Public Realm in Canadian Cities - Developments

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by hipster duck

I feel like all three Ottawa monuments are kind of just placed in areas that had surplus land, rather than integrated into the parts of the city where people live and work and interact normally. Obviously it's much easier to place them there, but it kind of drops off most people's consciousness which kind of defeats the purpose of memorials.

That's pretty accurate, yes. Dumping ground for monuments that are more like out of the way parks.

[J.OT13]

Here's a better public realm project. Parliament Hill landscaping plan, once the current rehabilitation is complete (by 2028-30 or so).

Originally Posted by zzptichka

Not pictured: a dozen of bored cops in their huge idling trucks all around the great lawn.

Originally Posted by zzptichka

Parking lots on the hill (N/A here). Are they really needed? Who they are for? MPs use a shuttle.

OK, maybe MPs or guests with mobility issues, but seems like an overkill tbh.

Originally Posted by zzptichka

Will I finally see those run-down sheds around the Library that's been sitting there temporarily for 20 years, finally gone?

Unfortunately, the Hill will inexplicably still have surface parking on each side of Centre Block, but the parking behind the Centre Block will be removed.

Trees will be planted at the edges of the Hill, while preserving vistas of the Peace Tower.

A monument dedicated to Residential School victims and survivors is planned "at the west side of Parliament Hill", but it's unclear if it's the main lawn at the front, or in the corner between the West and Centre Blocks.

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by niwell

Biked by Love Park the other day before it was technically open - it looks great in person. Should improve as the plants grow in, particularly the wisteria canopy (which looks a bit out of place right now). The use of movable seating is great and something I'd like to see more of in Toronto.

Do you think it's possible that my initial "meh" reaction to the pictures was pre-mature?

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Here's a better public realm project. Parliament Hill landscaping plan, once the current rehabilitation is complete (by 2028-30 or so).

Unfortunately, the Hill will inexplicably still have surface parking on each side of Centre Block, but the parking behind the Centre Block will be removed.

Trees will be planted at the edges of the Hill, while preserving vistas of the Peace Tower.

A monument dedicated to Residential School victims and survivors is planned "at the west side of Parliament Hill", but it's unclear if it's the main lawn at the front, or in the corner between the West and Centre Blocks.

It won't be on the main front lawn.

[Kilgore Trout]

Some new spaces in Montreal.

1. Les Terrasses Roy. Completed November 2022. This was an ordinary block of Roy Street with a few businesses that was pedestrianized and turned into a plaza with temporary wood planters and seating. Last year it was made permanent. Here's the street in 2011 before any work was done and here's the street in 2019 with the transitory arrangement.







Source: Agora MTL

2. Rosemont Park. Completed June 2023. It was functional but pretty unremarkable before (). A new water feature has been added, along with new furniture and an interesting new playground.

Before/after:



After:







Source: Agora MTL

3. Maisonneuve Library. Completed June 2023. This is a beautiful Beaux-Arts library that was massively expanded with new additions on either side. It was accompanied by new public spaces. (You can see what it looked like before here.) There's a new plaza out front, an adjacent side street was pedestrianized with public seating added, and the alley behind the library was revamped. The expansion resulted in the loss of some green space but I think the quality of the library makes up for it.

[SpongeG]

How many years did the whole process take in Montreal? from a temporary park to the final done deal?

there are a number of places in Vancouver that are taking what feels like decades and nothing ever comes out of the temporary pop-up park, such as one off of Robson, they had grand plans to pedestrianize a small block and have temporary tables etc and still seems like it will never become permanent.

That first Montreal space looks great.

[J.OT13]

It's amazing to see the volume and quality of public realm improvements in Montreal. Where do they get the budget and political will to actually do things, not just consultations and studies?

[Mister F]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Unfortunately, the Hill will inexplicably still have surface parking on each side of Centre Block, but the parking behind the Centre Block will be removed.

There's a huge underground building going in front of the Centre Block. You'd think that they'd incorporate all the needed parking there with easy access to all three buildings. What a wasted opportunity.

[Nite]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

It's amazing to see the volume and quality of public realm improvements in Montreal. Where do they get the budget and political will to actually do things, not just consultations and studies?

Montreal is always showing the rest of the country how it should be done.
The upcoming Yonge street redesign in Toronto is basically the Saint Catherine redesign brought to toronto

Compared to road maintenance, the cost public realm improvements is pretty cheap. this one of the many reason cities, towns and suburbs in this country should be reducing road infrastructure so they have more money for people centered infrastructures instead of giving all the money for road construction and maintenance.

