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77 Metcalfe St | 75m | 26f | Proposed
Out of Ottawa Magazine. Thanks to Pat from Rail Fans for stumbling upon this.
https://i.postimg.cc/ryW5QXNb/Screen...-13-111118.png No official proposal as far as I know, but it involves tearing down the old NavCan office building, known as the Commonwealth Building. Built in 1952-1954, it was the first glass curtain wall International style building in Ottawa. In the 1980s, it was beautifully renovated with the addition of a curved corner and arches at the top. Midcentury Modernist posted a story on this building in 2010 on Urbsite with some impressive images from the past. https://urbsite.blogspot.com/2010/01/commonwealth.html https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/bl...9jkeqgvg=s1600 https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/bl...Fz2_9uUg=s1600 |
Oh god no. This is one of the best looking buildings in our CBD - in my opinion. Please do not tear it down for a CharcWhite.
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Everything must be charcoal and white. (Evil Roderick Lahey cackle).
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Photo of Roderick lecturing his interns:
"At RLA we have done away with all of our colour computer monitors to go with grey tones. Not only does it simplify our designs, it also makes Ottawa as soul-sucking as possible." https://media.licdn.com/dms/image/v2...A_zEiK5Ix9kr9w |
I worked in this building, summer of ‘83. It had glass mail slots at the elevator lobbies that would presumably drop into a large mailbox in the basement.
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There is an at grade parking lot across the street. Why wouldn't that be developed before taking a wrecking ball to an existing building?
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Tired of seeing historic or jus overall decent buildings demolished when we have so many surface parkings and other underutilized lots left. |
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This old article belongs here.
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Since this is another Groupe Mach property, and they are currently demolishing 110 O'Connor St in order to create a new residential building, the likelihood of them doing the same here is good.
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It's a decent building. I wish they could buy 200 Albert one block over instead.
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Groupe Mach to replace vacant office tower at 77 Metcalfe St. with new mixed-use highrise
David Sali, OBJ July 8, 2025 Another empty downtown office tower is being torn down to make way for residential units as landlords continue to seek new uses for aging real estate assets in Ottawa’s core. Groupe Mach plans to demolish a vacant 12-storey building at the corner of Metcalfe and Albert streets and replace it with a new highrise containing 234 rental apartments and ground-floor commercial space, a company spokesperson told OBJ. The 140,000-square-foot tower at 77 Metcalfe St. has been empty since its previous tenant, Nav Canada, moved out at the end of 2022. Groupe Mach acquired the building from BentallGreenOak three years ago for $19.1 million. The Montreal-based firm said it decided to take the 70-year-old property off the office market and transform the site into a multi-residential complex “based on recent market analyses and the growing demand for housing in downtown Ottawa,” adding it believes “this approach offers greater long-term value.” Groupe Mach said it aims to start dismantling the structure before the end of the year. It will be the second demolition project in downtown Ottawa for the real estate firm, which is in the midst of tearing down a 14-storey highrise at 110 O’Connor St. The company said the project is "progressing on schedule,” with the building expected to be completely dismantled by next March. Groupe Mach acquired that building at the corner of O’Connor and Slater streets, which previously served as an office for the Department of National Defence, from Cominar REIT for $40 million in 2021. It is being replaced with a residential highrise. A prominent Ottawa real estate broker says it’s no surprise major property owners like Groupe Mach are looking at alternative uses for aging class-B and C properties such as 77 Metcalfe and 110 O’Connor. “One of the things I think any downtown core starts to struggle with is what to do with inventory that passes its prime and how can you repurpose it,” Shawn Hamilton, a principal at Proveras Commercial Realty, told OBJ on Tuesday. “I would say this news is very exciting because 77 Metcalfe, it had its run and it contributed over the course of the decades that it was operational, but by today’s standards it is challenged real estate.” While recently renovated downtown properties such as Constitution Square, the World Exchange Plaza and the Sun Life Centre are luring tenants with perks such as remodelled common areas, gyms, restaurants and other amenities, owners of more antiquated buildings haven’t been as successful at filling vacancies in a post-COVID world. As a result, Hamilton said, many property owners are looking at ways to breathe new