Around 150 Slater

I haven't written much about the Export Development Canada building at 150 Slater since the three-part series on the demolition and excavation. I doubt there's much interest in construction photos, but here are a few shots of the building itself.

Here is the building at nighttime, from Slater and O'Connor. Notice the spotlights on the underside of the podium canopy:

The finishes make for some interesting surfaces. You can see the exposed concrete pillar inside the building, next to the shell that surrounds the podium.

Within the podium enclosure is a two-storey marble projection above the ground floor. The counterpart is a set back ground floor with retail (the Slater Street frontage seen below is still vacant in 2013).

Along O'Connor, a Bridgehead and a Marcello's have opened up. Like the other small downtown locations, this Bridgehead closes at 6pm. If I recall correctly, the Albert and Bank location is the only one north of Somerset to open late, and even then it still closes earlier than the ones in residential areas.

In contrast to the Slater and O'Connor frontages, the Laurier Avenue frontage on the south side of the lot (separated from the corner by a smaller office building) is very unflattering and hostile to the streetfront. Not one, but two sets of garage doors and a bleak surrounding.

The massing of this side is similar to the Laurier Computer building that was torn down for 150 Slater (I assume this is merely a coincidence). Although that building used to be larger, as covered in a history of the Rideau Winter Club and other curling rinks in the city over at URBSite.

Happy Holidays

I've got a lot of good series that I'll be working on over the holidays. Look for them to come out in the new year. In the meantime, I'll be enjoying a break from a hectic month of community association meetings.

Here's a photo of workers adding the crowning star to the Christmas tree at 150 Slater, which is nearing completion. See the live webcam for the site here

I previously posted a series on the demolition of the former buildings there and the excavation of the site. You can see those and other posts on the site at the 150 Slater label.

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

New post-and-ring bike racks: are there enough?

Back in July, an Ottawa Citizen article by Kate Jaimet announced that the City of Ottawa would be installing permanent post-and-ring racks on the posts formerly used by parking meters.

They're starting to appear on the streets now:


While the article makes it sound like the City came up with this idea on their own, it has been done in Toronto since 1984.

When the City issued a news release in April 2008 announcing that it was looking into replacing parking meters with a Pay & Display system, members of Citizens for Safe Cycling contacted the City to urge them to use the Toronto model to ensure that cyclists will continue to have a year-round place to lock their bikes. At the time, the City was hesitant to commit to this option.

Pay & Display procurement was again an agenda item on the City's Transportation Committee in December 2009, and report didn't mention bike racks. I e-mailed again to ask for them to confirm that enough replacement bike parking would be included in the budget for P&D. During the subsequent friendly e-mail exchange, I directed them to an article in Momentum Magazine, issue 43 (no longer availble online) on how other cities approached the problem of bicycle parking loss during P&D conversion. I also directed them to two articles on this blog, Bike Rack Blunders and Bike Rack Design for Aesthetic and Function.

City Staff assured me that they are "committed to effectively addressing cyclists' parking needs during the P&D implementation process and into the future."

I'm still worried that cyclists will end up having fewer places to lock their bikes, at a time when the numbers of cyclists are increasing.

Have a look at this stretch of Elgin between Laurier and Cooper.

That big grey thing is the new Pay & Display machine. There are four existing parking meters that will be removed, plus a blue Velocity bike rack that is only there between April and November.

Imminent Snake Bite

Taken on the sunny Sunday last weekend at the 150 Slater construction site.

Make sure to keep your tires inflated, otherwise you'll get a "pinch flat," caused by your rim pinching holes into your tire when you hit a bump or sidewalk. This leaves your innertube with a telltale pair of holes, called a "snake bite."

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

150 Slater progress: Piles of fun III

In the previous post on 150 Slater's progress, I documented the construction of retaining walls around the former Rideau Winter Club building.

I also briefly mentioned a negative space becoming a positive one. Such a transition is even more pronounced on another part of the 150 Slater site, which will be the topic of today's post.

The Premier building, whose history and final days I documented in Down, Down, Down, Update 1, was separated from the building at 235 Laurier by a small alley. Looking at the building, you barely noticed it. Being a negative space, it was defined by the absence of anything between two very definable structures.

Let's get our bearings for a moment. In the image below, we see O'Connor Street in the foreground, with 235 Laurier squarely framed. You can see how some of the original siding was not replaced when the blue and glass cladding was added earlier this decade. In the foreground are some patches in the asphalt where holes had been dug to cut off services to the now-demolished buildings on the 150 Slater site.

