Light well, Outrement Station, Montréal Metro

As rail-starved Ottawans wait for the latest attempt at light-rail transit to creep slowly towards completion, one question remains unanswered: who will design the stations? Admittedly, this has little to do with the actual nuts and bolts of the proposed system, or to do with the all-important dilemma that is funding its construction, but it is an important question nevertheless. After all, this system will be used by tens of thousands of people every day, so it seems only logical that stations should be pleasant and interesting places to wait for a train, right?

The current Transitway system seems to be the antithesis of this philosophy. Right now, stations range from dank and unpleasant (St. Laurent), to utilitarian (the majority, like Hurdman and Lincoln Fields), to mildly pleasing (Dominion comes to mind). Transitway stations betray their 80s heritage at a glance: concrete abounds, and the ubiquitous red tubing and glass that makes up nearly every shelter quickly becomes depressing and repetitive.

It's hard not to compare to our neighbours to the east in Montreal. There, each individual Metro station was designed by a different architect, which, aside from obvious necessary similarities,…

Jane's Walk 2009 in the Byward Market

With 35 captivating neighbourhood-based walks on the program, this year's edition of Jane's Walk promises to be the most deliciously diverse version of the festival yet.

We don't have the space to preview all of the tours on offer this weekend, but we do want to draw our readers' attention to several of the walks with a strong Spacing connection.

From the outset of this blog, the people behind Apartment 613 have been huge supporters of Spacing Ottawa and it is no surprise to us that they have also brought their interest in all things urban to helping organize and promote the Ottawa version of Jane's Walk. As well, this year they'll be leading a tour of the Bank Street business strip, meeting at 2.00 PM on Saturday at the corner of Bank and Laurier and talking to owners of that ever-evolving street's most interesting businesses, live-blogging as they go.

Tonya Davidson has written a series of intriguing posts for us on the social aspect of Ottawa's statuary; she is writing  a doctoral thesis on that very topic and walkers on her tour of Ottawa are guaranteed to find out…

Did Montréal get the best Centennial legacy of them all?

1967 was a good year— the “last good year” according to Pierre Berton. Canada’s centennial sparked centennial-project craze across the country.

I first started to think about the lingering legacies of Centennial celebrations on a visit to St. Paul, Alberta. I was on a little road trip checking out ‘big things on the side of the road’ and stopped in St. Paul to visit the town’s UFO landing pad. Reading the accompanying plaque I discovered that the UFO landing pad was a centennial project. For the citizens of this Albertan town, welcoming out-of-planet visitors was the perfect way to celebrate Canada’s birthday and Canadian hospitality. While countless arenas, community centers and parks were built in honour of the Centennial, Berton outlines other more extraordinary celebratory acts. Men grew ‘centennial beards,’ one man attempted (unsuccessfully) to lead a dog team from Tuktoyaktuk to Edmonton, and a team of paddlers embarked on a canoe trip/ race following the historic route of the Voyageurs from the North Saskatchewan River to Montreal, all in celebration of the nation’s birthday. Berton also noted this more anarchist style ‘centennial project’: “It almost seemed that every…

Popcorn and a Prime Minister: the old home of Place de Ville cinema

The answer to last week's quiz is the Podium Building at Place de Ville. It seems it was a tough one; we had no right answers.

Place de Ville was once home to the Place de Ville Cinemas operated by Famous Players. The theatre opened in 1971 and closed in 1996. It opened as one of the replacements for the Capitol Theatre, which once graced the corner of Bank and Queen, a short distance away.

The old cinemas are  hidden behind office space which now encircles them. This allows the offices access to the natural light provided by the windows, while the cinemas are encased, an arrangement which reduces their perceived bulk.  The Place de Ville Cinema is unique in the city as the cinemas are piggy-backed. Cinema II accessed from the ground floor had 437 seats and Cinema I had 751 seats. The primary feature of the multi-story foyer was a mural of images of the old Capitol Theatre which rose up next to the multi-level escalator.

While it is fun to reminisce about theatres of past eras, this multiplex is a special one;…

Ottawa-the national capital, often overshadows Ottawa-the place to live. This is particularly true in architecture, where institutions like parliament, the Museum of Civilization and the National Art Gallery of Canada grab all the attention. Today, Apartment613 is featuring a photo essay by photographer Steve McCullough that explores some of the structures that - while not national treasures - help to give the city its unique style.

Steve uses his camera to bring out the extraordinary in the everyday, even capturing the infamous City Center in an attractive light.

Frequently voted the ugliest building in Ottawa, the City Centre is nonetheless a notable landmark. At the very least it makes for an unusually industrial presence in a town notable for its relative lack of industry. From certain angles and in certain light, this warehouse complex can be said to have a certain charm, but it remains a building that most residents of Chinatown and Hintonburg love to hate.

