But will it wow? Committee agrees proposed condo is a 'landmark'
Matthew Pearson, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: October 27, 2015 | Last Updated: October 27, 2015 4:29 PM EDT
Sam Mizrahi’s proposal to build a “landmark” condominium building at Wellington Street West and Island Park Drive was endorsed by Ottawa’s planning committee on Tuesday after a discussion that at times verged on the absurd as councillors questioned what constitutes a “wow” factor.
Mizrahi Developments initially sought permission to build a 12-storey building at 1445 and 1451 Wellington St. W., but council turned down the project because the proposed height exceeded what rules allow for that location.
The Toronto-based developer appealed the decision to the Ontario Municipal Board, which offered two options in its May ruling: Cap the building at nine storeys or demonstrate “landmark” architecture for the top of the building sufficient to persuade the board to allow 12 storeys.
Mizrahi’s latest design shows a building with a pronounced bronze and copper roof and spire-topped corner tower, a nod perhaps to the Confederation Building on Parliament Hill. Gone are the glass-enclosed top floors and projecting balconies of earlier renderings.
City planners upheld the department’s original position that a 12-storey building at that location is inappropriate — it doesn’t conform to the Official Plan and fails to satisfy the urban village vision of the blueprint for Wellington Street West — but, in light of the OMB’s direction, said the proposed development met the test for landmark architecture as established by the board.
The OMB’s criteria for a building taller than nine storeys called for the addition of a distinctive, picturesque top that must “stand out by virtue of design” and contain an “element of wow.”
It was the last point that left some scratching their heads. How do you define something as subjective as “wow,” they wondered.
“I’m not sure where we’re going with this,” said Kanata South Coun. Allan Hubley.
His colleague, Alta Vista Coun. Jean Cloutier, wondered if staff could add some “meat to the wow bones.”
And College Coun. Rick Chiarelli said, frankly: “This is not the wow factory.”
“Wow,” attempted Don Herweyer, the city planner overseeing the Mizrahi application, “is probably the most difficult to define.”
Difficult and, apparently, divisive.
The 17 public delegations that appeared before the committee were almost evenly divided between those who said “wow” to Mizrahi’s proposal and those who did not.
“This is not a landmark, it’s just weird. And weirdly out of place,” said Richard Brandau, adding the building would “put the kitsch in Kitchissippi.”
But Randy Kemp praised what he and others envisioned as a future landmark for giving directions and orienting oneself in the neighbourhood. “It’s going to be hard to miss that building if it gets built,” he said.
Ultimately, the committee upheld the staff recommendation, voting 8-2 in favour of it. If council upholds the decision when it meets on Wednesday, Mizrahi and the city will then report back to the OMB by early November and it will issue a final ruling.
“I have talked to so many of my residents over the course of the past three weeks and I am absolutely convinced that the mainstream majority opinion in Kitchissippi is that this new building is completely out of character for our neighbourhood,” said Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper, who was on the losing side of the vote.
Mizrahi said afterward he was “extremely happy” with the committee’s decision.
“This is going to be a landmark building, this is landmark architecture, the corner deserves that, and I think the process that we went through was incredibly helpful. It allowed us to come up with a much better building,” he said.
The building, designed by architect Henry Burstyn of the Toronto firm Page and Steele, is a “classic that’s going to stand the test of time,” Mizrahi said.
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