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.

Yellow House going down today

The Yellow House on Gladstone is finally being demolished today, after the demolition permit was approved by City Council on September 8, 2010.

Images of Centretown reader Eric Russell submitted the following photos and video, which he must have taken just minutes before I got there:

Thanks, Eric!

For background on the Yellow House, start with the post Yellow House Redevelopment from June 2009, then check out other posts (including this one) with the Yellow House label.

More Yellow

After last week's post about a new yellow house on Arlington Avenue, I realized I had photos of other yellow houses in Centretown, which I'd might as well share.

But first, some updates on Ottawa's most famous (and most yellow) Yellow House...

As has been documented elsewhere (specifically at Watawa Life, twice, and at Neatorama), a black zig-zag stripe was painted on the Cambridge Street North side of the house, with the words, "Grief Ain't Good," a reference to Charlie Brown's shirt and his catchphrase, "Good Grief!"

The text was painted over shortly thereafter, but the black stripe left a bit longer. In this shot, with the two dormer windows, it looks more like a yellow Pac-Man ghost. I think the yellow sticker on the parking sign is a nice touch.

The stripe was painted over also, leaving what should be a blank yellow canvas, but what is really a patchwork of miscellaneous yellow blotches.

A couple weeks ago, I was heading down that way near sunset. The light and the sky had some very vivid colours. You can also see that the crackled paint on the window leaves some interesting shadows on the inside far wall.

On that visit, I noticed these two books in the front window, amusingly titled, "Don't Wait to Buy a House - Buy a House and Wait." Looking back at my old photos, these have been there since at least May 2009, which is the earliest photo I have of after October 2008, when the windows were still painted.

The uniformity of the yellow masks some of the architectural elements of the house. But the low angle of the sun also brings them out. Like the arch above the front door:

Which makes for a decent enough segue to the first of the other yellow houses in Centretown:

This one is Fresco Cielo, an Italian bistro on Elgin between Waverley and Frank. Not only is the building yellow, there is a yellow car driving by! (Pure Gelato, next door, also has a yellow storefront, but only on the first storey.)

The building is technically not a house, it's a restaurant. Prior to this restaurant being founded in 1991, my sources tell me this building previously housed a greasy spoon, a Chinese restaurant, and a firehall. (Note: I haven't bothered to verify this information.)

The next house is the home of Pierre Amelotte International, a hair loss treatment centre, right next to the Rama Lotus Yoga Centre. It used to be an ordinary enough red-brick house, until it underwent extensive renovations to add floors. The transformation isn't quite as stark as the Echo Drive house, as the original parts of the building are still red brick.

This house made some cameos in this post on the Metropolitan Bible Church demolition, and its yellow rear is visible through a driveway off McLeod in this Hallowe'en 2008 post.

The next one is on Bay at James: Powers House, built around 1887. It was renovated extensively in 1915 by architect Francis C. Sullivan, who added his distinctive Prairie stylings. This is just a sneak peek of the narrow side of the house; I'll do a more extensive post on this house another time.

It was this photo that I saw in my "unsorted" pile that got me to write this post. It's 857 Somerset Street West, in Chinatown (technically in Dalhousie, not Centretown). It's next door to the Somerset Travel Agency.

This building stuck out at me very prominently when I took the photo in June, and I assumed it had recently been painted yellow. But to my surprise, the yellow was always there, hidden in plain sight by a red awning banner for Pho Bo Ga King, as revealed by Google Street View, whose photos are from Spring 2009:

I must have just never seen it zipping down the hill on my bike, or struggling back up it.

As such, there are probably other yellow houses in Centretown that I've missed. I'm only counting the garish painted-yellow ones, not yellow-brick buildings like this pretty one at 307 Gilmour, which houses law offices. Its brickwork was repaired last winter:

If you know of other yellow houses in Centretown, leave a comment below!

Newly-yellow house on Arlington Avenue

At 111 Arlington, across from the Greyhound Bus terminal, this house's brickwork was repaired recently. It looks like they removed the doors for the second and third storey balconies, which had been removed in a previous renovation.

