Bronson and Somerset still closed

Construction on Bronson Avenue resumed a while ago, with the Somerset and Bronson intersection closed from the beginning of April to the end of May. Other work has also been going on, such as the finishing touches of the segment south of Somerset, in particular the sidewalks and landscaping between MacLaren and Gladstone (which Eric Darwin has recently blogged about). The impact on Chinatown can be expressed in this single photo:

This next picture gives a bit of an idea of why the intersection has to be closed for so long. There's a mess of stuff underneath that needs to be replaced. It's a three-dimensional soup of cables, wires, pipes, drains, and sewers (much of the latter were installed late last year and over the winter).

 The cables—which include electricity, various telecoms, and traffic signals—all feed into these chambers to split off for distribution to different parts of the city. Bronson and Somerset are both long streets that cross the city, and the space underneath this intersection is at a premium.

Ten days (er, nights) after the last photo was taken, the old chamber had been broken apart, and the cables routed thusly. Wooden formwork was being assembled around the jumble of wires to create a new chamber. Precast utility chambers exist, but behind a fairly small size, they become to complex and it's simpler just to build a custom one on the spot. (They also did this just to the left in the intersection, roughly under where the backhoe is)

They have to do this at every intersection, which is why each one gets closed for a few weeks. Here's an eye-popping 3D photo of one of these chambers being assembled late last June, at the Arlington intersection:

Source photos for the 3D images: Left, Right

The 20-year-old Chinatown lantern-style pedestrian lights were removed this past Friday, and only a few bits remain. Here the base with wiring and the baseplate cover are still here in the foreground, and in the far side of the temporary asphalt sidewalk you can make out some lantern heads and a banner arm bracket.

As with the construction last year on Somerset between Booth and Preston, these will be replaced with the new design. Since Somerset has a BIA and Bronson doesn't, the Somerset motif will dominate through the intersection; the black Bronson lights will pick back up north of the intersection. This will still leave some sections of Somerset with the old lights (which are simple enough to replace or repair) and their associated underground wiring (which aren't). And since those sections already had their century-old underground infrastructure replaced a couple decades ago, the lights aren't going to be changed anytime soon between Bay and Bronson and between Cambridge and Booth.

Luckily, we were able to get the block of Somerset from Bronson to the Arch re-done as part of the streetscaping for Bronson, which was necessary to re-align the lanes and widen the sidewalks. The very beginnings of this is visible in the form of sawcuts along the sidewalk edge to take out the curb along Somerset in front of the gas station up to the arch:

So it's not all bad; we are getting some streetscaping replacements, repairs, and in some cases even improvements (though I had to keep myself from whacking a worker who complained to me about how hard it is to fit everything into such narrow sidewalks and had we thought about removing a lane of traffic!) As with the Bronson/Gladstone intersection last year, they intend to finish all of the curbs and asphalt and other things in the Bronson/Somerset intersection before it reopens, so that they won't have to close that intersection again (though Bronson will still be closed from Somerset to Laurier).

Oh, and if you don't remember what the intersection looked like still open and you've still got your 3D glasses out, check out this post from February of the Chinatown Gateway Arch in 3D with the intersection behind it.

Work south of MacLaren should be complete in June, and work from Somerset northward should be complete around the end of September. That'll be it for construction on Bronson until the city's massive LRT project is finished in 2018.

3D Thursday: 1966 Batmobile at Ottawa City Hall in 3D

This mornming, the Batmobile is visiting City Hall as a publicity stunt for Ottawa Comicon, and will be at Marion Dewar Plaza at 11:45am. I grabbed a 3D shot of it as it was being prepared for its appearance. Click for full size:

I also tweeted a photo of four By-Law officers (including a By-Law supervisor) eyeing the car, but none of them were up to giving it a parking ticket.
[Tune in on Thursdays at noon for a new 3D image. View the 3D label for other posts with 3D images. 3D FAQ] [Look for more one-photo posts under the label Singles]

Cruising on Elgin

The Ottawa Police Service has new cruisers, based on the Ford Taurus, rather than the familiar Ford Crown Victoria, which has been discontinued. As reported by the Citizen, these were released in February, after a technical hiccup.

