I stayed with a friend on New Year's Eve, and woke up to the thick fog that blanketed town that day. Here is the view of the downtown skyline from their top-storey balony. Can you recognize the location?
I wouldn't blame you if you couldn't, with so many details missing! But it's taken from the CCOC building at 170 Booth, at the corner of Albert in Lebreton Flats. Across the street are some OCH buildings that had major stimulus renovations last year. Here's a shot of the same angle from summer 2009:
Many familiar buildings are in the skyline, which grows from the Library & Archives Canada building at the far left, up to the Juliana Apartments, the Gardens condos, to Place de Ville Phase III--the tallest building in Ottawa. The tall building at the right is 570 Laurier, which was built with only one or two visitor parking spaces, to the chagrin of current residents. In front of it is the Stonecliffe apartment building.
I think the lack of visitor parking isn't only to the chagrin of the local residents. The current solution is to bleed onto the public street (which is owned by the city), which affects anyone travelling through there.
ReplyDeleteRight now, there are many empty spaces in the condos' private garages that could be reallocated to temporary parking. I realize it is non-trivial to do this transition, but intensification is causing increasing demand for space efficiency.
Not requiring buildings to provide their own temporary parking was a mistake back in the 1970s. Not pressuring buildings to be more efficient with the space they have could be a mistake of the 2010s.
- A