I could have sworn I'd taken more shots of this house in this state, but this is the only one I could find, from May 2009:

More recently, the shutters have been removed and the house has been painted a creamy yellow. There's also a brightly-painted blue house with white features next door.

More tasteful than the infamous Yellow House, that's for sure!

June's another busy month in Centretown

I thought that last month had a lot going on, but this month is even busier!

First up, I was in the Ottawa Sun and on the cover of its free commuter daily affiliate, 24 Hours today. The topic of discussion was the yellow house on Gladstone, which I previously blogged about here, and the Bay & Nepean site, which I blogged about here.

There's also Doors Open Ottawa this weekend. For the armchair tourist, check out some of the sites (and others) that I've blogged under the "Tours label"

Next week there are a gazilion and a half meetings, including:

Bronson Consultation:
DCA President Eric Darwin has a series of posts going up on West Side Action regarding the reconstruction of Bronson Avenue. He and I are both on the Public Advisory Committee, whose goal is to shape the vision of Bronson post-redevelopment. I blogged about that previously here.

Many of us on the PAC aren't satisfied with the level of consultation and want to hold our own consultations and talks. We've secured a table-sized printout of the existing conditions on Bronson, and we'll be meeting sometime next week (TBD) to discuss opportunities, prior to the next PAC meeting on the 15th (which is for PAC members only, unfortunately). Contact me at centretown.ottawa -at- gmail - dot- com if you're interested or if you have feedback.

Mid-Centretown Community Design Plan
The CCCA's Planning & Development Review Committee is taking a pro-active role in providing input to the consultation for the Mid-Centretown Community Design Plan. The consulting team will be holding an open house next Tuesday, June 8th from 5:30 to 7pm at Woodside Hall in Dominion-Chalmers United Church on Lisgar/Cooper/O'Connor.

This is an important planning document that will set guidelines for Mid-Centretown (Elgin-Kent, Gloucester to the 417) as development in that corridor picks up pace, giving it a coordinated shape that makes sense.

The consulting team have developed a blog on the project at midcentretown.wordpress.com

Segregated Bicycle Lanes
The Segregated Bicycle Lane pilot study, which I previously summarized here and whose website is at www.ottawa.ca/bikelane, is having four open houses in the next couple weeks:

June 7 – Dalhousie Community Centre, Somerset at Empress (6:30-8:30)
June 8 – McNabb Community Centre, Percy at Gladstone/James/Florence (6:30-8:30)
June 10 – Dominion-Chalmers United Church, Lisgar/O'Connor/Cooper (6:30-8:30)
June 14 – City Hall (5-7)

Minto Park Sale and CCCA BBQ
Councillor Holmes is again hosting the Minto Park Sale, a yard sale for those of us without yards, on Saturday, June 12, 9am-3pm in Minto Park (Elgin at Gilmour/Lewis). Book a table for $10 at mintoparksale@ottawa.ca . The CCCA's Trees & Greenspace Committee will be holding its annual plant sale at the event.

The CCCA will also be hosting a fundraiser BBQ like last year, with yours truly at the grill. We'll be serving all-beef hotdogs and veggie dogs, plus soft drinks, and a water station to refill your water bottle, and we'll also be selling CCCA memberships. Funds raised by the BBQ will be split among the CCCA and the Minto Park Sale's beneficiary for 2010, the Well at St. John the Evangelist Church. Note: We're still trying to locate a decent-sized barbecue to borrow from someone near Minto Park. Contact me if you can help (we have one that we can borrow but it may not be big enough)

This is our second-biggest fundraiser of the year, so please come by and grab a dog and support your local community association!

Monthly CCCA meeting
The monthly meeting of the Centretown Citizens Community Association is on the third Tuesday of the month, as always, at City Hall at 7pm (Honeywell Room). The guest this month will be mayoral candidate Alex Cullen.