The Belltown Dome, the Old CBC Building and even Tunny's Paster get similar treatment, as do many of the houses and churches that many Ottawans walk by every day, but often never take the time to appreciate. Think of Steve's post as your own personal digital…

The Rideau river near the Herzberg Building, Carleton University

Every five years or so, Carleton University revisits its master plan. The most recent draft edition was released in September 2009. Though the campus has long failed to take advantage of its spectacular setting, its administrators have always understood the power of the site, as most brochure shots of the institution are traditionally taken from the air. From this perspective you get a sense of the way Carleton relates to both the Rideau River and the Rideau Canal. On the ground the visual effect is much different. The site is  heavily insulated with ring roads and parkways which separate the campus from its natural setting. There have been sporadic attempts to connect portions of the campus to the surrounding waterways, but in the end, the powers-that-be have always judged that the ring road was of more importance than, for example, allowing the Loeb Building to reach out to the banks of the Rideau River.

Back when Carleton moved to its present campus, the main quad served as the heart of the campus, with three buildings providing its edges. They were the MacOdrum Library, the Tory Building, and Paterson Hall. On…

Canadian Museum of Nature: Victorian, haunted, under renovation, and *not* the answer

No one has correctly guessed the correct answer to last week's puzzler. To refresh memories, here it is again:

While I currently sit unassumingly at the base of the city, stripped down, but encased, I once played host to spectacles and even the Prime Minister. What structure am I?

So it's time to break out the cheat-sheet and make with the extra hints:

1. I am not the Musuem of Nature (Victoria Memorial Building)
2. I am located in the northern portion of downtown.
3. I have a very large mechanical unit on my rooftop, and it is very apparent.
4. There is little visible evidence of my previous use left showing on my exterior, but the bones remain.

As well as sending us your guess, you can also email us to submit your own clues for upcoming editions of Where in Ottawa.

photo by Colin Henein

Courtyard behind Sussex Drive

When you're getting to know someone you think might have prospects it often a good idea to spend some sunshine hours with them before moving on to dinner and a movie and whatever might come next. Going for a walk can be a great strategy. Let them choose the route, maybe end up somewhere for a coffee, and spend a while with them where you can get a sense of who they are before there are any expectations.

One person we thought Ottawa needs to go on a daytime stroll with and get to know of a little better is George Dark, chair of the Strategic Design Review and Advisory Panel. That's the panel charged with making sure the design of the new Lansdowne will do Ottawa proud. How important is that? Well, some argue that Lansdowne Live might be the biggest city-building project we've seen in decades. So this thing we've started with George might be very serious, indeed. But beyond getting paid for it, we wondered -- why should a Toronto landscape architect care what a long-neglected site 400 kilometers away from his office really ends up looking like? Why should we trust…

First of all congratulations to Charles A-M aka Centretretowner for correctly identifying the former bank’s likeness in the central carved panel above the Wellington Street entrance. As you'll recall our first round was a two-part question:

I am a building, and I just may be the only one in the downtown core to include a depiction of myself on my exterior. Who am I, and where on me do I feature this image of me?

The first part of the question drew a blank from everyone, but once we named the building as a further clue, Charles found the depiction, located under the rays of “Thrift” up on the edge of a bluff ( see image below). It is a rather heroic likeness, but there is nothing wrong with a little artistic license now and then.

photo by Charles A-M

Just for a bit of additional information, the likeness of the Montreal head office is featured prominently on the carved panel above the bank's Sparks Street entrance, being cradled. It creates a nice bit of symmetry to have those two buildings featured above the two entrances. I have read that some identify the Ottawa head…

We've had no correct answers to our first Where in Ottawa contest. even after two times of asking, so it's time to move on!

The building in question is the Former Bank of Montreal Building at the corner of O’Connor and Wellington (through to Sparks Street). This 1932 RAIC Gold Medal winning building was designed by Ernest Barott of Barott and Blackader out of Montreal in 1929. Barott is also known for designing the Aldred Building in Montreal on Place D’Armes which was designed during the same time as the Former Bank of Montreal.

While the building clearly shows influences of a variety of styles, the best characterization of the building is Modern Classicism, which is a strain of Art Deco. The exterior of the building is directly related to the interior of the building reading like a temple with the primary volume of the building, the Main Hall reading clearly on the exterior of the building; the two flanking, shorter sections serve as support spaces to the Main Hall. On the exterior of the building the base of the building is clad in Stanstead Granite, from Quebec and Queenston Limestone, from Ontario. These materials are important…