Here's a closeup of the former siding. It's made from that ugly reinforced institutional glass with a grid of metal wires inside. The glass is filthy with years of dirt and grime. If this part of the wall is too far out of sight to re-clad, evidently it isn't worth cleaning, either. But having them here gives insight on how the new cladding relates to the old exterior: The new cladding essentially enshrouds these concrete fins, as it comes out further and has a lip below them. though I'm sure there was much work behind the glass as well.

At the back of the building, right below the old wall, are a pair of emergency exits, a gas connection and some ventilation panels. Since the building is still in use, the emergency exits must remain usable during the construction at 150 Slater. So a little structure was built to protect the accessway during the demolition of the Premier.

When the Premier's remains were extracted in mid-May and its site became an empty hole, the former alley became an enclosed passageway. In effect, negative and positive switched places.

By mid-June, the Premier's foundation walls had been demolished and the hole was filled in. Evidently, the demolition was very thorough, as a makeshift wooden walkway needed to be built to preserve access from the fire exit.

Under the boardwalk is revealed a gaping hole leftover from the foundation wall's demolition.

And in early July, piles had been driven and a retaining wall was built (as documented in the previous two posts on 150 Slater).

The gap under the walkway is still there, but the walkway is better supported now on the piles. You can also see a yellow hose--the gas line that comes from under the street to the back of the building. A worker is measuring the distance for the final segment of four-by-eights.

The machine used to install the tiebacks set me on a bent to learn more about construction of retaining walls. It's a very curious looking machine, which looks to me like the Predator alien from various films I haven't seen. It's rather photogenic, too, since its 'head' is suspended in the air at an angle.

Zooming in on the photo, I see the brand name Interoc, which suggests it may be an Interoc AN 140 Multi-purpose hydraulic drill rig. I believe this is the manufacturer's writeup. It's used to intall tiebacks, which is one fo the three primary ways of supporting retaining walls in construction sites, as illustrated in this diagram.

This particular rig, which is identified as unit number 05-28 in large black lettering on the back, is now being used at the construction site for 120 University, just over the Rideau Canal. A photo I have of the rig there has www.mse.ca clearly written in the back, identifying the owner as Forages M.S.E. Drilling, Inc. of Ste-Martine, Quebec.

The previously-linked California PDF manual on foundations (28MB) has a good writeup on tiebacks beginning on page 11-1 (page 193 of the PDF), and a useful cross-section diagram on the following page.

In short, a cavity is drilled at the end of an angled hole behind the wall, and a steel wire is anchored into the cavity with concrete (the weight and firmness of the soil keeps it in place). A stretch of wire between the anchor and the wall, surrounded loosely by a shroud, can be tensioned to put pressure on the wall, holding it in place. Once tightened, a cap is placed on the wire to hold its position, and your wall is retained.

And that's it for the progress updates on 150 Slater. Let me show you the exit:

For all photos of 150 Slater's development, see previous posts marked with the "150 Slater" label.

150 Slater progress: Piles of fun II

It was sheer coincidence that I got this photo at the time I did. The angle of the crane's arm perfectly matches the angle of the shadow on the side wall of 235 Laurier at O'Connor. I had been tipped off that mid-June morning that they were removing the floor of the Rideau Winter Club.

The crane was supporting a green rig, which is a vibratory driver/extractor, according to this California PDF manual on foundations (28MB), specifically pages 7-21 to 7-23.

After piles were installed and the dirt removed from between the piles and the neighbouring building's garage structure, excavation could begin on the site. In this shot, taken the same day as the tip I mentioned in the first photo, they're about halfway through extracting the soil under the former Rideau Winter Club. You can see the former cooling tubes that are still present, nearly a century after first installed, and decades after they were last used.

In this photo sent to me earlier the same morning, you can get a better idea of the layering. Above the pipes was concrete, wood, reinforced concrete and/or fill, then the asphalt of the parking surface we'd known for many years. Beneath the pipes is soil infill, likely added when the rear of the building was decommissioned. Also note the hefty foundation walls on the far side.

Here's another one of those giant concrete foundation blocks, reminiscent almost of Stonehenge. It's hard to get scale, but judging by those stacks of what I suspect are four-by-eights, it's at least a couple feet thick.

