General Update/Rumour thread [Urban Ottawa]

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by gjhall

Union du Canada now has a rezoning application sign up on the site. Nothing on Devapps yet

What doese it say?

[gjhall]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

What doese it say?

Convert office to hotel, with 3 storeys added, and a 22 storey residential building on George, 250~ combined parking spaces

[Harley613]

interesting. the market has been overdue for a new condo tower. i'm amazed they can add three stories to the existing tower as well...this must involve a MAJOR redo of the existing facia unless they're just plopping a glass box of penthouses on top.

[Zach6668]

hope it's the most aggressive redo of all time... such an ugly building... gonna miss my shawarma stop tho I'll have to go 10 more metres in any direction!!!

[Harley613]

Originally Posted by Zach6668

hope it's the most aggressive redo of all time... such an ugly building... gonna miss my shawarma stop tho I'll have to go 10 more metres in any direction!!!

Hmm. If only Shawarama shops and Shoppers Drug Marts in Ottawa would form some kind of symbiotic relationship...one would never have to walk more than 5 metres in any direction for garlic breath or overpriced toilet paper!

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by gjhall

Convert office to hotel, with 3 storeys added, and a 22 storey residential building on George, 250~ combined parking spaces

Awesome! More life and modernization to the otherwise sketchy looking Dalhousie area.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Awesome! More life and modernization to the otherwise sketchy looking Dalhousie area.

Sketchy?

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

Sketchy?

OK, maybe — looking is the better expression. Dalhousie ain't a pretty street.

[gjhall]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

OK, maybe — looking is the better expression. Dalhousie ain't a pretty street.

I think it's pretty much just this block that's a problem, and mainly it's the Courtyard hotel's parking lot and blank walls on the street that are doing it, the rest is a very functional urban street.

[KHOOLE]

Originally Posted by gjhall

I think it's pretty much just this block that's a problem, and mainly it's the Courtyard hotel's parking lot and blank walls on the street that are doing it, the rest is a very functional urban street.

Dalhousie and George used to be a major intersection at one time. The Courtyard Hotel's parking lot was the site for a four-storey French-canadian cultural centre known as Monument National

http://www.crccf.uottawa.ca/passeport/III/D/D1a/IIID1a11-1.html

One of the organisations within that building was the Union Saint-Joseph, a mutual life insurance cooperative for tradesmen and low-paid employees. This Union St.Joseph became the Union du Canada that later built the 325 Dalhousie building. Architecturally, this building could have been much better but it is representative of its era.

Union du Canada went bankrupt in 2012. Its former CEO is/was being sued for alleged mismanagement.

The Monument National building on George St was demolished for a Holiday Inn parking lot which eventually became the Courtyard Hotel that we know today. A surface parking lot at that corner in 2013 is senseless.

Maybe an underground parking with a building on top could re-animate what should be a prime street corner?

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by KHOOLE

Dalhousie and George used to be a major intersection at one time. The Courtyard Hotel's parking lot was the site for a four-storey French-canadian cultural centre known as Monument National

http://www.crccf.uottawa.ca/passeport/III/D/D1a/IIID1a11-1.html

One of the organisations within that building was the Union Saint-Joseph, a mutual life insurance cooperative for tradesmen and low-paid employees. This Union St.Joseph became the Union du Canada that later built the 325 Dalhousie building. Architecturally, this building could have been much better but it is representative of its era.

Union du Canada went bankrupt in 2012. Its former CEO is/was being sued for alleged mismanagement.

The Monument National building on George St was demolished for a Holiday Inn parking lot which eventually became the Courtyard Hotel that we know today. A surface parking lot at that corner in 2013 is senseless.

Maybe an underground parking with a building on top could re-animate what should be a prime street corner?

That answers my question about where Union Canada was moving their offices.

It's too bad we lost the former Monument National building. Do you happen to know when it was torn down?

[Harley613]

Even more prime with an LRT station a block away! I would rather see a boutique hotel here than condos.

[KHOOLE]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

That answers my question about where Union Canada was moving their offices.

It's too bad we lost the former Monument National building. Do you happen to know when it was torn down?

I have no idea but I'm interested.

The archived Ottawa Citizen last reported on the building in 1940:

http://www.google.com/search?pz=1&cf=all...izen&as_nloc=ottawa%20ontario&authuser=0

It could have been used in WWII ???

The Holiday Inn/Marriott on Dalhousie St was probably built in the 1960's.

