Monthly Archives: June 2010

Gardening in Centretown

This new garden was installed last week in front of a row house on Lisgar. The corrugated metal (sewer) pipe porch pillar catches the eye, follwed by the bright painted corrugated fence panel on the right. The similar panels on the left of the walk are painted black. The sidewalk is actually at right angles to the public sidewalk, but the boardwalk cover is angled slightly, which adds interest (and possibly, like the NCC stairs along the canal which are also at a diagonal, disorienting…).

The garden plantings are in the usual modern style of few plant types repeated in patterns. The architect who lives here has done a great job of making an interesting garden to watch whilst walking by.   It may take several minutes of observing the garden before noticing the door step has been raised, which contributes to the “different” look and feel.

I like this garden because much of the result comes from good design rather than buckets of money.

Gardening in Centretown

This new garden was installed last week in front of a row house on Lisgar. The corrugated metal (sewer) pipe porch pillar catches the eye, follwed by the bright painted corrugated fence panel on the right. The similar panels on the left of the walk are painted black. The sidewalk is actually at right angles to the public sidewalk, but the boardwalk cover is angled slightly, which adds interest (and possibly, like the NCC stairs along the canal which are also at a diagonal, disorienting…).

The garden plantings are in the usual modern style of few plant types repeated in patterns. The architect who lives here has done a great job of making an interesting garden to watch whilst walking by.   It may take several minutes of observing the garden before noticing the door step has been raised, which contributes to the “different” look and feel.

I like this garden because much of the result comes from good design rather than buckets of money.

383 Albert, transit oriented parking requirements

The pictures above show the Claridge proposal for three residential (condo) towers in downtown Ottawa. As noted in a post a few days ago, they are to be built on the lot between the Crowne Plaza Hotel and 151 Bay condos. The current parking lot location abuts Barabarella’s dancing establishment, which will remain after this project is built.

The two 28 storey and one 22 storey towers will have approx 481 apartments. They are located directly above the proposed west downtown LRT station which is under Albert Street. Perhaps those delighted looking ladies in the photomontage just exited the LRT and are headed towards Minto Place …

The city rationalizes a big part of its LRT expenditure on intensified infill development around the stations. As part of this intense Transit-Oriented-Development (TOD) the plans call for high density and reduced parking.

Claridge is proposing to provide 365 residential parking spaces (365spaces/481units=75% parking). This is less than what developers usually provide for condos, for eg along Richmond Road, West Wellie, or Champagne Avenue they provide 113% (1.13spaces per unit). Better developers provide reserved prime spots for VirtuCar since each VirtuCar satisfies approximately 17 households, ie eliminates 17 parking stalls which cost developers approx $30k each to build (several developers I talked to said the 30k cost/price is cost recovery).  Claridge is also providing 241 bike parking spaces (50%) which I suspect is way too low.

So what does the City of Ottawa require as the MAXIMUM number of spaces the developer can provide for this Transit Oriented Development, so as to encourage people to walk and use transit?? Why … the maximum number of spaces within 600m of a transit station is … wait for it … 722 spaces, or 150% parking. Think about that: the city’s maximum number of spaces to encourage transit usage is HIGHER than developers want to provide or normally provide either in the downtown core or inner suburbs. Is our TOD policy as farcical as it looks? Makes me wonder what other marvellous things are in that policy.

Hintonburg wall mural

This new mural is facing the parking lot entrance to the Hintonburg Community Centre on West Wellie.
It has all the characteristics of a good location: blank block wall, facing a parking lot entrance and parking spaces, visible with great sight lines from the street.
In the foreground is the volunteer planted perennial garden recently installed by … hintonburgers.

383 Albert, transit oriented parking requirements

The pictures above show the Claridge proposal for three residential (condo) towers in downtown Ottawa. As noted in a post a few days ago, they are to be built on the lot between the Crowne Plaza Hotel and 151 Bay condos. The current parking lot location abuts Barabarella’s dancing establishment, which will remain after this project is built.

The two 28 storey and one 22 storey towers will have approx 481 apartments. They are located directly above the proposed west downtown LRT station which is under Albert Street. Perhaps those delighted looking ladies in the photomontage just exited the LRT and are headed towards Minto Place …

The city rationalizes a big part of its LRT expenditure on intensified infill development around the stations. As part of this intense Transit-Oriented-Development (TOD) the plans call for high density and reduced parking.

Claridge is proposing to provide 365 residential parking spaces (365spaces/481units=75% parking). This is less than what developers usually provide for condos, for eg along Richmond Road, West Wellie, or Champagne Avenue they provide 113% (1.13spaces per unit). Better developers provide reserved prime spots for VirtuCar since each VirtuCar satisfies approximately 17 households, ie eliminates 17 parking stalls which cost developers approx $30k each to build (several developers I talked to said the 30k cost/price is cost recovery).  Claridge is also providing 241 bike parking spaces (50%) which I suspect is way too low.

So what does the City of Ottawa require as the MAXIMUM number of spaces the developer can provide for this Transit Oriented Development, so as to encourage people to walk and use transit?? Why … the maximum number of spaces within 600m of a transit station is … wait for it … 722 spaces, or 150% parking. Think about that: the city’s maximum number of spaces to encourage transit usage is HIGHER than developers want to provide or normally provide either in the downtown core or inner suburbs. Is our TOD policy as farcical as it looks? Makes me wonder what other marvellous things are in that policy.

Hintonburg wall mural

This new mural is facing the parking lot entrance to the Hintonburg Community Centre on West Wellie.
It has all the characteristics of a good location: blank block wall, facing a parking lot entrance and parking spaces, visible with great sight lines from the street.
In the foreground is the volunteer planted perennial garden recently installed by … hintonburgers.