By the end of June, digging out was mostly finished. these large white blocks have been installed along the top edge of the neigbouring building's underground garage, behind the piles for 150 Slater's retaining wall.

In early July, they were removing the soil from the lower level. Presumably they had run out of room to dig away from above. Behind this digger, you can see the retaining wall had been built up more. There's also a hole in the neighbouring parking garage. Maybe that was an "oops".

Here's a similar shot showing just the wall. I really like the layers in this shot. The white blocks are acting as the footing for a wooden barrier wall. Little triangles have been installed on the piles for the installation of tiebacks (incidentally, that's the page where I found the link to the Foundation manual. A good illustration of tiebacks is on page 194 of the PDF). I guess the neighbouring garage only goes down a storey or two, otherwise there wouldn't be any space for the tiebacks.

As I was going through my old photos, I found this one I took during this year's St. Patrick's Day parade. I had never before noticed that space between the two buildings, looking all the way to the World Exchange Centre, with its rooftop ball clock. Instinctively I took this photo. At the time, I had been oblivious that the Laurier Computer building (partial view on the left) was to be demolished. I guess my instincts were correct.

Lastly, here's a more square shot of the area from July 23rd. They've added a black tarp over the white blocks. They've also filled in behind the retaining wall (whose tiebacks have now been installed), and it has become a little catwalk, the negative space becoming a positive one. The spray-painted "EXIT" sign and the ladder gives it a Donkey Kong feel.



For all photos of 150 Slater's development, see previous posts marked with the "150 Slater" label.

150 Slater progress: Piles of fun I

It's time for some updates on the construction at 150 Slater. In previous posts with the 150 Slater label, I documented the demolition of the buildings which used to occupy what is now the 150 Slater site. In the current trio of posts, I'm documenting the installation of the retaining walls, and the removal of the fill.

For reference, here's the site, taken kitty-corner from the intersection of Slater Street and O'Connor Street in Ottawa's Cetnral Business District:

Back in May, before the wooden barriers had been set up, they started driving piles for the retaining walls. Wikipedia has a good graphic here depicting different types of retaining walls.

In the North-East part of the site (the leftmost corner in the above photo, in front of the building), they drew circles with spray-paint using an upended garbage bin for the circle, and a string for a guide:

Into these circles were pounded giant steel cylinders.

Here are some of those cylinders outside the ground, with the machine used to install them behind. The cyclinders are making googly eyes at us:

They installed them outside the former foundations of the Rideau Winter Club (more recently known as Laurier Computer), which I documented in detail in this post. You can still see the little stairs leading up the side. After driving down the cylinders, fill was added, presumably to add support.

Here's another view of that machine. The working end is covered in a tarp:

There are also I-beams on site waiting to be installed. In the foreground of this shot is an old I-beam from the former Rideau Winter Club, which had been levelled a few decades ago. The I-beams in the former building's east wall were left a few feet high to act as fenceposts.

Into the cylinders, I-beam piles were driven into the ground, and the cylinders were removed. Tieback anchors are drilled into the ground behind. (I cover both of these steps as they are performed on different parts of the site in the next two posts, respectively). Besserer Street residents know very well the importance of a well-built retaining wall. Now that the wall is built, work can begin on extracting the soil contained in the newly-formed box.

As fill removal progresses andthe hole becomes deeper, ramps must be fashioned out of the remaining fill, before it, too, is removed:

Once the topsoil is all gone and they hit rock bottom, it's time to blow this joint. As this sign warns: "CAUTION: CONTROLLED BLASTING AHEAD"

Once rock becomes rubble (with the help of explosives), it can be removed, too. In the photo below, we can see how deep the rock is, and how far below they've gone. We can also see the piles continuing below the rock surface. Since they're building a three-storey underground parking garage with 210 spaces, they'll need to blast down by a storey or so.

Stay tuned for the next two posts, including photos of the excavation of the Rideau Winter Club's former foundation.

Down, down, down conculsion: Laurier Computer

This is the fourth post on the 150 Slater development, and the last in the Down, Down, Down series (the name needs to be retired).

On the lot where 150 Slater is being built were a number of buildings, all now demolished. In the first Down, Down, Down post, I detailed (among other demolitions) the building at the corner of Slater and O'Connor, which housed the Café Deluxe and O'Connor Smoke Shop.

