I am often struck in Europe by how much they promote vacations within the home country or inside Europe. And not just de luxe vacations. Here’s a grocery store chain poster for local weekends not-far-away: Note they are not so … Continue reading Urban Design (xv) Local promotions
European cities have livlier street life than we do. Much of this is due to deliberate design choices, like limiting car traffic. And providing benches: Our new Official Plan is to make Ottawa attractive for those new age employers and … Continue reading Urban Design (xiv) Benches, cafes in fine mixed use areas
The Netherlands, and Europe generally, has a reputation amongst North American progressives as transit, train, and walkable-city nirvana. The reality is quite different. Suburbanization is accelerating, and with it, ring roads and strip development. Car commuting is as popular there … Continue reading Urban Detail (xi) Wooden bridges
Lincoln Fields is a major transfer station on the transitway and will in the future be a major transfer point from LRT Confederation Line to buses serving the further west end neighbourhoods. Here is an aerial view of the station … Continue reading Phase 2 Lincoln Fields, west, and south stations
In addition to converting minor urban streets into cycling-friendly facilities… or removing a parking lane from very wide streets to make a cycling facility … we can find entire roads or multi-lane freeways removed to make way for pedestrian and … Continue reading Urban detail (ii) repurposing roads and streets
Enough of multi-part stories touring European housing projects. Let’s switch to somethings much briefer, more immediately rewarding. Thus starts a new series of very short stories showing only a few details of good (or occasionally bad) urban design that might … Continue reading Urban Detail (i)
Nordhavn definitely appealed to me more than Orestad. A big part of that is scale. Another part is that it seemed less out to impress me with “oh wow” buildings. Especially when those buildings are set apart (“big buildings in … Continue reading Nordhavn (viii): some miscellany
Long-sufferings readers here may recall the unfortunate initial design and build of the portion of Booth going from Albert Street, over the new OTrain Confederation Line, to the Macdonald Parkway. It was justifiable to call this a freeway design. It was as inhospitable as possible for pedestrians and cyclists, despite the location of Pimisi Station at the midpoint. A “fix” has been in the works for a long time, and the most urgently needed portion is now in place. And more improvements are in the works (read on !) Lets review the new design, which is substantially complete. Here is … Continue reading Booth Freeway Fix continues
Yes, it is somewhat exhausting to take in all the new buildings in Clichy-Batignolles. So many seemed to yell “look at ME !” Most everybuilding had something that attracted my interest, be it balcony design, shutters, landscaping, mixed use, or … Continue reading Clichy-Batignolles, Paris, the occupied zone, walk 2
The urban redevelopment scheme in the Clichy neighbourhood of central Paris is centre around Martin Luther King Park. It is 10ha. and has 14 access points from the surrounding ring of developments. The park is divided into two major portions … Continue reading Clichy-Batignolles, Paris, MLK Park
The Clichy-Batignolles plan is highly dependent on the stacking of different uses along its western edge, facing the St Lazare railway tracks, where a track level podium base holds locomotive workshops, with parking above, with offices and apartments above that. … Continue reading Clichy-Batignolles, Paris, rue Cardinet
The City of Paris decided some time ago it could not meet its climate change objectives by staying with the Haussman plan for six storey buildings. More and more mid and high rise buildings are appearing in Paris, not just … Continue reading Clichy-Batignolles, Paris, the plan
How do other western cities reconstruct major areas of their inner urban core? I set off to visit 7 such major urban renewal projects in Europe. I added a few more neighbourhoods on the way, bringing the total to over … Continue reading A Walk in Paris
Here’s part 2 of the Portland series, from 2015. They did an excellent job of creating lively streets. We haven’t done nearly as well here in Ottawa. Yet the formulas for success are out there. Do note that since this story was first written, Claridge’s Flats project has greatly improved, with benches and gardens and resident participation and involvement growing. (We might look at that in a future story). Alas, the city continues to shun the area, except to collect fees and taxes, but not providing so much as a tot lot for the scads of kids that live there. … Continue reading Walking Portland’s SouthWaterfront streets
As part of a retrospective of previous stories on new urban neighbourhoods, lets revisit Portland’s South waterfront new urban neighbourhood. While the details of what gets built and how, may vary, new urban neighbourhoods are tending to look more and more the same. After all, architects and planners read the same world-circulation magazines and journals, attend conferences, and share ideas (sometimes better, sometimes worse). It’s part of that world homogenization that sometimes makes it hard to tell just where one is. Yes, there is a loss of sense of place. Portland is interesting because it was a strong influence on … Continue reading The view from Portland
Longfields Station is on the transitway. In Barrhaven. Someday, probably not in my lifetime, it may be a LRT station. But it works just fine now as a transitway station for buses. It is not a major hub. I dont … Continue reading Is this the best we can do at a transit station?
With the increasing popularity of vehicular homicide as a form of political expression, our public spaces have become less welcoming, forever. Which is of course how terrorists and political extremists win. Fortunately, the public memory is short, and decorative planters, … Continue reading Protect me from motorists? terrorists? whomever !
Two of the intensification projects we looked at in the last few days are on Traditional Main Streets. The City’s official plan for TMS calls for up to six story apartments, built lot line to lot line to create a … Continue reading Rules are for Others, part 3, Gladstone Avenue
Ottawa has an Official Plan (OP), and multiple levels of various sub plans, including many — the CDP or Community Design Plans — which aim at intensification. Indeed, CDP’s could be called City Densification Plans. So, over on Somerset Street … Continue reading Not What the Plan envisioned, part 2, Somerset edition
Occasionally an intensification proposal comes along that seems to fit most of the rules (guidelines, really…). So let’s look at what Project1 Studio is proposing for 440 Bronson, just north of Gladstone. The site used to house Guytel Phones, and … Continue reading Intensification by the rules, part 1
Albert-Scott Interim alignment, west from Champagne Avenue Open house 11 Dec 2017 at Tom Brown arena, 6pm to 8.30pm This story is mostly aimed at those citizens who are keen on city planning and the details of what is planned … Continue reading Scott Street interim alignment meeting Dec 11
The City is hosting an “open house” on Tuesday (Nov 28, 5.30pm onwards ) to show their plans for the future Albert and Slater Streets between Empress (the Good Companions) and Waller (Rideau Centre, UOttawa U). Here are some things … Continue reading West Side Transportation Cornucopia, part viii – Albert-Slater alert
Let’s look at that confusing stretch of road between Bayview Avenue and City Centre Avenue. Legally known as Albert Street, many folks persist in calling it Scott Street (which only runs west of Bayview). It’s a bleak and uninviting bit … Continue reading West Side Transportation Cornucopia, part vi – Bayview Station overpass
As west side portions of the Confederation Line advance in construction, more fall landscaping is going in, like these trees planted on the north side of Bayview Station: I vaguely recall that the terms of the NCC lending the rail … Continue reading Confederation Line Forest
Recall that we spent the last four days in Barrhaven, specifically around The Haven, a multi-faith housing cluster near Longfields Station. The Haven design removes most “private” space in favour of “shared” spaces, per the model common in social housing … Continue reading Barrhaven, The Haven, and Cityview
