Just found this on Vintage Ottawa Facebook page, the Larocque Department Store, now Mercury Court, couldn't find the same angle;

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.n...75585388_n.jpg

http://photos.wikimapia.org/p/00/00/16/30/53_big.jpg

I was in there once in the late '70s. It was like a French-Canadian Ogilvy's.

I found the Larocque Department Store picture elsewhere and the photo was dated November 6, 1971. This was the first sign of the demise of the downtown department stores as the suburban malls took over. My mom used to shop there.

I wonder if it was called something other than Larocque when I went there?

It would have been fall 1978 or more likely 1979.

Here are a few of the early proposals for Place Bell.

This one I find has a lot of similarities to the DND HQ;
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Boch5Qsr9p...ezCA023098.jpg

This one was re-adopted (according to the site) for l'Esplanade;
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nefUQwUznT...ezCA023099.jpg

This one is very similar to what we ended up with but with a flat roof with overhang;
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0vcwTw4hjG...00/belltel.JPG

And what we ended up with, possibly my favourite of the bunch (picture before "light restrictions";
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GW4rknH_cI...ezCA023100.tif

Midcentury Modernist says that the parking garage next door (part of the Place Bell complex) use to have the same cladding, but due to salt damage, they rebuilt it with the more durable metal strips.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7L5TbN95rR...0/P8280051.JPG

And a bit on Bill Teron; his first office building was the following on what is today the Place Bell site (demolished 5 years after construction for Place Bell);
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6RfYOOvH0R...heCA022899.jpg

His second building is the one on the corner of O'Connor and Laurier, across for the old EDC (Plaza 234) and next to the new EDC. That building was given a new skin at some point, but the original is still visible on the back (but largely obscured by the new EDC). I figure there used to be windows between the ridges.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7sGYel68Wy.../IMGP09589.JPG

Not on Urbsite, but interesting fact, but Teron also built the former Delta complex across the street from his rival's Place de Ville. The complex is now owned by Morguard.
http://www.letsbookhotel.com/img/max...8/11836709.jpg
http://www.destination360.com/north-...tel-suites.jpg

Urbsite link; http://urbsite.blogspot.ca/2013/09/p...et-blocks.html

I don't think this has appeared before, but I could be wrong. Lots of great Ottawa photos with historic photos superimposed with the same current view.

Past and Present Ottawa: http://www.pastottawa.com/

Check out the Gallery and the slider on each photo that allows you to move back and forth between the present and the past. Very well done.

It was posted a while a go, but it is always good to have it reposted for those who didn't see it/added to their favourites.

It's very well done. :tup:

Found these on Ebay:


George street with trolley right of way, 1973:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ORIGINAL-SLI...item27d7cd60e4
http://i.ebayimg.com/t/ORIGINAL-SLID...44w~~60_57.JPG
Similar vantage point today:
https://maps.google.ca/maps?hl=en&ll...75.68,,0,-2.57


Another pic of George street, 1973:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/OTTAWA-BUS-S...item5d43354019
http://i.ebayimg.com/t/OTTAWA-BUS-SL...y5w~~60_57.JPG
Today:
https://maps.google.ca/maps?hl=en&ll...,,1,-0.64&z=17


Postcard of Rideau street in front of Ogilvy's, with glass enclosures and an old Orion-Ikarus bus, mid 80s:

http://i.ebayimg.com/t/OC-Transpo-Ar...ykQ~~60_57.JPG
http://www.ebay.com/itm/OC-Transpo-A...item5d4321a58b

The streetcar tracks were still there in 1973? Did it really take Ottawa that long to remove them all?

Yes, I remember visible streetcar tracks in the market in the 1970s. Also, in a parking lot on Albert Street west of Bank Street. You could see the outline of an old building in that parking lot. Was this where streetcars were manufactured in Ottawa?

THAT IS SO AWESOME. I love these old shots. I miss the ol' Ikarus. They were so insanely loud and intense. I think I heard they ended up in Cuba.

Yeah, I remember that too. It was where Constituion Square is now.

I drove an Ikarus once on a closed course at Landsdowne Park. Intense is the word.

I don't think so. The streetcar garages were situated on the site Place de Ville sits today (phase I if I'm not mistaken). Who knows, they might have had 2-3 blocks of streetcar garages.

Aerial pic of downtown, mid 70s.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.n...76338516_n.jpg

Source:https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=3&theater

Wow - that's a lot of surface parking and boxy midrises.

Just think - they could have gone much taller than they did in a few of those locations. Would that have been so bad?

Wow for 1970's that was pretty good..

To say that now in 2013 not much has changed except that these surface parking have been turned into more of these boxy midrises :yuck:

That is awesome!

Place de Ville dominates downtown, only one John Edmonds, no Constitution Square or Minto Place, L'Esplanade Laurier U/C, Hunter Building still standing, original Bank of Canada standing by itself...

The Centennial (cruciform building, lower, left) building looked so much better back then!

The river looks like the Caribbean!!

But honestly, Place de Ville could have been 40+ storeys and no 'views' would have been harmed. Downtown would be a much different place now if 30 years ago things would have been built differently. Hope everyone likes Canyons, because that's what we have now! Albeit, dense Canyons.

Ottawa does have some incredible density for a city of it's size. When we get a couple 40+ story buildings in centretown it'll be quite the skyline!