In Down, Down, Down Update 1, I detailed the Premier building. More historical information about that building:

"The Premier Apartments were built in 1938 for David Epstein, a developer specalizing in apartment buildings. His most notable project is to be found at Bank and Central Park. Architect W.E. Noffke introduced the Spanish Colonial Revival style to Ottawa in the years prior to WWI. Twenty-five years later he was still employing some vestiges of it at the Premier-using a fringe of red clay roof tiles over the third floor balconies, twisted wrought-iron railings, and glazed terra cotta panels flanking the storefonts."

In Down, Down, Down Update 2, I detailed the other two buildings fronting on O'Connor, and I also posted a couple of photos of the former Laurier Computer building. This last is the focus of today's post, and it perhaps has the richest history.

Laurier Computer building

I hadn't realized that this building was going to be demolished also, so I hadn't taken any "before" photos of it, and I regrettably had no incidental shots of it in my collection. Luckily, when I walked into Laurier Computer's new location next door, Martin Yshikawa had a couple that he e-mailed me. Here's how it looked before demolition:

There were also some carved inlays in the front. Here's one of curling stones:

And here's one of a badminton racket and birdies:

So what were those doing on a computer store? Well it wasn't a computer store for its entire life. For a long time, it was actually an indoor sports facility, called the Rideau Winter Club. A building this small? No! In the '60s(?) it was chopped down to one storey and pretty shallow off Laurier.

It actually went to the back of the lot, as you can see in this aerial shot from 1948 or 1950. You can see the arched roof of the Winter Club (with a more square fronting on Laurier, highlighted by the yellow rectangle). You can also make out the old Carnegie Library, and the two other older buildings demolished for the 150 Slater project:

There are a few other buildings still in the neighbourhood, in fact. I've highlighted them in the image below. Compare them with this 2007 version composed of modified images from the City of Ottawa's eMap application:




As you can see, the Rideau Winter Club had a much taller and longer profile, and you can even make out in the eMap aerial shot the outline of the foundation still going all the way back to the lotline.

So knowing that that was there, we can find other evidence of the building's size. Here's some on the building next door:

The roofline of the shortened Laurier Computer building is evident from the height of the graffiti, but less obvious is the shadow from the Rideau Winter Club's former roofline, about 2.5 storeys above the top of the graffiti. They chopped off all but the first storey, and shortened the depth from the streetfront considerably.

As mentioned above, the foundation of the Rideau Winter Club is still there--the surface parking was essentially on the building's first floor level. It stretches all the way to parking lot of its rear neighbour:

You can see closeup of foundation composition. Clearly not a modern concrete mix:

When they chopped the top of the buliding off, they kept a couple feet height of the I-beams along one side to serve as fenceposts, as visible here with smaller fenceposts added in between:

Here's empty foundation hole. It appears they had built a new rear foundation wall on the shortened building. You can see that the I-beams along this back wall were not as big as the ones for the taller former building:

Along the ledge between the hole and the next building over are some very old soda pop cans and bottles that somehow survived decades, albeit dirty and rusty. It takes a good eye and some tools to distinguish them from behind the fence, but I could identify the ~1960 10oz cans second on the list here: http://www.diamondcokecans.com/diamondcanada.htm

There were some 10oz sprite cans, Canadian versions of the US 1960 version shown here: http://www.diamondcokecans.com/sprite.htm

The above cans are so old, they didn't have pull tabs; you had to open it with a can opener (the kind that creates a triangular opening).

I could also identify a slightly more recent can with a foil pull tab, with multiple holes revealed by it, like the 10oz/284mL aluminium can pictured fourth down on this page (no date range on that page): http://www.bigredtaxi.com/Best%20Pieces.htm

I also saw a couple intact bottles, including a gin bottle with some liquid still inside and its cap still on, and a pepsi bottle that looked similar to the one in the second-last photo on this page: http://www.doghouse34.com/porchpix2.html, but the logo has larger swooshes, like in the top logo on this bottle: http://www.flickr.com/photos/boydhouse/2622450499/in/photostream/

On the side of the hole opposite this ledge were some more leftover structures, shown here before the rubble was cleared away:

Laurier Computer has relocated next door (how convenient!). I'd like to thank Martin Yshikawa at Laurier Computer (Laurier.com) for the photos of the Laurier Computer building and inlay detail.

I'm eager to see the excavation of the basement. What other treasures are to be found underneath?

(If you have photos, perhaps from a family album, of the former Rideau Winter Club, I'd be very interested in borrowing it to scan it!)