THE PROJECT

The project in 2004 will look at the site on Richmond Road (495 Richmond Road) that is in the process of being sold by the City of Ottawa to the Canderel Corporation.

Canderel is a Montreal based firm that came to Ottawa in 1983 and has been active in this area ever since.

Canderel is a sophisticated development group which has a strong grasp of both urban design requirements and the financing that is required (or access to financing) that is required to get large complex real estate projects off the ground.

This project is an example of:

neo-urbanist principles

mixed use

densification

intensification

iconic architecture

community involvement and opposition.

This site is the gateway to Westboro, an area of west Ottawa that is going through a rapid gentrification process that has seen huge increases in demand for commercial space from small and large retailers. House prices are going up, traffic is increasing, people are worried that there is too much of a good thing going on.

There was intense opposition in the community to the mega store (Loblaws) coming to the area. The usual suspects (too much traffic, ...) were trotted out by opposing community activists.

Canderel is proposing to build a six storey building along Richmond Road in a street-friendly replication of the Westboro Village 500 metres to the east. The building will have commercial retail on the ground floor with five storey of apartments above. The building will step down to four storeys on its western boundary to better fit in with the historic Maple Lawn gardens to the west.

Canderel is maintaining that this new building can be built under the existing zoning which has an FSI of 1.0. The new building would join the existing office building (The Dennis Coolican Building, DCB) on the site.

The DCB was build in the late 1980s and is a reasonably attractive office complex of eight storeys or so-- it is the largest source of employment in the Westboro area. Like many office buildings built at that time (and still to this day), it is plunked down in the middle of the site and does not relate to its neighbours or the street in any way. It is simply surrounded by a sea of parking.

Consequently, one has to give marks to both Canderel and the City of Ottawa for deciding to redevelop this site. It is the gateway site to Westboro from the west. It is clearly ready for redevelopment and the market is ready to accept new space-- both commercial retail and and apartments and condos.

So market timing is good. Also, the concept of infilling, densifying and intensifying the existing urban area is gaining widespread acceptance amongst planners in Ottawa and their political masters.

The community opoosition (dare we say it, NIMBY) is largely in reaction to the later phases of the project that require a rezoing to increase FSI to 3.5. This increase in FSI will allow Canderel to build a 20 storey condo tower by tearing down the western half of the existing office tower and then, in a third phase, tear down all but two storeys of the eastern half of the office buidling (keeping the first two storeys for community uses) to build a 23 storey condo tower.

Community activists say this is too much density and too much traffic.

One might ask a few other questions as well:

1. Should Canderel take down the office space? Remember, this is the largest source of employment in Westboro and the whole neo-urbanist concept is based on not only more density but more mixing together of uses. So eliminating office uses might not be the best plan. The fastest growing phenomenon in Canada and the US is the amount of home based work going on. This makes better, more intense use of our huge investment in our residential structures. People will work in a basement but like to live in a castle. Here is the opportunity to do both on one site. Should we throw that away?

2. Many Euro cities achive very high densities with structures and designs that are four to eight storeys. Personally, I am for more density in most circumstances and, from a macro point of view, we actually will end up with less traffic from greater density and intensity since people can, say, walk to work or walk to the grocery store. So prima facie, we end up with less vehicular traffic not more overall. But could Canderel achive the density they want without the two towers on this site? There is no doubt that towers mean that you get more green space but with the Ottawa River Parkway and Maple Lawn Garden next door, do you need more greenspace. I have never particularily liked the type of green space that one gets around office or condo towers anyway.

As a developer or architect, you need to develop a deep feeling for the land before you can establish a functional program or design concept. So you need to walk around the site, see the neighborhood, talk to people involved and then get something developed that meets site conditions, economic tests and has community approval, if possible.

This project has it all-- nimby backlash, neo-urbanist design concepts and opportunities, political controversy, economic returns.

Outputs from this Project should include:

1. your version of the functional program

2. aerial photo and street level photos of the site

3. preliminary sketches as you develop your concept (freehand)

4. concept plan drawings-- site plan, floor plans, elevation (CAD preferred)

5. Cost/Benefit Analysis (CBA)

6. a massing model (Computer or RL (Real Life))

7. a name for the tower project (when you give something a name like 'the Palladium' or 'London Eye', you give the idea a life before it exists in RL)

8. feedback from the community, planners and others on your design (you may wish to use my online survey for this too: http://www.dramatispersonae.org/DensificationSurvey/SurveyDensification.htm. It is oriented towards community attitudes to development but you can use it for reaction to your project too.)

9. put your material on a PWS (Personal Web Site). PWSs are very important for professionals-- even basic ones like mine serve a useful purpose. You can read more about why PWSs are important on: http://www.dramatispersonae.org/DesignEconomics/PersonalWebSite.htm. It's a couple of pages, some of it fanciful but worth reading I think. The site will prompt you for a user id and password to read this-- you will need to ask me for that.

Photos

Office Tower in the Middle of Nowhere	Consulting with the Neighbours	Residential Tower on Eastern Boundary
Name Your Project	Historic Maple Lawn Gardens to the West	Ottawa River View to North
On-street Parking Allowed/Westboro ' Main Street' to the East	Rear View to the East	Office Interior Atrium

Canderel Preliminary Massing Plan


Canderel Preliminary Plot Plan


Canderel Preliminary Elevation

Put your desig to the Neo-Urbanist Test.

ASSIGNMENTS SUMMARY

This course is project based and essay based, which together with an in-class final exam, make up the bulk of the marks. The balance is from attendance and course participation.

Students will be required to write one essay on a choice of topics including student-selected topics. The latter is subject to approval of the lecturer.

There will be one project that will be assigned in teams of two students per team. Projects will involve a design element, an analytical analysis and real world interviews. Students will be required to select a site, provide a provocative, iconic, creative, mixed use design that embodies neo-urbanist principles and then to gauge neighbor and approval authority reaction through in person interviews (using videography) and online methods (organizing Instant Messaging conferences). Projects will involve written material and presentation material. Projects will be presented for review at the end of the course. Students may be asked to present their essay results as well. Students will be expected to be able to master web development skills and post their assignments to their personal web sites.

Please form teams (of two, preferrably) for the design project.

Aerial Photos of all of Ottawa are available at: http://atlas.city.ottawa.on.ca/mapping/atlas/atlas.htm.

This is a great tool to use. Obviously, you also need to walk a site, photograph it, look at the neighborhood, adjacent uses, transportation links, special views, water features, natural features, preservation, heritage, archaeological, and much more besides.