This follows the previous day's meeting of the CCCA's Planning & Development Review Committee, which meets on the second Monday of the month at 5:30, usually at the Second Cup on Elgin at Lisgar (though we may be migrating to a reserved room at City Hall).

Cycling blogs
The Ottawa Sun has a new cycling-related blog called the SpokesMan, at blogs.canoe.ca/spokesman, by Kris Westwood.

There's also the new-to-me blog, and new on the Blogawa feed, The Incidental Cyclist, by Kate and her bike, Mike. Kate talks a lot about issues pertaining to people who cycle for transportation.

Carling Avenue reconstruction
Carling Avenue is being reconstructed between the O-Train tracks and Bronson Avenue. There will be an open house on the project on Tuesday, June 22, 2010 from 7-8pm at the Dow's Lake Pavillion, Vista Room.

All of these events are open to the public, there are a few other things going on this month that aren't that I haven't listed here, but some of which I'll be able to blog about as they happen.


Again, remember that your local community associations participate in all of these events. Please support them by coming out to meetings and events, becoming a member, and donating generously!

Yellow House redevelopment

The infamous Yellow House, which I discussed previously in the post Images of Gladstone, is coming closer and closer to redevelopment.

As a recap, 740 and 742 Gladstone, had housed the Pawn-Da-Rosa pawn shop and apartments above. Despite being schedule to be demolished "next month," in July 2008, the City wanted the owner to paint over the graffiti that was on the building. So Gary Stunden*, agent for the building's owner, Ali Shafiei, decided to paint it yellow, partly as a gimmick, and partly to tease the City for doing something as silly as ordering him to clean it up with only a month left until it was demolished. The above photo was taken on July 11, 2008, shortly after the sardonic paint job.

[Edit: CBC News reports that Gary Stunden is an architect whose license was revoked in 2004 by the Ontario Association of Architects.]

The plan is to demolish the building, along with its neighbour, 746 Gladstone, to be replaced with a seven-unit townhouse development to fill the large corner lot. Here's a shot of 746 Gladstone from last September. The porch was removed, and the doors and windows were boarded up and/or painted black. The top window in the attic appears to have been gone.

By yesterday, June 25, 2009, both buildings were still there.

The yellow house has received a lot of graffiti (and painting over thereof) and the yellow paint has chipped off the large windows at the front. The other house is largely unscathed; a window appears to have been installed in the gap at the top, and a piece of plywood now covers the front window, but it seems that the subtle disguise of the blacking over, coupled with the bright graffiti magnet next door, has spared it from vandalism.

Even the rear of the house, though the windows are boarded up, appears unscathed, with the upper-level windows unbroken. Tall thistle weeds in the garden help.

On the wall between the two houses, many have used the yellow walls as a canvas. Aside from the short film This House Will Not Be Here Tomorrow by Ralitsa Doncheva, which uses the house as a backdrop, some more simple poetry has been affixed to the wall, such as this slogan "My opprotunity, My window..." (sic)

Looking back toward the street at the side of the house, we can see the very peak of the rear wall escaped the painting, a subtle reminder of the white Pawn-Da-Rosa house that was there for many years. Debris is scattered in the yard, and a hole has been formed in the brickwork at the rear corner:

Behind the house is a concrete pad, which the 2007 aerial photos suggest used to be a garage fronting on Cambridge. Now it serves as a pathway for teenagers to cut behind the house, picking up rocks from the fallen brickwork:

The Cambridge Street side of the house has weathered--it's had a lot of character added to it in the last eleven months. You can see spots where graffiti tags cover yellow splotches that painted over previous graffiti.

But also a sign of hope: the black and white sign suggests that development may finally come to the site.

At the June meeting of the Dalhousie Community Association, plans were circulated for the site. For reference, here is a screenshot from the City of Ottawa's eMap application with 2007 aerial photos. We can see that both houses are on a single lot, marked 740 Gladstone. We can also see the former garage. The zoning is Traditional Mainstreet with a height limit of 18.5 metres.