[J.OT13]

More Ottawa. Some of the best public realm in Ottawa are the Sussex Courtyards in the ByWard Market. Managed and maintained by the NCC, these courtyards are more Montreal or Quebec City than Ottawa.

Next two posts from the recent NCC Board Meeting presentation and website.

https://ncc-website-2.s3.amazonaws.com/d...ourtyards-%E2%80%93-Schematic-Design.pdf

https://ncc-ccn.gc.ca/projects/sussex-courtyards

Here are the Courtyards as they exist today.



Clarendon



York



Jeanne d'Arc



Tin House



Beaux Art

[J.OT13]

Here's the overall plan for the Courtyards and ho they connect.



And here are the proposals for each Courtyard.

Clarendon and York



Jeanne d'Arc



Tin House



Beaux Art Option A



Beaux Art Option B

[WhipperSnapper]

Love Park is meh. It's like a sophisticated corporate plaza; like a 2023 version of Commerce
Court. You know somewhere is a jumpy security guard watching every move. The community has an abundance of places like Love Park. It needed something less designer with more soft surfaces and adaptability for recreation. Here's hoping the HTO 2 or whatever the planned park on the larger surface lot to the west isn't more of the same.

Feed the birds... toppins a bag ... well, until the guard chases you out

I see a pass through space. The few that stop and partake in the splendor are likely avoiding the crowds to the south. That's not good enough for the time and resources that went into this. This being SSP, it doesn't matter if it was paid by taxpayers or Section 37. There's still a finite amount of both.

[davidivivid]

[WhipperSnapper]

Most Euro photo this year?

[MonkeyRonin]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

Love Park is meh. It's like a sophisticated corporate plaza; like a 2023 version of Commerce
Court. You know somewhere is a jumpy security guard watching every move. The community has an abundance of places like Love Park. It needed something less designer with more soft surfaces and adaptability for recreation. Here's hoping the HTO 2 or whatever the planned park on the larger surface lot to the west isn't more of the same.

I haven't seen it in person, but that's kind of the sense I get from the photos. Overly prescriptive & landscaped; not enough green space & shade and flexibility to just be a pleasant, multi-use community park. It's the same problem that a lot modern parks have.

The pond looks nice though.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by Mister F

There's a huge underground building going in front of the Centre Block. You'd think that they'd incorporate all the needed parking there with easy access to all three buildings. What a wasted opportunity.

I had the same thought. In a $8B+ project, putting what's ultimately not that much parking underground would have barely made a dent in the overall budget.

[kwoldtimer]

Security issue?

[Kilgore Trout]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

How many years did the whole process take in Montreal? from a temporary park to the final done deal?

there are a number of places in Vancouver that are taking what feels like decades and nothing ever comes out of the temporary pop-up park, such as one off of Robson, they had grand plans to pedestrianize a small block and have temporary tables etc and still seems like it will never become permanent.

That first Montreal space looks great.

Originally Posted by J.OT13

It's amazing to see the volume and quality of public realm improvements in Montreal. Where do they get the budget and political will to actually do things, not just consultations and studies?

The Terrasses Roy launched in 2017 and the permanent space was completed last year, although I think it was delayed by a year or maybe even two due to the pandemic. It depends on a lot of different factors for projects like this. You need political leadership not only to launch the project in the first place, but also to make sure it doesn’t get stuck in a funding queue. There are a ton of little projects like this around Montreal and they usually take about five years from transitory arrangement to something permanent. I think the funding comes from a mix of sources including municipal and provincial. I read once that in the early days of doing these types of projects, borough politicians had to be creative about funding, like using money from a provincial road safety fund.

Along the lines of the Roy Street project, there is Espace Boyer, a former municipally-owned parking lot that is was turned into a kind of pop-up space in 2018, and will finally be turned into a permanent plaza next year (after two years of pandemic delays). There’s also the Parc des Gorilles which was an overgrown vacant lot illegally cleared by a property developer, then bought by the city, and is now finally being made into a permanent park this year.

I doubt most of these would have happened if not for Projet Montréal, the political party that has been in charge of the whole city since 2017 and in some boroughs like the Plateau since 2011.

[WhipperSnapper]

I'm not sure if it's volume. It's definitely quality. There's just more cast in place concrete elsewhere and, with a high percentage of hard scaping, it doesn't look particularly noteworthy. Imagine if the basic pavers outside the Maisonneuve Library was poured (uncoloured or without a stamped pattern) concrete sidewalks.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

Security issue?

Any parking on Parliament is a security issue. In any case, whoever drives onto the Hill will need to have top security clearance, so I don't see how underground would be less secure (if anything more secure) than surface.

Still unsure who the heck would use those anyway.