Sparks Street

[eltodesukane]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

...
Greenboro was in a worse position than Raleigh when its industrial economy was dessimated by industry moving off-shore. However, the municipal government showed considerable courage by investing in its downtown.
What is unheard of was the demolition of a highway bridge downtown and replacing it with a suspension pedestrian bridge that curves across the river giving a public view of a centrally located waterfall.
The river formerly overgrown and strewn with garbage was converted into public gardens, and multi-use pathways. Public art was installed.
The riverside is still being improved and the pathways now extend a considerable distance. As is the case in most cities, the riverfront is a flood plain so it is reserved as parkland.
...

Liberty Bridge, Greenville, SC
https://www.google.ca/maps/place/Fal...2.399311?dcr=0

[Vixx]

^ Completely agree Nepean. For anyone reading this read or following the issue for the past several years, there have been some really good ideas that can and should be implemented. But at the end of the day Sparks Street remains a street dominated by bland underutilized government offices and you can only do so much to liven it up.

Maybe the city should inquire to the feds on what the future status holds for some of the buildings. If the feds don't really have a plan, then maybe see what it would take to purchase some space and get private developers or retailers involved?

[Kitchissippi]

By active retail, I mean the very restaurants, cafes and small art galleries mentioned above. The old bank buildings would make for nice theatres and performance venues, actually.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by Kitchissippi

By active retail, I mean the very restaurants, cafes and small art galleries mentioned above. The old bank buildings would make for nice theatres and performance venues, actually.

Those retail slots were all open until very recently and they didn't attract many restaurants, cafes and small art galleries, nor have any of the existing "for lease" properties.

Converting a bank to a theatre isn't a terrible idea, but it is a lot of money to spend (evicting CIBC, re-configuring the building for use as a theatre, trying to persuade one of the theatre companies to relocate from their current purpose-built buildings) for a pretty small benefit (maybe putting 200 people on the street once per day).

The thing is, Sparks Street is a commercial area in an office-building district. It attracts the kind of businesses that all commercial areas in office buildings (things office workers can do on their lunch hour) with a few tourist-oriented businesses in the immediate vicinity of Parliament.

[roger1818]

Originally Posted by Kitchissippi

The old bank buildings would make for nice theatres and performance venues, actually.

Better yet, why not refurbish the old Place de Ville theatre at 300 Spark St. It was used for Kontinuum, but is otherwise abandoned. It would have the advantage of a direct connection to the LRT.

Further reading:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa...past-1.2511978

https://ottawarewind.com/2014/01/18/...movie-theatre/

[McC]

^^^ that's also an important point.

[lrt's friend]

I could be wrong but my impression is that the south side of Sparks Street is doing better than the north side. The north side, of course is owned by the feds.

My understanding is that the federal government is not always a good landlord, bureaucratic and non responsive to tenants. They will sometimes impose substantial rent increases with little notice or don't always offer long-term leases needed for a business to succeed and invest in itself or impose draconian bilingualism requirements that would never happen with private sector landlords.

[zzptichka]

Maybe ditch these off-putting stupid patio fences too?



What's the reasoning behind them anyway? Seems like it's strictly North American thing.

[eltodesukane]

Originally Posted by zzptichka

Maybe ditch these off-putting stupid patio fences too?



What's the reasoning behind them anyway? Seems like it's strictly North American thing.

The same stupid fence is in St Laurent Mall at the Second Cup booth near the cinema.

[acottawa]

Patio fences are required by provincial liquor laws (which I would not in any way try to justify).

[Kitchissippi]

I bet it's to delineate the alcohol licence area

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by Kitchissippi

I bet it's to delineate the alcohol licence area

Definitely. We're not allowed to drink in public but we're allowed to drink in public, if you know what I mean.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by AndyMEng

I'm reminded of Stockholm's Drottninggatan street, which is amazing year-round (and definitely just about the same as Sparks as far as weather). However, note that 100% of the leaseable, ground level space is rented to well-known shops and hundreds of bars and restaurants. People literally travel to stay for the weekend to just walk the street.

The street extends from parliament at the south to a park in the north, and is bordered by the financial district (central bank), movie theatres, a market, the central train station, etc. Oh sigh, what could have been in Ottawa had we just stayed the course 100 years ago.

