320 Lees Ave | 2x89m + 2x102m | 2x28f + 2x32f | U/C
 

A friend told me that the Iranian Cultural Center , near the Sandy Hill Arena, was sold to a Montreal Developer and that he intends to build a student residence on the land.

It is the first I have heard of it. Does anyone else know any details about this?

I believe this is the development you're referring to. There is a thread on here somewhere but searching this site is too frustrating to bother. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/robinson-village-parking-1.5438117

Not sure, but I don't think that's it. There are several apartments proposed for further in along Robinson. I think at least one is already under construction, no?

No --that is about four small buildings on Robinson Av. The former Iranian Center is nearby ---near Mann and Lees and the Sandy Hill Arena. I went by it this morning and the building has been torn down. Here is a photo of the site before the building was torn down.

https://ifpnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/50e9c992-4d8d-47d4-a056-2e32b039b06f.jpg

Can't find the official application on Ottawa.ca but I found this PDF on Action Sandy Hill website for a community consultation held June 2020

And according to this "confidential" but easily found on Google legal document, purchased by 11172765 Canada Inc., an affiliate of Place Doree Real Estate Holdings (headquartered in Montreal) for $26.5M. That's one million less than the U of O offered but Place Doree had fewer conditions. Other bids made by Shenkman, Minto, and Regional

https://i.imgur.com/oaMQqcfh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/xc3oGwFh.jpg

I think Ottawa developers are only capable of counting to 28.

Wow, that's a lot of student residence. It would have quite an impact.

Yes---No wonder that uOttawa feels that they can tear down the old residences on campus.This one should fill their needs for a long time to come.

2 Robinson Ave | ?m | 4x28f | Proposed
 

A few early details:


Architect: rla Architecture


Total Residential Units = 1,587 Units
1BR Units = 1,004 Units
2BR Units = 5 83 Units

Total no. of parking spaces = 6 45 Spaces


Location:

https://i.imgur.com/3AJfQRL.png

https://i.imgur.com/7yj1a9q.png


Siteplan:

https://i.imgur.com/ACTgmIl.png

https://i.imgur.com/ivPuQIf.png


Renderings:

https://i.imgur.com/Ap5k0Ew.png

https://i.imgur.com/OXf05vp.png

https://i.imgur.com/EGA99I8.png

https://i.imgur.com/zoOReiN.png

https://i.imgur.com/7irVv4n.png

https://i.imgur.com/51DLMtM.png

https://i.imgur.com/WsZMObH.png

https://i.imgur.com/ie7HkLz.png

https://i.imgur.com/QLR2Fw1.png

https://i.imgur.com/l3h6Qaa.png

https://i.imgur.com/0dflx7g.png

https://i.imgur.com/X2v0uFA.png

https://i.imgur.com/QJ6eEnU.png

https://i.imgur.com/LpNCGSL.png

Note the area between Lees Av and Robinson Avenue, called Robinson Bowl, used to be owned by the City, but now is owned by uOttawa.

And uOttawa has been hoping to get the Sandy Hill arena lands from the NCC to build a new athletic complex.

I honestly feel like screaming into a pillow. Roderick Lazy and his magical clone stamp tool strike again.

Blame the developers who keep hiring him. They could hire someone else.

Sometimes I think that I should defend Rod because we have the same last name--and because I am retired and Lazy. :worship:

"This is just the massing, this isn't the finished product" -> Changes almost nothing for the site plan submission.

It is kind of different in its massiveness, like a statement against subtlety. It reminds me somehow of a communist palace... or like a giant hand sticking out of the ground with 27-storey fingers.

That's what he always says, but the design remains unchanged 90% if the time after final submission (5% gets better, 5% becomes far, far worse).

Overall terrible proposal. At the very least, the City should demand some sort of more direct link to Lees Station.

The overall design is not bad, this looks like Lees 2.0 (but obviously newer and better looking). It's a lot of units but I'm sure they'd be able to rent all if not most of these, there's a lot of pent-up demand for student housing or housing close to OttawaU.

Sure it's all 27 stories but this is next to the 417 and won't add anything to the CBD or "downtown" skyline anyway...

My only questions;
Would it kill them to vary the heights of the towers a bit? 22, 26, 30, 34? or something?

Transit, this would have no easy access to transit being in the middle between Lees and uOttawa stations. Not sure everyone will be pleased to walk 1km+ to class or across 417 overpass to access Lees Station. Since this is a lot of units, this should be addressed.

Grocery store/amenities. Surely they can't expect all students to sign up to the meal plans and to my knowledge the closest grocery store would be on Rideau Street (a few km away), would be nice to see space set aside for this kind of retail.

Transit access really isn't bad. It's about 400 metres to Lees, and the bridge isn't bad to walk on since it's been redone and has wider sidewalks and bike lanes.

Grocery stores are tougher. I think the closest is probably Loblaws on Isabella, and that is just under 2 km. The organic grocer on Main is a bit closer, but not a full grocery store.

Its closer to a 500m+ walk. One of the big problems with Lees Station is they put the TPSS in the way of where you would add a northeastern entrance to the station, which makes it a longer walking distance for people coming from the east/north. It doesn't make much of a difference now, but it will make it much more difficult to integrate any sort of pedestrian bridge across the 417 to/from the north.

https://i.imgur.com/YwNRsPs.png

I got 430m when I mapped it to the front entrance of the station. Even 500m is only a 5 min walk or so, which I’d consider pretty transit accessible.

But you raise an interesting point. It does look a fair bit shorter to cross at the existing traffic light and follow the MUP into the station. Not sure I got what you meant. Are you saying that it isn’t possible to create an entrance from the path?

Disappointed with the location of the TPSS. It seems the Confed Line was sppeciecifically designed to prohibit any sort of improvement to the RoW and stations.

Worse yet is the proposed design at 2 Robinson. No regard for design esthetics or urban planning. Cheaper to produce one architectural plan for 4 buildings I guess.

Theoretically they could fairly easily add a faregate from the MUP directly to the WB train platform.

But that raises another issue: it is actually impossible to cross the street as a pedestrian at the signalized intersection of Lees & the WB417 off-ramp:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50765025051_606cc617ca_c.jpg