Bad sectors in Centretown

Back in July, my hard disk drive crashed, losing two months' worth of photos (about 1600). At the end of October I got a surprise call from the guy I'd brought it to, who said he was able to recover over 90% of the data. I was able to push this to about 97% of the photos that I had taken since my previous backup.

Some of them, however, were damaged. The hard drive had bad sectors and in the recovery many of the photos were damaged (only a very small number were completely unreadable). The damage inflicted on them actually has a bit of an artistic tone to them. Here's a photo of 222 Queen Street (which is where the RMOC headquarters were before it moved to the building that's now City Hall):

I discovered that I actually had a more recent backup on an external drive, up to mid-June. From this, I was able to push the recovery rate to about 99% of my photos, since many of the damaged photos were taken before then. Here's the original of the photo above:

Yellow again

It's been a couple years since I last posted photos of yellow houses in Centretown, but this little one on Gilmour just east of Salisbury Place, in the Golden Triangle, is just so adorable, with its green trim:

It's a bit dominated by the also-well-kept house next to it, not to mention the highrise of 20 Driveway looming behind it.

Over in the west part of Centretown, on Florence Street, is another yellow house that had escaped my 2010 inventory:

I recently noticed on Holmwood in the Glebe a house that bears a striking resemblance to the first yellow house I blogged about, which was on Arlington. Perhaps this one on Holmwood is what the house on Arlington could have looked like in an alternate universe.

Another yellow-ish house in Centretown is the Embassy of Armenia at Delaware and Robert, which is also notable as it's part of Doors Open Ottawa 2013.

I likely won't get around to a standalone Doors Open post this year, so this will have to do. Find all the info you need at ottawa.ca/doorsopen, or get a hard copy of the guide at your local Bridgehead. Doors Open 2013 will be this Saturday and Sunday, June 1-2, 2013.

Six Sixty Three

This house on Gilmour Street is number 663, or as the number plate on the house says, "Six Sixty Three". Back in December, it was all decked out in festive paraphernalia:

At nighttime, it was quite the spectacle. There were only two or three houses in all of Centretown that approached this level of illumination:

Just for fun, here's an animated GIF of the two images (it took a bit of wrestling to get them to mostly line up):

When filing the above photos yesterday, I discovered that 663 MacLaren, just a block to the north, is also rather distinctive in its own way:

I've been very busy lately, and blogging fell by the wayside. Having heard no complaints, I've been in no hurry to get back into the habit.

Centretown time capsule: August/September 2007

Happy Labour Day everyone!

For today's post, I want to do something a little different. I wanted to give a snapshot of what was happening in Centretown five years ago in August and September 2007. With a high proportion of renters, many Centretown residents—even those active in community affairs—weren't here five years ago (nor was this blog!). For the rest of us, it'll be a trip down memory lane.

The 2007 Labour Day parade, organized by the Ottawa and District Labour Council, ended as usual at McNabb Park for the annual festival with free hotdogs, corn on the cob, and other attractions (if you're reading this post shortly after it goes up, head out there now! They should be there from the end of the parade until 4:30pm). You might recognize this photo of the wading pool as one of the four at the bottom of the CCCA's 'promo cards':

September 2007 marked the official opening of the Corktown Footbridge on the 11th (the bridge opened to traffic the previous September). Municipal politicians and interpreters in 1830's period dress were there to cut the ribbon.

3D Thursday: OBE building, 330 Gilmour

For the second 3D Thursday post, I should return to Centretown.

The old Ottawa Board of Education building at 330 Gilmour is a nice building, but I haven't posted any of my own photos of it, since the URBSite post on the building and its two blue spruce trees is very extensive.

Now, however, I can add my 3D photo of the building. If you download the full-size image (right click and select "Save Target As...") and zoom in, you can even see the branches of the two main spruce trees popping out from each other.

As always with my 3D photos posts, I'm inlcluding the link to the source images from which I made the composite red-blue 3D image. If you think you can do a better job, have at it!

Left image

Right image

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

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

Fortress of Modernism

Decades after construction, some repairs are being undertaken to the PSAC building at 233 Gilmour, prompting me to photograph it. Its distinctive oval shape is very familiar, but from a certain angle it more closely resembles a hefty windowless tower. There are echoes of the medieval in this angle, as though an invading force had broken away some of the bricks, before using ropes to scale it.

