similar to the exterior corrugated one can be seen inside. This week, I noticed the new sculpture in the centre of the garden. Maybe I watched Toy Story once too often, but I found myself saying hello to Mr Potato Head as I walked by. I hope that tree wasn’t harmed … Continue reading Mr Potato Head as Art
Parts of the Dalhousie neighborhood have few parks. One nice one is Primrose Park, between Rochester and Preston. It is hilly (the hills are made of rubble and probably- contaminated brownfield dirt from the former industrial sites). One set of those hills makes for good winter sliding. Bizarrely, the park planners from the City in the late 70’s insisted that the park is not open in the winter, because the paths are not plowed, and therefore refused residents’ appeals not to put trees and benches at the foot of the otherwise ideal sliding slopes. In went multiple benches, garbage cans, … Continue reading Preparing for winter (ii)