The site plan is to demolish the two houses and replace them with a townhouse-style development, with seven 12-foot-wide townhouses facing on Cambridge Street. The one closest to Gladstone will be a trapezoid-shaped unit (16'-3" at Cambridge, 10'-0" at the rear) following Gladstone's bend, addressed 744 Gladstone (interesting choice, since the two existing buildings are 740, 742, and 746), and will have ground-floor retail.

It looks like all the units will have parking in the rear, accessed from Gladstone, and will be built above the parking. The fronts, on Cambridge, will have little gated garden spaces, encroaching slightly onto the sidewalk right-of-way, but greatly adding to the character.

According to the City planner in charge of this application, the application is on hold pending completion of a Phase II Environmental Site Assessment.

In the meantime, enjoy the Yellow House! (Photo taken May 12, 2009)

Images of Gladstone

I'm taking a little break before I sit down and hash out the last in the "Down, Down, Down" series to post some vignettes of Gladstone Avenue.

One of the first posts on this blog was a Before & After of the building that now houses the re-Cycles Bicycle Co-op. Well there was another shot from the series in the photo where I got that "then" photo that looked familiar. This one (qualifying this post to be in the Centretown Heritage Project series).

Though the roads and buildings have changed (for example, the patio on the foregound building and the windows on the background building), they are all still there. You can compare the pattern between the second-storey windows on the middle building to confirm it's the same building.

That building is, of course, the Majestic Cleaners on Gladstone at Bay, where once stood Dey's Skating Rink. A plaque had been erected on the corner to commemorate it, but it was destroyed in April '08:

Funds were raised and a new podium was installed, with the engraving,

Patinoire Dey's Skating Rink

1896 ~ 1920

The Ottawa Hockey Club defeated the Montreal Victorias at this site on March 10, 1903to bring Ottawa its first Stanley Cup / C'est sur ce site que le club de hockey d'Ottawa a remporté sa première coupe Stanley après avoir défait les Victorias de Montréal le 10 mars 1903

As seen here:

On the same block is a house with a ground-level retail space that has been vacant for some time, formerly housing the Overseas Electronics store. For some reason, I really like this photo (in fact, this whole post started because I wanted to post this one photo):

And a couple of houses down, these gentlemen were repairing a porch:

If we continue Westward, we get to the former Pawn-Da-Rosa pawn store, across from Cambridge Street Elementary. Better known as the Yellow House:

As I first found out from David Reevely, this house had been slated to be demolished "next month" in July 2008 and replaced with some townhouses, but evidently that fell through. The City told the building owner that he had to clean up the graffiti on the outside of the house a month before it was slated to be demolished. So Gary Stunden, agent for the building's owner, Ali Shafiei, decided to paint it yellow, partly as a gimmick, and partly to tease the City for doing something as silly as ordering him to clean it up with only a month left until it was demolished. Almost a year later, who's laughing now?

Ralitsa Doncheva created a short film called "This House Will Not Be Here Tomorrow," which you can watch below, or follow the link to watch it on Youtube in High Quality:

While we're on the topic of Yellow + Gladstone, here's a shot of the yellow Auto-Mini folding bike with a child seat that is also an institution on Gladstone, at Bank Street:

That's in the same neighbourhood as Gladstone and Kent, which I photographed in This post leading up to a CCCA meeting.

Moving further West from the Yellow House, we get to the Gladstone theatre. I had previously posted about the Facade reconstruction of the Gladstone, and the Light Rail Now! event at the Gladstone, which features a nice shot of the building with "Light Rail Now!" in the marquee.

Continuing past the O-Train tracks, we get to the 1924 Enriched Bread Company building. The Enriched Bread Artists have a good writeup on the history of this building on their website.

And lastly we come to Sherbrooke Street, at the former Sherbrooke Grocery, which closed after many years. I vividly recall a story in the Citizen where the owner announced his retirement, but I can't for the life of me find it. If you have a link, I'd appreciate it. The closest I can find is this reference in Miss Vicky's Offhand Remarks, where she says that the ground floor will be converted to offices:

So that's a little taste of Gladstone!