The building, irrespective of its occupant, is representative of the "march of the hirises" that hit Centretown in the 1960s, demolishing sets of houses to build temples of modernism and the commuter culture (with ample parking, of course). As it happens, Ottawa author rob mclennan discovered that his mother lived in one of the houses demolished for this building.

As I documented in the video chronicling the origins of the CCCA, Centretown's community only started to organize itself in response to the indiscriminate revision of whole downtown neighbourhoods. They largely succeeded, as much of Centretown has remained residential; however, some may question whether the towers currently planned and under construction—while residential—echo the forces that threatened to redefine Centretown five decades ago.

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

Peds on Weds: Don't crack me up

I get very irate by people parking on the sidewalks (and I have many photos of such transgressions, which I tag with "vanscaping"). A majority of the time, they are blocking off the entire sidewalk (or enough that a stroller or wheelchair couldn't get through), when if they had parked entirely on the road there would have still been plenty of space for cars to get past. A case in point is this van on Gilmour at O'Connor.

But another reason is that sidewalks are only reinforced where there is a curb depression--i.e. where it is expected that cars will drive over them (with some exceptions like sidewalks over a bridge). Otherwise, for the post part, they are straight-up poured concrete.

Back in the winter, Eric posted at West Side Action about cracked sidewalks on Preston, likely from trucks having driven and/or parked on the sidewalk. In the photo above, a contractor's van is parked on the sidewalk, and the van's right tires correspond rather conveniently with the cracks down the middle of the sidewalk.

Individually, people who park on the sidewalk think that they are doing no harm. But collectively, as many people vehicles are parked on the sidewalk over time, the sidewalk breaks down and needs expensive and time-consuming repair. In the meantime, they are harder to keep clear of snow, and water that seeps into the cracks worsens the problem during the annual freeze-thaw cycles.

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

Minto Park Sale 2012

Tomorrow is the annual Minto Park Sale, organized by Councillor Diane Holmes (disclaimer: I work in her office). This sale provides a chance to have a yard sale table for those who live in buildings without a yard. And it takes place in historic Minto Park, on Elgin Street.

This year, there will be over 70 tables, plus other events. Funds raised by table rentals will go to Women's Initiatives for Safer Environments (WISE). In addition, there will be a raffle for many prizes of gift certificates along Elgin Street.

As mentioned by CCCA president Jordan Charbonneau in his May 2012 message to CCCA members, the association will be holding its fourth annual barbecue in Minto Park during the event, raising funds for the CCCA and WISE. I will be returning in my role as grillmaster to serve up hotdogs and veggie dogs for two dollars apiece.

As usual, the CCCA's hard-working Trees and Greenspace Committee will be hosting its annual plant sale during the event, the proceeds of which go to the CCCA Tree Fund, dedicated to improving greenspace in Centretown.

New for this year is another CCCA fundraiser, an e-waste drop off site. Drop off your used electronics at the dumpster provided on Lewis Street next to the park for free, and the CCCA will receive funds from Ontario Environmental Stewardship according to the total weight of electronics collected. So haul out that old TV or computer monitor and clear out your closet of that old VCR and discman! A full list of accepted items is on the this event page.

There are also a number of other events, including a street sale on Waverley, the Elgin Street Book Sale, and a strawberry social at Knox Church:

None of this could happen without the contribution of volunteers. The CCCA will be needing volunteers to help with the electronics drop-off site and the BBQ, and also to help people fill out membership forms to join the CCCA (at a bargain price of $5/year!). Contact ccca@centretowncitizens.ca, or just show up.

