LeBreton Flats 2.0 (RendezVous LeBreton) | Cancelled

[rocketphish]

Setting aside all the common elements of these proposals: the arena, the ubiquitous public plazas and parkettes, the gratuitous inclusion of Canadian names and themes, the proposals will live or die based on their differences.

The DCDLS Group's proposal is fanciful... outlandish even. It does have a couple of features that I like: the urban beach, a much more appealing looking library, and more varied architecture. But it's also missing some key features, like burying the Confederation Line... what a waste of prime space! It also seems quite bipolar - like two distinct zones that don't mingle. Overall though it looks to me like they just came up with as many wacky ideas as they could and jammed them all in. It's like somebody on the team may have said "Let's just throw all these oddball concepts at the wall and see what sticks!". A multimedia museum, an automotive museum, a beer museum, an aquarium, a science and innovation pavilion, AND a skatepark? Really??

The RendezVous LeBreton Group's proposal, on the other hand, at first seems more boring, but in reality it's the more practical one, and the one more likely to actually get built as planned. It makes better use of the aquaduct. It turns the Confederation Line into valuable space by building over the top of it. And perhaps most importantly, it brings more employees and permanent residents to the area, people who will keep these new spaces vital and vibrant all the time, not just during tourist season, or when a festival is on. It also better integrates its components within the plan and better integrates with the surrounding neighbourhoods, and even the waterfront (as limited as that is).

For now I'd have to side with RendezVous LeBreton, though I think they could integrate a couple of elements from DCDLS to complete their proposal.