life into their investments. In some cases, that could mean converting existing office towers into housing. Several local developers, including CLV Group, District Realty and Katasa, have launched office-to-residential conversions over the past few years, and more projects are in the pipeline. Groupe Mach has taken a different approach, opting to start fresh with brand-new developments. Company president Vincent Chiara told OBJ in 2023 the firm considered a conversion at 110 O’Connor, but ultimately determined it didn’t make financial sense to try to salvage the current building’s skeleton and transform the interior into apartments. Hamilton said Groupe Mach’s properties likely won’t be the only aging downtown office towers facing the wrecker’s ball in the years ahead. “I think we’re entering a phase where some of our antiquated stock is ripe to be repurposed and people are willing to invest in the city,” he said. “It doesn't take very many examples to create a trend. I would say definitely it’s the start of something that we should be watching carefully.” Foot traffic in Ottawa’s core has never recovered from the pandemic, with many employers, including the federal government, opting for a hybrid work model that sees employees come to the office only two or three days a week. As municipal and business leaders seek new ways to revitalize the city’s downtown, Hamilton says he’s encouraged that Groupe Mach and other landlords are providing more options for people to live there. “It sort of diversifies our downtown core by bringing in residential (space) where we were sort of a monocultural downtown,” he said. “I see all of this as extremely positive.” Meanwhile, the federal government’s campaign to shed some of its antiquated office inventory in downtown Ottawa appears to have stalled, with the latest auditor general’s report saying the plan to reduce the overall federal office footprint by 50 per cent over 10 years is well off track. Hamilton suggested the feds “might want to take a page out of Groupe Mach’s book” and start looking at how to repurpose buildings that have outlived their usefulness as office space. “(The federal government) could do a lot of good right now, and I don’t feel that they are,” he said. https://obj.ca/groupe-mach-to-replac...-office-tower/ |
Why couldn't they knock over that hideous converted hotel next door. Send it to the shadow realm. I find their spray painted facade offensive.
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I get why it couldn't be converted to residential due to its square walled in elevations. The hotel next door was actually kind of nice in the 50s passé kind of way until they ruined it with the charcoal paint. It too has an interesting history, suffering through a fire that took the life of telephone operator, who stayed at her post calling every single room to make sure everyone got out. |
The project is now on DevApp but the documents are not yet available for public viewing.
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77 Metcalfe St | 75m | 26f | Proposed
Group Mach plans to replace the current vacant 140,000 sq. ft. 12-storey office building 77 Metcalfe Street with a 26-storey residential tower having 234 residential units, and 475 m2 of commercial space on the ground floor. 27 vehicular parking spaces and 234 bicycle spaces will be provided on two underground levels.
Unit breakdown: Studio 62 1 BR 98 1 BR+ 14 2 BR 13 2 BR + 33 3 BR 14 Total 234 Architect: NEUF Architects Development application: https://devapps.ottawa.ca/en/applica...5-0112/details Location: https://i.imgur.com/7bsPjod.png Siteplan: https://i.imgur.com/yanW0oM.png https://i.imgur.com/9okoIVL.png Renderings: https://i.imgur.com/8tqUKEo.png https://i.imgur.com/DyqnvOY.png https://i.imgur.com/AsGNEOi.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/xZPvKWt.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/uRWAL0O.png https://i.imgur.com/FdRPD4a.png https://i.imgur.com/TJHeZOB.png |
How do they figure 26 floors? The elevations clearly show 23. This is really quite a bland building. The barcode design has been out of style for a decade. I probably wouldn't be so upset if it wasn't for what they are replacing with this.
What they show as "inspirations" on their documents are much better than this. In their early concepts, we can see that they started with a curve, to echo the Commonwealth Building on the site today, but gave up, probably to save a few bucks. https://i.imgur.com/6cbsAoG.png And I'm not sure how this pays homage to Parliament. https://i.imgur.com/aBA5h2C.png At least the buildings will have a few generous retail spaces, and I think a wider sidewalk (overhang suggests the actual base will be set back slightly). |
Clearly something wrong with the Ottawa tax code, given that it's more financially viable to tear down an entire building to build a new one rather than buy off the surface parking lot in front...
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Turns out the City's Urban Design Review Panel pushed them to simplify the design and remove the curve. Ottawa's UDRP is made up of just the most boring architects in existence.
EDIT: I sent feedback through DevApps. |
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