Minto Park (named after the Governor General), is a great little heritage park with a fascinating history:

“Minto Park was created following a petition from residents of Lewis and Gilmour Street to
the City of Ottawa Board of Park Management. The City purchased the vacant land in 1898
from J.R. Booth and created Minto Square named after the newly arrived Governor General
Lord Minto. Minto Square was designed as an ornamental park with interlacing half circles,
trees and planting beds, to be enjoyed for its visual appeal rather than for active recreation.
The buildings facing Minto Park, constructed between 1892 and 1906, comprise a coherent
streetscape representing the changing architectural styles and building craftsmanship
popular in Ottawa at the turn of the century. Alexander Garvock, a builder, was one of the
first residents of Minto Park. He built two of the houses facing the park. The Church of Our
Father, now Eglise Unie St-Marc, at the southwest corner of the park, was designed in 1900
for the Unitarian church by the architectural firm of Arnoldi and Ewart. Minto Park’s
significant grouping of low scale residential buildings, exhibiting compatible stylistic
attributes and surrounding a planned square, form a special place in the historic
development of Ottawa” (from the City of Ottawa, quoted in this PDF)

So come celebrate the park, the neighbourhood, and the many activities and causes that make up this growing annual event.

See you on Saturday!

Two minutes in the snow

The day after a big snowstorm, the city's winter overnight parking restriction is lifted, but there's still lots of snow on the side streets that needs to be pushed aside. Already narrowed by the previous storm's snowbanks, parked cars make the streets awfully narrow. Gilmour, seen here just east of Bay Street, is a one-way street, but even on the two-way streets east of Elgin opposing cars have to pull over to allow each other to pass.

The snowplow above was already stopped when I got there at 2:46 p.m., and two minutes later, it was almost done manoeuvring around that first car. Despite the size of the machine, the grader operator delicately cleared the snow around the car.

Now he just needs to get past the rest of the cars on the block!

Centretown Events and Updates for September 2011

The following message was sent to the CCCA's e-mail announcement list early this morning, announcing upcoming events. Contact ccca@centretowncitizens.ca to be among the first to receive CCCA e-mail updates a couple times per month.


Dear CCCA members and followers,

I hope you did a lot of resting up over the summer, because September is starting up at full speed!

Here's a summary of 25 upcoming events and issues in Centretown:

The Birdcage in the Village

Last night on my way home, I happened upon The Village's 4th annual film screening and street social, showing the Birdcage with Nathan Lane and Robin Williams.

This was on Gilmour just West of Bank Street, near Wilde's. This is a bit of a non-profit niche: You can see the 415 MacLaren tower on the right (owned by Ottawa Community Housing), CCOC's headquarters in front of it, and on the right of the shot, the 7-storey Options Bytown building at 379 Gilmour (which this wishlist PDF says was built in 1992 and houses 50 tenants).

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

The writing on the walk says to vote

Just like for the advance polls, some youth drew chalk lines in the blocks surrounding Jack Purcell Community Centre directing people there to vote today in the Canadian federal election. I happened upon a group of them in action yesterday as they were drawing lines at Elgin and Gilmour:

I was relieved to see they had a tool for the lines; when I first saw the lines I wondered about back pain from drawing that many lines!

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

Yet another fire in Centretown (Bronson and Gilmour)

This afternoon, there was a fire on Bronson which caused traffic to be redirected onto surrounding streets. (Traffic was pretty constant on Gladstone) I got a tip about the fire when I was on the other end of Centretown, and made my way over on my way home. By that time, Bronson was re-opened and there was only one fire truck and a fire investigator's minivan. Firefighters were tidying up the hoses that were going into the house.

The building housed the offices of family physician Dr. Tung Le, and the front door showed signs that the firefighters had to break into the house, suggesting that nobody was inside at the time. (The Ottawa Sun reports that nobody was injured.) Many of the windows were also knocked out from the inside. It looks like the fire was relatively contained and that the building will survive.

I'm heading out shortly, so I'll have to hurriedly post some photos of the scene without comment:

Bank Street Phase III, Part 5: Surfaces

[This post is part of a series on Bank Street's new look. See the introduction and part I here.]

Last time, I shared some photos of the benches on Bank Street. Incidentally, they've removed the new benches South of Somerset, too. I think they were just doing a dry fit before removing them for the Winter.

Today it's surfaces. Lots of the more interesting aspects of the Bank Street redesign is the new, broader sidewalks and the various pieces of street furniture on them, but the surfaces that stretch between the sidewalks--i.e. the roads and crosswalks--have enough going on to merit their own post.

