Last chance to see Winterlude

Today is the last day of Winterlude, which means your last chance to see the sculptures in Confederation Park, such as the ones around the fountain that came from Trafalgar Square:

And these muskoxen:

The Korean lantern garden decorations are still about:

As is the neat 15m tunnel of over 1300 lanterns (printed fabric shades over strings of Christmas lights), which celebrates the Jinju Namnang Yudeung Festival, as well as 50 years of Canada-South Korea diplomatic relations (the monument to Canadian soldiers fallen in the Korean war is right nearby, if not directly in line with the tunnel, up on the Mackenzie-King Bridge).

In addition to the sculptures at Confederation Park, there are many "Official Winterlude Restaurants", including Grill Forty One at the Lord Elgin Hotel. These restaurants, as well as the official Winterlude hotels, are usually marked by their own ice sculptures outside. The sculptures will go, but the restaurants will still be around in Centretown, for your patronage.

And the canal will also remain open beyond Winterlude, so long as the weather permits. Not all of the on-ice vendors will stick around after Winterlude, but the staples will (Beavertails, fries, and skate rentals). This shot has the Rideau rest area of the canal reflected in the glass of the Convention Centre.

The cold weather of the last couple of days is promising for the ice conditions on the Canal.

So get outside and enjoy Winter(lude) while it's still around!

Peds on Weds: No; more ifs, ands, or buttons

Back in May I had a lengthy blog post titled No ifs, ands or buttons which described in detail how terribly complicated pedestrian buttons are in a road environment that is designed for cars.

Since that post, I noticed a few more situations I omitted about pedestrian buttons. These examples are all at the edge of Centretown or just outside it.

Outside the fancy new Ottawa Convention Centre at Colonel By Drive and Daly on the other side of the Rideau Canal, some of the concrete pavers are lined up with grooves in the middle. This is an accessibility feature so that the visually impaired can safely direct themselves to the crosswalk safely, and stop before getting to the edge. The grooves in poured concrete sidewalks perform the same function (and most streets that have precast pavers for sidewalks will use a concrete pad at the intersection to provide these accessibility features). Can you see the problem?

The groove takes you to the centre of the crosswalk, but the buttons you need to press to activate the pedestrian signal are at the edges of the crosswalk. And this crosswalk is so wide that the button on the right side didn't even fit into the shot.

But at least at that intersection, the button is necessary for anyone to use the crosswalk—not just the visually impaired—so at least there's someone else there to activate the crossing signal. As mentioned in the May entry, this is discernible by the sign above the button on the pole. If our blind pedestrian is lucky, the sighted pedestrian will press the button for three or more seconds, activating the audible signal, instead of just the quick press required to request the crossing.

Top of the Rideau '77

While visiting family overseas at the end of August*, I digitally scanned the photo albums so I could have a copy. Since my grandparents had been stationed in Ottawa in the mid 1970s, some prominent Ottawa landmarks made their way into the background of some of the photos.

This small set of photos depicts a boat parade on the Rideau Canal in May of 1977, presumably for the tulip festival. The photos were taken from alongside the Rideau Canal by the NAC, looking across the canal to the east side. Here, for example, is Union Station (now the Government Conference Centre):

A less prominent building was also photographed that day: Canada Post's Ottawa Station A (Station B is at Sparks & Elgin), located on a part of Besserer Street that's now buried under the Rideau Centre:

Conventional Stairs

While I will miss looking at the spiral staircase coming down from the Mackenzie-King Bridge, I can't say I'll miss going up or down them. When the Ottawa Congress Centre was demolished and replaced with the recently-opened Convention Centre, they installed new public stairs that are straight and more, shall we say, conventional. Nevertheless, the wide stairs are faced with an angular metal covering on the street side, echoing the glass surface of the centre.

It also looks like a public elevator was installed as well (not yet operational), and bicycle parking was located underneath, sheltered from the elements by the stairs. If you haven't been to this area, the NCC have really spruced it up. There's a really nice canalside plaza where it's very pleasant to sit on the benches and enjoy a snack while watching tourists go by. I took a bunch of photos and will post them after the work is finished.

At time of writing, this post is in a string of posts on the non-Centretown side of the Rideau Canal. If I haven't filled in Centretown-related posts in between, I hope to get back to them soon!

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

Down, Down, Down

There's been a burst of demolitions in Centretown lately. Some are more promising than others.

Tommy & Lefebre Fire

As mentioned in the previous post, Tommy & Lefebvre's flagship store suffered a fire last week. The North extension of the building, the part which was most damaged, was taken down. T&L have opened up a temporary location in the Glebe, in the former home of the Olympic Sport Shop, more recently known as Le Pannier.

The firewall between the sections of the building kept this fire from destroying the whole block. It's singed, but intact.

The more southerly part of the building is somewhat intact, though it's boarded up. It'll definitely need some renovations before reopening. But do you see what the demolition has revealed?

On the side of the wall are some old advertisements painted onto the brick. There are two of them: the black one that seems to read "[AU]CTION ROOMS", and it is partly painted over by a red advert for auto accessories.

This is really fascinating, because the wall tells its own history. The black ad was painted, then a building was put up next door, partially covering the black ad (you can clearly see the outline of the building, including where it juts out a bit at the top edge). Then the red ad was painted. And, probably when the T&L building was constructed, the front part of the building was sliced off, taking part of the red ad with it, and the new facade installed in its place. I guess Bank Street was widened around this time.

Congress Centre

The 20-year-old Congress Centre continues to be slowly eaten away by yellow gremlins. Here's how it looked last October:

Demolition began in the late fall and by March the front had been removed and most of the insides gutted:

By last week, they had gotten further, and the roof was coming off as well.

You can see some of the new condo buildings in the Market and Lowertown in the background, and the skate chalet in the foreground. Right at the very bottom, you can see some work the NCC is doing on the part alongside the canal. It looks like they're extending the pathway along this section. A lot of activity in one view!



150 Slater: O'Connor Smoke Shop/Café Deluxe

The quaint building containing the O'Connor Smoke Shop and Café Deluxe were demolished this past weekend. Here's a shot of the building while still in use:

And after it was vacated:

The machines made quick work of it, as they will do on the other buildings on the site, as they make way for the new 19-storey EDC building. I believe a couple buildings on Laurier were also taken down. Unfortunately, I didn't get before shots of those.

The parking lot, by the way, is closed.




Mekong Grocery:

I thought I had a shot of the former Mekong Grocery from when it was still boarded up, but I can't find any. The closest I have is a shot of it through the rubble at the Booth & Somerset building from Augsut 2007:

The reason I bring it up is that it was demolished recently. The site owners don't seem very keen on removing the rubble:

There's an old Japanese proverb, "Fall seven times, stand up eight."

In that line of thought, each of these demolition sites has a different story. The T&L owners vow to rebuild on the site where their building was taken by fire. The former Mekong site, however, looks like it will be a vacant lot for the foreseeable future (as will the Booth and Somerset building). The Congress Centre replaces one of the newest of all the buildings (though also the ugliest) with something bigger for Ottawa's business community to play in. And the O'Connor Smoke Shop, while a building of quite character and history, will allow in its passing a better use of a large lot in the central business district.