-Tunnelbana Entrances dotted along the entire length of the street.

That's another thing. Although the Confederation Line is already pretty far north in our CBD, it would have been nice to have entrances along Sparks. Hopefully, exits at Heritage Place and PDV can at least direct people to Sparks.

[roger1818]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

That's another thing. Although the Confederation Line is already pretty far north in our CBD, it would have been nice to have entrances along Sparks. Hopefully, exits at Heritage Place and PDV can at least direct people to Sparks.

As discussed above, the Lyon Station East Entrance (i.e. PDV) will be in the basement mall. You can exit the mall onto Spark Street (as well as both sides of Queen).

The basement food court in Heritage Place will have a connection to the Parliament Station East Entrance, but I don't think there is an entrance to the food court from Sparks Street. That could change eventually.

[Kitchissippi]

Originally Posted by roger1818

The basement food court in Heritage Place will have a connection to the Parliament Station East Entrance, but I don't think there is an entrance to the food court from Sparks Street. That could change eventually.

There's a food court at Heritage Place? The Winners is there, and I think they could easily reconfigure a hallway so that the escalator becomes public access to and from the LRT independent of the store entrance. They could even put one of those lifesaver lollypop signs at the corner of Sparks and O'Connor

[roger1818]

Originally Posted by Kitchissippi

There's a food court at Heritage Place? The Winners is there, ...

Oops. You are correct and the Winners is there.

... and I think they could easily reconfigure a hallway so that the escalator becomes public access to and from the LRT independent of the store entrance. They could even put one of those lifesaver lollypop signs at the corner of Sparks and O'Connor

If you look at the plan for the Retail Concourse, they have kept options open for alternate entrances into the retail space.


(full drawing at http://www.morguardlrtupdates.com/PD..._Layout_R1.pdf)

[J.OT13]

Thanks for these, never seen them. So does Heritage Place have a food court and decent retail concourse? I've never actually been inside.

Disappointed the only elevator entrance to Parliament is from the sidewalk. Feels like they're treating those with reduced mobility as second class.

EDIT: Just checked out the plans and I don't quite understand the "future connection". It would bring people to the same retail concourse as the initial connection. Is that just in anticipation for a higher volume of daily entries/exits? If so, did the City plan an additional entrance to the PdV concourse, because the hallway from the station concourse to the PdV underground mall is extremely narrow.

I hope the City also left room and knock-out panels for additional entrances in the future because I feel like the ones at Lyon and Parliament will be over capacity in no time. At Parliament, a future entrance in the WEP would be huge. For Lyon, I could see the old Delta complex (now Hilton complex I guess). CDH might be a stretch.

[lrt's friend]

Is this pedestrian route sufficiently noticeable, sufficiently lit, sufficiently accessible, and sufficiently direct? Will this take pedestrians directly to the Lebreton project without winding through other developments? It seems to go to the library site, but further?

I have been to the west end of Sparks Street many times and I did not know that this pedestrian path was there given the design of the Garden of the Provinces. I may have used it once to reach someone's car below the escarpment but that was with someone else leading the way. It was not inviting after dark. It is too concealed.

[Kitchissippi]

I'm not a fan of that garden, one expects to have the provincial trees or flowers planted in it but it doesn't. I think they ruined the original design with the heavy-handed implementation of UA ramps and railings in the early 2000s, an alteration that sticks out like a sore thumb. Instead, they should have just cut openings along Bay Street and made the sidewalk function as the accessible ramp, which would have also opened the garden to all 4 sides

[OTSkyline]

So the Sweden example made me think of what else we could do to make Sparks "special" and there was a note about art, which made me think: Why don't we do something artsy all along Sparks just like Montreal hangs thousands of colourful balls all along Ste-Catherine Street during the entire summer for Pride? This could be a cool way to differentiate Sparks St, add a bit of art in Ottawa (which we all know we lack of, we're pretty boring and utilitarian) and last but not least this could solve (or help) the heat issue during summer, offering some shelter from the sun hoping customers and pedestrians would then choose Sparks over another street, especially to shop, eat and spend time. WIN? WIN? WIN? Who is in charge that could listen?