'Round Manotick

Spacing Ottawa announced last week that aerial photographer Alex MacLean will be presenting at Ottawa's Urban Forum on Wednesday, February 16, 2011 at 7pm in the Champlain room at City Hall. "Alex S. MacLean, international award-winning photographer, author, and pilot, will provide a one-of-a-kind vantage point in the search for successful urbanism through his stunning photography."

Coincidentally, I took some aerial photos last Monday on my trip to Toronto, where urban planner George Dark gave a tour to Councillor Holmes, her assistant Robert, City planner Melanie Knight and me, focusing on Section 37 projects. Here's a shot of the Rideau River where Roger Stevens Drive crosses it, just south of Manotick. The penninsula contains the Carleton Golf & Yacht Club on Marina Drive.

It's interesting timing that MacLean uses aerial views to search for good urban planning, because the NCC has just posted a video of Jan Gehl's October 2010 talk, "Cities for People", in which he argues that urban planning and architecture focuses far too much on the "airplane" and "helicopter" views, and not nearly enough on the 5km/h pedestrian scale. It's a long talk, but he covers a heckuva lot of ground and it's all interesting.

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