Ottawa's best and worst buildings, according to you
Phil Jenkins, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: April 4, 2016 | Last Updated: April 4, 2016 6:00 AM EDT
The electrical substation at 1275 Carling Ave. is nominated as one of Ottawa's most attractive buildings by a reader.
“Architecture is inhabited sculpture.” When I read those four words, said by the modernist Romanian sculptor Constantin Brâncusi in a Paris café sometime before his death in 1957, they solidified the way I react to Ottawa’s ever-growing stock of buildings. An inhabited sculpture is what I wish for in a building. Something the eye can enjoy grasping, rather than skating away from. Wishes like that don’t often come true in this town.
When I put out my annual call for the highlights and lowlights of Ottawa’s 2015 crop of new buildings, I immediately received this message from a reader: “I’m sure many, like me, can’t think of a building completed in Ottawa of any size that merits the term ‘best’. On the other hand, most of what I have seen completed, at least from the outside, in 2015, merits the term ‘uninspired,’ not ‘worst.’ ” Turning to my own sidewalk observations, I’d say there is some truth in that grumpy, honest assessment.
Mind you, I also received an email from Rodney that asked of me, “While contemplating best and worst of 2015, you may want to look at The Eddy in Hintonburg (hopefully in the ‘best of’ category). It actually conforms to the Community Design Plan (a rarity), has rooftop vegetable growing, and geothermal heating and cooling. It tries to counter the blandness of Ottawa’s architecture with a little colour and some interesting geometry. It is also a LEED Platinum building.” A little research revealed that the recommendation came from a partner of the development firm that built the Eddy condo sculpture. A little bias there, perhaps. Certainly the condo has taken a design risk; I find it hard on the eyes, myself.
When I retooled the parameters of my architectural quest to simply your most and least favourite members of the Ottawa skyline from any year, the mail box began to fill. First in was this: “I nominate the apartment complex in Kanata, on the north side of the Queensway on Maritime Way, examples of ugly construction (I don’t want to use the word architecture) with no sign of fantasy or originality.” In other words, a block of blocks does not a sculpture make.
Stan, a habitual commentator and column topic suggester wrote to say, “My worst building: the Royal Bank of Canada building at the corner of Sparks and Metcalfe. Why? In my view, buildings should have a bottom, a middle, and a top. Instead, the RBC building is an anodyne white block with some bits cut out of it. No imagination, and therefore perhaps suitable for contemporary banks. The building turns a cold shoulder to the Sparks Street mall which, God knows, needs a few more welcoming store fronts. My favourite building: the electrical substation at the corner of Carling and Merivale. Why? It was built in an era when even modest, functional buildings were individually designed. This one has a bottom, a middle and a top. It has some decoration, offsetting its red brick façade. It is not big, but it is sturdy, with pleasing dimensions.” The gallery of Hydro substations dotted around town are in the sculpture class, I’d say. Hope they are here to stay.
Moiya informed me that the Chambers building on Confederation Square is her favourite, and she told me why. “Judy Crawley, Major Bond and I had hands in saving it in the 1960s. Buyers (from Switzerland I think, ) wanted to tear it down and rebuild it. They also wanted to move their building forward, closer to the road. Thank goodness the government decided to buy the building. Inside, it was mostly a sorry sight. My husband and I started to clean up some of the old lady. The rest is another story.” She went on, after voicing her fears for the coming new entrance for the National Arts Centre, to say, “There are many condos that make me shudder, it is hard to pick; I could say the Metropole near Westboro is one I do not like. It is not really because it is ugly, but mainly because it sticks out like a sore thumb.” Parts of the city are all sore thumbs, such as the southeast corner of the Byward Market on Cumberland and Rideau. Yikes.
There were many nominations either way for condos. (I’m retiring the condos on LeBreton Flats from competition this year. No more hate mail about them, please.) The tower that got the most thumbs up was The Merit, the art-deco luxury condos at the back of City Hall. Hear, hear. I get a lift from the sheer fact of it when it catches my eye; a yacht in a sea of cargo vessels.
There were one or two calls for outright demolition of some monstrosities, including several of the more Soviet shoeboxes on Tunney’s Pasture. Likewise for the Palladium (selling naming rights only works if we agree to use them) which is, I was reminded, built on an ex-navigable waterway; it may undergo a shapeshift when the LeBreton Flats stadium opens, but I fear it is here to stay.
In the final tally, your favourite is the Château Laurier, a sculpture indeed set in a park and alongside a waterway, and the least favourite is the still under construction moonraker, the Icon condo, corner of Preston and Carling. One reader suggested tilting it slightly and putting a pizza parlour at the bottom. Get it?
Phil Jenkins is an Ottawa writer. Reach him at
[email protected]
http://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/columni...est-and-worst-buildings-according-to-you
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