Category: Minto Place

Confederation Line, Minto Place, pedestrians, walkways

Where loading docks and walkways conflict

Westsideaction

One of the exciting things about being in an urban environment is the variety of people doing different things, of different vehicles, and the shear jumble of activities. Sometimes it is wise to separate these activities, sometimes not. One area I am very undecided about is delivery docks for downtown buildings. Consider the south side of Constitution Square: There are several indoor loading docks, behind the garage doors. Beyond that is a busy entrance and exit to the underground parking garage. Beyond that, is the pedestrian entrance, conveniently located mid-block, opposite the mid-block transit station. The concrete surface is all broken up … Continue reading Where loading docks and walkways conflict

design, downtown, Minto Place, NCC, parking, streetscaping8 Comments

You can improve what you measure; and we aren’t

Westsideaction

This is the next in a series of posts building on the Downtown Moves articles I did in late December at the www.SpacingOttawa.ca site. The Downtown Moves team did a sort of crowd sourcing exercise to identify the problems and some solutions for the downtown enviornment. City staff, consultants, and amateur planners/keeners like myself heard three prominent speakers on urban issues, then sitting around tables of six to ten people cranked out solutions to perceived problems. The consultants then sorted these ideas into major clusters. This is a perfectly legitimate method of finding a bunch of things to do, quickly. I … Continue reading You can improve what you measure; and we aren’t

Albert St, Claridge, condos, DOTT, downtown, Laurier Ave, LRT, Lyon Street, Minto Place, NCC, OLRT, pedestrians, roads, sidewalks, Transit22 Comments

The devil rides Watson’s new LRT route

Westsideaction

Warning: long post. Go pee or get your coffee before you start reading. After so much huffing and puffing, the City has detailed its final LRT route and station locations, and their costs, to Council and the Public. The most noteworthy change has been to move the tunnel from the “cross country” deep alignment under Albert Street, then Queen Street … to one that traverses the downtown always under Queen. I have read the available material from the City justifying the move. It is a very political document, light on the technical stuff. It’s way more PR oriented than the previous reports. … Continue reading The devil rides Watson’s new LRT route

green roofs, Minto Place3 Comments

Greenwalled

Westsideaction

For several years now property managers, researchers, and environmentalists have been struggling to develop workable green walls. Most of the ones I have seen pictures of or visited have been of the “ragged” or bushy style, with the vertical plant walls containing a variety of plants densely packed into the vertical frame. The photo above is the new plant wall in Minto Place. You can see the east wall of the Minto Place Hotel through the skylight above. This greenwall is much more formal than any I have seen before. Philodendrium type plants predominate. I could not identify any blooming … Continue reading Greenwalled

green roofs, Minto Place

Greenwalled

Westsideaction

For several years now property managers, researchers, and environmentalists have been struggling to develop workable green walls. Most of the ones I have seen pictures of or visited have been of the “ragged” or bushy style, with the vertical plant walls containing a variety of plants densely packed into the vertical frame. The photo above is the new plant wall in Minto Place. You can see the east wall of the Minto Place Hotel through the skylight above. This greenwall is much more formal than any I have seen before. Philodendrium type plants predominate. I could not identify any blooming … Continue reading Greenwalled