Here's one heading up Elgin Street in front of the former Elgin Theatre (now Harvey's, Quizno's, and Johnny Farina)

Back last July, the Ottawa Sun wrote about the new cruisers, and a video on their article gives a tour of some of the features inside.

[Look for more one-photo posts under the label Singles]

Jane's Walks this weekend!

In case you haven't heard, Jane's Walk Ottawa happens this weekend. I haven't given any since the Rescue Bronson Jane's Walk I gave two years ago. It was fun, but a lot of work. So instead I'll try to go out on a couple of other people's walks. Here are some I'm looking at that are within Somerset Ward, with the description on the Jane's Walk Ottawa website linked to the headings:

Apt613 Blog Walk of Somerset
Saturday, May 4, 2013, 2pm-3:30pm
Meet at Dundonald Park, Somerset and Bay

Staying on the Bronson theme of my 2011 walk, Apartment 613 is holding a walk in Chinatown, whose businesses are suffering from the closure of the Bronson/Somerset intersection. This one has a neat format, where they'll interview some of the business owners in the same way they do interviews for their blog entries, only it'll be live and you'll be there!

Local Confectionaries
Saturday, May 4, 2013, 4pm-5pm
Meet at Somerset and Preston

A great segue from the Apt613 walk, local cartoonist/illustrator Colin White is giving a tour of the corner stores which feature often in his drawings. I don't think I've met him in person, but I like his depictions of familiar hyperlocal landmarks.

Jane's Eye View of Little Italy Development
Saturday, May 4, 2013, noon-1pm
Start/end Pub Italia^B, Preston Street

Little Italy resident and Preston Street BIA Executive Director Lori Mellor will be giving an overview of some of the proposed developments at the south end of Little Italy, all taller than the tallest building in Ottawa! It's not all about the tall buildings, though, there is a small-scale residential community in there too which is fundamental to the charm of Little Italy.

Bike Tour: How Ottawa's bike infrastructure is changing
Sunday, May 5, 2013, 2pm-3:30pm
War Museum Booth/Vimy^B to Corktown Footbridge (by bike)

This is one of a number of bike tours being offered this weekend by Alex deVries of Citizens for Safe Cycling. This one starts at the Canadian War Museum, where CfSC valet-parks thousands of bikes each year during RBC Royal Bank Bluesfest (under my supervision) and takes us over to the other end of Somerset Ward, to the Corktown Footbridge, which also has significance to me.

Finding the bones of Wellington Street: a last chance to walk the old route
Saturday, May 4, 2013, 2pm-4pm
Bank & Wellington (Bank of Canada plaza) to City Centre/Bayview

Covering similar ground but in the other direction, Hintonburg jack-of-many-trades Dennis Van Staalduinen gives a walking tour of Wellington Street, which has played a fascinating part in the history of Ottawa. A two-hour tour can only include a fraction of Wellington's history, but he'll give it a go, including the story of why there are two Wellington Streets.

Engineer's Stories About Ottawa's Built Heritage
Saturday, May 4, 2013, 10am-noon
NAC Canal-side entrance^B to Alexandra Bridge^B

Hagit Hadaya, who has been involved in the Centretown Heritage Committee, and Meg Hamilton, executive director of the Council of Heritage Organizations of Ottawa, are two of the four professional heritage buffs giving this walk on Ottawa's oldest heritage landmarks. These folks know their stuff, and if you're into Ottawa heritage, you wouldn't want to miss it, even if it does take you out of Centretown!

Ottawa's Building and Monument Stones
Sunday, May 5, 2013, 1pm-3pm
Centennial Flame (Parliament Hill) to Ottawa City Hall^B

I can't say I've met Quentin Gall, but his bio on the Jane's Walk site sure makes this walk about building materials look rather interesting. Stone has played a big part in the development of Ottawa's civic character—especially the nationally-significant and civic buildings such as the Langevin Block, pictured above—and Quentin has apparently written the book on the subject! This walk also conveniently leads us to the last event...