Here's a photo looking South down Bank at Lisgar from July 2007 on the Phase II portion of Bank Street, from Laurier to Somerset, in case you've forgotten how lumpy and bumpy Bank Street used to be. I believe they were drilling some core samples to get an idea of exactly what's underneath Bank Street in preparation for the following year's digging up of the century-old infrastructure. At the right is a newspaper box for Transcontinental Media's short-lived downtown weekly paper, the Ottawa City Journal:

After the underground work was complete, they paved a layer of asphalt in July to contain things. Here are some of the paving machines at Gilmour in front of the Rogers Plus store, at the end of a block-long carpet of asphalt. It doesn't go all the way to the curbs, because there was still more finishing to do on them.

South of McLeod, partial access to Bank Street was maintained so that people could get into and out of the mid-block parking lots on Bank. In late June, this alley of asphalt was laid to give drivers something more reasonable to drive on. The paving workers were very precise, following the string guide line to the inch:

In the final preparations for opening of the block, a pair of layers of asphalt were laid, stretching from curb to curb. This was taken in Phase II (looking North at Cooper) on November 14, 2008, with two more weeks of preparations before the street reopened.

By contrast, the second layer of asphalt went on this year's segment at the end of September, as seen here looking North up Bank from Gladstone. They've refined their techniques and were able, and by November 14 this year, Bank Street was already back open!

It seems more often than not that they pave asphalt right on or before a rainy day. You can see the water beading up on the surface of the asphalt. These bags of calcium chloride flakes were stacked outside Herb & Spice at Bank and Lewis. When applied, it looks like someone dropped piles of styrofoam pellets over the dusty gravel, apparently to control dust.

Once the second layer of asphalt was paved, the street looked nearly ready to go. Since the streets were still closed to cars, they became a de facto pedestrian space. These folks animated the street with a street hockey game between Gilmour and MacLaren streets, using construction pylons as goalposts. Others used the closed (or open, depending on how you look at it) road to practise their skateboarding tricks.

Before the street could be re-opened, these asphalt berms had to be installed along the edges of the streets to smooth out the lip on the edge of the sidewalks. I'm not entirely sure what the lips are for, as they come and go. For example, across the street in this photo, in front of the Staples store at Bank and Waverley, you notice that the berm (and the lip it covers) stops at the lamppost, and the sidewalk continues with no lip. I suspect the lip is drainage-related. (Photo taken last week)

Next to come are the crosswalk markings. Guide lines were spray-painted on the crossing of Lewis so that the stop line and crosswalk lines could be drawn precisely.

The following day, the lines were painted. Because the closed roads prevent cars driving over them, these lines at MacLaren were still shiny when I photographed them on Thursday night:

Most of the above describes the work done on Phase III, the section under construction this year. Last year, the majority of this same work was on Phase II, between Laurier and Somerset. Finishing touches for Phase II were done this year, and similar finishing touches will be done on Phase III next year.

In this photo, taken in mid-August 2009, they've dug up one of the manhole covers at Bank and Somerset (the first photo in this post shows this being done at Bank and Cooper), and applied a temporary cold patch around it. The four holes, which were frightening to cycle over, allowed drainage and a leverage point to re-extract the manhole cover more easily. They'll need to raise it up with a spacer when they pave the final layer of asphalt. This also explains the height discrepency at the curb requiring the temporary berm--You can see the berm that was installed last year coming down off the lip at the edge of the curb.

About a week after they dug up the manholes, the final layer of asphalt had been laid (although the ones at the intersection of Bank and Somerset would remain for a number of weeks). Here's a shot looking South at Lisgar again--much nicer than in the photo above from two years ago! The crosswalks have been painted, and marks made for the yellow centre line to be painted.

On the cross-streets (in this case, Lisgar again), they needed to scrape off some of the old asphalt to give a straight cut for the asphalt to cover over smoothly. If you click the photo to zoom in, you can see the four holes around the manhole cover. The old crosswalk paint will simply be paved over.

The final asphalt makes for a smooth transition on the cross streets. In this case, Nepean Street.

In mid-September, these paint marks outlined the location of crosswalks. You'll note that they line up well with the border of the concrete sidewalk.

The lines guide a slice through the asphalt and crosswalk pavers are installed over a bed of sand:

The precast paver crosswalks help to define the crosswalk as a pedestrian zone and continuation of the sidewalk. Looks pretty good, if you ask me.

