Quote:
Originally Posted by BlueJay
The entire structure had to remain which was not in the first planning phase of this project. The City made that a requirement during the approval process but that unfortunately caused major cost increases due to the structural upgrades that were needed to be done to maintain the whole existing building. That led to value engineering on exterior and interior finishing. Instead of the City holding the developer to higher exterior finishing standards, they made Rimap keep an entire structure that no one would ever notice instead of the more cost effective method of demolishing it while keeping the York Street facade intact. This should have been just facadism. Then take Claridge next door, they were not even required to keep the facade for the Andaz addition. The general public of Ottawa do not realize how favoritism and the removal of red tape happens for certain developers here.
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I wasn't aware the project was initially supposed to be facadism. I thought the plan was always to preserve the Major Building in full (or nearly).
I don't disagree with the favoritism. One only needs to look at Soho Italia's rejected 35 floor proposal, while the City offered 5 extra floors to Claridge proposing the initially 40 storey Icon across the street. It's always seemed as though local campaign donors had more influence than out of town developers. Rideau Centre is probably another one, where the old Ogilvy was sacrificed for a bigger underground parking garage. We now have 1/4 of the facade left, with floors running through the heritage windows.
That said, I will challenge your notion that Rimap value engineered only because they were told to preserve the heritage building. We have seen significant value engineering at their AC Marriott project a block away. Is the excuse in that case the Waller Mall rehab and maintenance?
I sincerely hope that they don't value engineer the Renaissance, as that will dominate the skyline for decades to come.
I'll leave my opinions on heritage preservation aside, knowing I'm in the minority.