Jane's Walk Wrap-Up Party
Sunday, May 5, 2013, 4pm-8pm
Lieutenant's Pump

All participants of the Jane's Walks are invited to come to the after-party at the Pump to trade notes and share stories. I always enjoy hearing about the walks I didn't make it to that year.

Maybe I'll even see you there!

Times/locations of walks are subject to change. Please check the Jane's Walk website before heading out.
^BBixi station at or near the start/end point of this walk.

Special CCCA Board meeting on Tuesday

After last week's community meeting to discuss the Centretown CDP, the CCCA's Board of Directors will meet tomorrow evening, Tuesday, April 30, at 7pm at City Hall (Billings Room*) to discuss the community response, and as always these meetings are open to the public.

There will also be a public presentation from the City tomorrow (April 30) afternoon at 1:30 at City Hall, where they will reveal their reaciton to the requests made by developers and community association when the CDP was endorsed by the City's Planning Committee on March 26. (This staff presentation was initially to be to some key stakeholders, including the CCCA, but was opened up to the public as consolation for City staff not attending the CCCA's public meeting.)

As discussed last week, the community consultation was to discuss a deal between the CCCA's board and the development community to go to the City seeking changes to the latest draft of the Centretown CDP. The most controversial portion has to do with tall buildings in Mid-Centretown, the area roughly bounded by Cooper, Elgin, Kent and Argyle, whose zoning would increase the height limit to 9 storeys from the current 4 1/2 (Elgin would remain at around 5 storeys). The residents of this area dominated the audience at last week's public meeting.

The latest draft of the City's plan, responding to concerns from the development industry, introduced a provision for "Landmark Buildings". These could be much, much taller than 9 storeys (potentially 30 to 50 storeys), if they met a sizeable list of strict requirements. Such requirements incldue 40% of the area devoted to greenspace or a public amenity, and that each such property must border on three streets, one of which must be Kent, Metcalfe or O'Connor.

The CCCA-Developer agreement proposes an alternative called "Small Moments" which would essentially loosen the criteria for buildings that exceed 9 storeys, but would limit the amount to which they could grow. So there would no longer be a requirement for a site to front on more than one street, and such properties could also be on Bank Street or Elgin Street. In exchange, the development must include a "small moment" of a public amenity, such as a parkette.

There are other elements to the CCCA-Developer proposal, and many other aspects of the community design plan which have been part of the three years of consultation. It has generally been agreed that taller buildings (up to 27 storeys) should remain at the north (north of Cooper) and south (along Catherine) edges of Centretown. However, many people at the meeting were not familiar with the prior stages of consultation, and they expressed frustration that the discussion had such a narrow focus, not mentioning affordable housing, for example.

Nevertheless, the audience was asked for their opinion. The video below shows their response to the four options (the cards are color-coded by area of residence: pink for west of Kent, green for Kent to Elgin, and orange for east of Elgin, although some developers voted also). The options were:
(1) Support the CCCA-Developer agreement (i.e. Small Moments)
(2) Support the latest draft of the City plan (i.e. Landmark Buildings)
(3) Support neither of the above
(4) I don't know

The biggest response was the third option, support for neither. Smaller responses were received for the CCCA-Developer agreement (which included votes by the non-resident developers) and the latest draft of the City plans.

On Tuesday, the CCCA's Board will take the input from this meeting, as well as what it learns about the Staff recommendation earlier that afternoon, and decide whether or not to re-approve the deal with the developers.

Then, a week and a half later, on Wednesday, May 8, 2013, City Council will consider the CDP, and any recommendations from Staff (i.e. the recommendations which staff will present tomorrow afternoon). Council will likely approve the CDP, though it remains to be seen how it will be amended.