The Ottawa Archives or the Ottawa Room at the Ottawa Library could be a way to find out. I'll have to get a round tooit though.

As an aside, Dalhousie St., just like the market or Little Italy or Chinatown, has lot of touristic and contextual value because of the mismatch of all sorts of buildings, old and new, small and large, pretty and not-so-pretty. I hope that it stays pretty much that way and that the LRT station and expanded Rideau Centre do not create an enthusiasm for destroying what's already there.

Not too long ago, maybe 20-25 years ago or so (before the Rideau Centre, I think), there had been plans to destroy the present market and to open a new market area further east. There was a plan for a 37 storey hotel on George St. facing the Market Bldg that was to be demolished.

What would that have given us?

[harls]

A crane is up now at Chateau Cartier in Aylmer for Phase 3 (?) of their condo development.

[Cre47]

Originally Posted by harls

A crane is up now at Chateau Cartier in Aylmer for Phase 3 (?) of their condo development.

That's what I've though when I saw it from the Champlain Bridge this afternoon

[J.OT13]

Looking for the big ugly hotel that was to be built on George, I found this; a Hyatt that was supposed to be built in 1980 pretty much where it will (if it is a Hyatt) today, on George between Cumberland and Dalhousie. It also mentions the Western International (Westin) attached to the Rideau.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=n64...8231&dq=george+street+hotel+ottawa&hl=en


Here is something else; a vision of Ottawa in 2000 imagined by Durell, Pigott and Haydon.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=1eM...042&dq=byward+market+redevelopment&hl=en



Anyway, I remember seeing a Citizen article showing a big 20 some story staircase building on George. I think it was supposed to replace Freiman's. Thank God that one was never built.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

OK, maybe — looking is the better expression. Dalhousie ain't a pretty street.

Care to name a pretty street?

Dalhousie has good short blocks, diverse buildings and uses, pretty well everything you'd ever need. A couple of surface lots that could use filling in, and that fugly hotel; would that every street in Ottawa had those as their worst problems.

[KHOOLE]

[QUOTE=J.OT13;5963750]Looking for the big ugly hotel that was to be built on George, I found this; a Hyatt that was supposed to be built in 1980 pretty much where it will (if it is a Hyatt) today, on George between Cumberland and Dalhousie. It also mentions the Western International (Westin) attached to the Rideau.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=n64...8231&dq=george+street+hotel+ottawa&hl=en


Here is something else; a vision of Ottawa in 2000 imagined by Durell, Pigott and Haydon.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=1eM...042&dq=byward+market+redevelopment&hl=en

That's the one: vision of Ottawa in year 2000

This article is dated Oct 8, 1986

It mentions an extension of the market to King Edward. No mention of the planned 20 storey hotel on George St but you are right, I think, about being built on the Freiman store (aka The Bay) site.

" Anyway, I remember seeing a Citizen article showing a big 20 some story staircase building on George. I think it was supposed to replace Freiman's. Thank God that one was never built.[/QUOTE"

Jim Durrell was involved and he had to back down because of opposition from the local business association.

Note the "young" pictures of Jim Durrell and of Andy Haydon of 24 years ago.

I think that the Market area that we now know and appreciate would have disappeared at that time, just like Lower Town East, which very much then looked like what Hintonburg looks like at the present.

Sometimes too much change too quickly is not the best thing to do because it destroys the social, cultural and social fabric of a neighbourhood. Change should be gradual and acceptable.

That's my concern about the changes that a LRT station could bring to Dalhousie St. Look what the Rideau Centre did to Rideau St.! This street used to be a very healthy and vibrant business area. Not counting the Daly Building, it had 4 department stores and 3 5&10 stores to start with, all within 2 city blocks.

With the planned alterations to 325 Dalhousie, I hope that the whole streetscape is not changed all at once.

However, a mid-size building to replace the Courtyard parking lot would be a positive thing to do.

[kevinbottawa]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

It also mentions the Western International (Westin) attached to the Rideau.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=n64...8231&dq=george+street+hotel+ottawa&hl=en

The article says there used to be a Four Seasons. Anyone know where that hotel was?

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by kevinbottawa

The article says there used to be a Four Seasons. Anyone know where that hotel was?

I ust have skiped that part yesterday. I have no idea where it was (or that we even ever had one).

PdV,s Mariott was a Radison before; it only changed once. Delta/Crowne Plaza/Skyline might have carried other brands, so that might be it.