Tune in in a couple days for my Part 6: Bike Racks (my favourite).

Note also the upcoming CCCA meeting on Tuesday night, 7pm in the Honeywell Room at City Hall.

Bank Street Phase III, Part 3: Trees

[This post is part of a series on Bank Street's new look. See the introduction and part I here. Due to a typo, this post didn't go up yesterday as scheduled.]

Note: Bank Street will reopen to vehicular traffic this evening, two weeks ahead of schedule!

Last time, I talked about the new decorative light standards along the reconstructed parts of Bank Street.

As with the street lamps, the new trees (of which there are many more than were before) have different cages on the sections North and South of Gloucester Street, and the infrastructure beneath them vary as well.

Here's a photo courtesy of the Midcentury Modernist of the tree vaults in the Nortnern end of Bank Street. This shot is in front of the new Telus building at Bank and Slater, under construction in May 2007. In the foreground, you can see the trees planted in rather large plots.

The pits were then covered with precast concrete blocks that do double duty to cover the tree vaults and to provide underfoot support as sidewalks. A tall, narrow cage protects the trees from various elements, and was specifically designed to be secure enough to lock your bike to. This one is between Slater and Albert, across from Snider Plaza.

In the foreground, they've made a gravel pathway across the construction zone for pedestrians to cross Bank. But the thing to look at in this photo is the set of trees at Bank and Gilmour in late May, partway through reconstruction. The five trees along this stretch are in front of the CCOC building, and are owned and maintained (i.e. watered) by the CCOC. Prior to the reconstruction, these were about the only trees along Bank Street.

This one at the end of the row (shown in late April) didn't survive the reconstruction. You can also see the old tree guards that were on them. (As of early November the old tree guards have been removed, but new ones haven't been added yet).

In late July, that tree was removed, but I believe the others were undisturbed. One of the problems with the trees in this location is that they don't get much sun.

Here's the uprooted tree, again in late July:

In early October, the trees for this stretch were delivered in front of the Bridgehead on Bank and Gilmour, across from Herb & Spice. As you can see, the sidewalks have already been poured in this section, unlike in the first section of Bank, where the trees were installed before the sidewalk was poured. Incidentally, I hear through the grapevine that the two angel murals above Wilde's (visible in the background of this shot) will be replaced sometime soon.

Here are some of those tree vaults in Phase II, looking North from Lisgar to Nepean, with the Grace Ottawa food store at right. As you can see, the tree vaults are much smaller than in the first phase, but are bigger than the band of sidewalk that goes along the street:

Here's a closeup of a tree partially planted in one of the vaults. It looks like the sidewalk on the far side hasn't been poured yet. While I usually stick my camera through the fence, this can give a false impression that the views of the construction are unobstructed, so every now and then I take a shot with the fence in the foreground as a reminder. This is on the North-East side of Bank and Nepean, looking South-West, in late October 2008.

Here are some of the new precast concrete pieces for the tree vaults, awaiting installation just South of Bank and Gloucester. One is already installed around the tree behind them. (November 2008)

Unfortunately, the guards weren't installed before the winter (which did hit early last year, in fairness) and many of the vault covers were cracked and damaged by the snowplows, including this one near Bank and Lisgar (Wallack's in the background):

This past August, the new guards were installed around the Phase II trees, which had been planted the previous fall. They're a shorter, more stylistic variant. They're sturdier, and wrap around the concrete base of the tree vault covers, to keep the pieces tight. This should help to avoid the type of damage caused over the past winter. (Note: Colour has been "warmified" on this photo)

Note the detail on these tree guards. They have little round balls at the tips of the fins, no doubt to minimize eye-poking, but they also add a decorative touch.

When the trees are in full leaf, they really add colour to the street. This gingko tree (described in this PDF as "extremely hardy but slow growing") on Bank and Cooper in Phase III looks nice in the early September's sun:

Oh, and fear not, a new tree was planted at Bank and Gilmour to replace the one removed.

The tree guards on Phase II and III's trees are noticeably shorter than the tall, slim ones on Phase I. Here are two along the vacant lot at Florence (photo taken last week):

Which makes a great segue for the next post: Benches. Tune in on Saturday for that post.