As I wrote in last week's blog entry, I do not like the agreement and I voted against it at the CCCA's Board meeting in March. I also do not like the Landmark Buildings provision, but I feel that the Small Moments just makes it worse, with meagre tokens that do little to provide useful amenities to Centretown. The CDP originated because the existing zoning limits were unclear, contradictory and confusing. Nine storeys in mid-Centretown would fix this; however Landmark Buildings and Small Moments would re-introduce the ambiguity that the CDP was supposed to fix. The Landmark Buildings, because they are much more restricted geographically, are the lesser of the two evils. (Disclosure: I work in the office of Councllor Diane Holmes, however this blog post and the opinions therein are my own)

The CCCA's agreement with the development community, as well as a bunch of other CDP-related resources, are available on the CCCA's website.

I hope you can make it to one or both of the meetings tomorrow, as this is such an important issue that will affect Centretown for decades to come.
(*The Billings room can barely handle the amount of people who come out to a regular board meeting, and I suspect a larger one will be needed to accommodate the potential turnout for this one.)

What's Happening in Centretown - April 2013 (CCCA)

Happy Earth Day, everyone!

Today's blog post is a message sent yesterday to the e-mail list of the Centretown Citizens Community Association by CCCA President Jordan Charbonneau. I've added the photos to this version.

I encourage all residents of Centretown to attend the Centretown Community Design Plan consultation meeting tomorrow night at 7pm at Dominion-Chalmers United Church. This will be an important opportunity for CCCA members and other Centretowners to learn more about the deal brokered by the CCCA and some members of the development industry. I should also note that I am on the Board of the CCCA. Of the 6 Board members who voted on this agreement on the second day of the February 2013 CCCA board meeting, I was one of the 4 who voted against (one of whom resigned after the motion was approved later by e-mail). I also remind readers, again in the interest of disclosure, that I work in the office of Councillor Diane Holmes, who has publicly objected to a number of provisions of the CCCA-developer agreement. Lots of information is in the April 2013 edition of the Centretown Buzz. 

Bixi's back for 2013

As of today, Capital Bixi is back in action! For subscribers like me, that means my key should work for the remainder of my one-year subscription (which I bought last June). And for you readers of my blog, that means I'm going to blog about it!

I never got around to blogging my Bixi photos last year (and the year before, my season-opener blog post used photos from the 2009 pilot), so I get to include some of those with this post. For example, the one above was taken last June at the Museum of Nature's east lawn, at Elgin and McLeod. On Saturday night, the bikes had been re-installed, though it was decidedly snowier:

3D Thursdays: Bruce Garner's Bear on Sparks Street

[Note: I've created a new page on the blog with FAQs about 3D photos. Click the link in the banner at the top of the page.]

A familiar sight on Sparks Street is Bruce Garner's scuplture "Territorial Prerogative" at the intersection of Elgin and Sparks. I often see tourists taking their photos with the large bronze grizzly bear as I head to the post office.

Recently, it has come to light that the sculpture could be moving to make way for a new monument to commemorate the Stanley cup. This has triggered some additional attention to the sculpture, and the late Garner's work in general. [Edit May 2013: there is now a follow-up tour of additional Garner works]

Well, get out your red-and-blue 3D glasses*, because I've got three dazzling photos of the statue for your viewing pleasure. Looking west down Sparks Street:

[Tune in on Thursdays at noon for a new 3D image. View the 3D label for other posts with 3D images]

Source photos for the 3D image: Left, Right

Looking north-ish (up Elgin toward Wellington, with the post office in the background):

Source photos for the 3D image: Left, Right

And with the south-side buildings on Sparks in the background:

Source photos for the 3D image: Left, Right

The sculpture was installed as one of a series of pieces highlighting fountains on either end of each block of Sparks Street. The fountain at this sculpture was de-activated years ago.

Also long since removed are are a pair of accompanying pieces, depicting a bear cub chasing a fish (as seen in the photo on this website.

(* If you don't have 3D glasses, you can pick them up for a couple dollars at the Comic Book Shoppe on Bank near Lisgar. Or flag me down; I usually keep a spare pair on me to give away.)

[Tune in on Thursdays at noon for a new 3D image. View the 3D label for other posts with 3D images. 3D FAQ]