Claridge Icon [505 Preston St] | 143m | 45 fl | Completed

[1overcosc]

I own a house now and it's pretty spacious. It's nice having extra bedrooms to rent out and such, but in a way I miss living in tiny apartments; there's something so calming about only having a small amount of space to worry about cleaning and only having a small amount of stuff to keep track of.

[TMA-1]

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by Chuck Clark, on Flickr

[MountainView]

That CIBC site has got to be worth a fair amount of money. Always wondered why that CIBC has never been updated. Any ideas if they are also the owner of the site or lease the building/land?

[jitterbug]

That aerial view shows some of the vacant and under-utilized land in that area, and it's not even showing the large surface lot a couple of blocks to the north. Lots of "potential" to transform the neighbourhood into something much more lively and attractive! Currently the place is a food desert, and the many shabby structures on Preston and some side streets could really use some TLC -- or the wrecking ball!

[YOWflier]

Food desert? If you're referring specifically to the lack of a large format grocery store, then maybe that's an appropriate comment. Otherwise, the area's significant concentration of restaurants, cafes, and specialty food stores supports exactly the opposite.

And Preston street, especially between Carling and the 417, boasts some excellent examples of street beautification that I'd like to see deployed across the city: street art, trees/flowers, lighting on trees, nice sidewalks, etc.

[jitterbug]

Originally Posted by ac888yow

Food desert? If you're referring specifically to the lack of a large format grocery store, then maybe that's an appropriate comment. Otherwise, the area's significant concentration of restaurants, cafes, and specialty food stores supports exactly the opposite.

And Preston street, especially between Carling and the 417, boasts some excellent examples of street beautification that I'd like to see deployed across the city: street art, trees/flowers, lighting on trees, nice sidewalks, etc.

Yes, by food desert I mean some retail activity where residents and workers in the area could do their groceries or at least pick up basic supplies. I happen to work in that area and not everyone is interested, or able, to dine out every day.

As for the beautification of Preston, the city's efforts are a good start, I agree. But the fact is it's mostly window dressing. You can put lipstick on a pig, but at the end of the day...well, you can figure out the rest. Just my opinion of course.

[YOWflier]

I live in that area and it's definitely annoying not having a full grocery store. Places like Dirienzo, Nicastro, and Luciano can be pretty good in a jam, but a full size grocery is definitely needed.

Nutty Greek also does Greek meals to go.

[1overcosc]

There's a Food Basics in downtown Kingston that's only 15,000 square feet for the entire building; yet it still manages to more or less fit everything. There's no "extras" in there. There's no pharmacy section, no in-store bakery, no meals-to-go section, no merchandise/electronics, no clothing, just grocery items. The aisles are fairly narrow, enough so that two carts cannot easily pass side by side, but as an urban grocery store, most of the customers are walk in so they're using baskets instead of carts. There is very little customer parking available (only about a dozen free spaces), but there is a municipal pay-and-display lot right next door.

A small compact grocery store like this would be a good addition to the area; it could probably fit in a condo podium no problem and it would work with the demographics. A good place to put it would be in the podium of The Sky; there's more than enough room for it and it's at the centre of the planned density.

[cityguy]

Preston street was mostly a residential st. made up of individual houses ,not a retail street wall as say, wellington west.So until these houses are removed along with their driveways a true retail experience won't happen.

[McC]

WestWelli's not so different, plenty of businesses there are in former houses, too; top of mind, I'm thinking of here (https://goo.gl/maps/zB8obAnsocJ2) and here (https://goo.gl/maps/VG6TR3iUHSk); I'm sure there were more before, later replaced by things like the OCH building across from St François, etc.

[ServiceGuy]

Over-sized chicken wire being added to the rock walls. Looks like a slow process done by swing stage. Still no one in the actual pit when I went by.

[jitterbug]

Originally Posted by ServiceGuy

Over-sized chicken wire being added to the rock walls. Looks like a slow process done by swing stage. Still no one in the actual pit when I went by.

They aren't taking any chances with safety now, that's for sure. Too bad the new-found attention to safe practices came too late for the young worker. Any word on the criminal investigation some have been calling for?

[Skipper]

Originally Posted by jitterbug

They aren't taking any chances with safety now, that's for sure. Too bad the new-found attention to safe practices came too late for the young worker. Any word on the criminal investigation some have been calling for?

you may be interested in the following article on the CBC News website: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/claridge-icon-work-resumes-1.3569732

Speaking of which, it is very troubling that the Ontario Ministry of Labour didn't conduct safety checks on this site over the Winter months. It is one of the deepest underground parking if not the deepest one in Ottawa and it was being dug during the Winter. The safety measures should have been implemented before a young worker died.

[Norman Bates]

CFRA is reporting this morning that the Ottawa police have initiated a criminal investigation of the worker's death.

[rocketphish]

Originally Posted by Norman Bates

CFRA is reporting this morning that the Ottawa police have initiated a criminal investigation of the worker's death.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ott...vier-bruneau-death-falling-ice-1.3634341

[OTSkyline]

Has this been moving along? Haven't seen updates in a while... Would hope that they are close to reaching ground level by now, no? Excavation has been done for a long time, don't see how many more months it could take to just build a 9-floor parking garage...

[1overcosc]

When they announced in late 2014 that they were starting construction, they said it would take 4 years. 2015 would be digging out the pit, 2016 would be building the garage, and then 2017 and 2018 would be building the tower itself; for completion at the end of 2018.

So they're not supposed to hit ground level until the end of this year according to the original schedule.

[cr872190]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

When they announced in late 2014 that they were starting construction, they said it would take 4 years. 2015 would be digging out the pit, 2016 would be building the garage, and then 2017 and 2018 would be building the tower itself; for completion at the end of 2018.

So they're not supposed to hit ground level until the end of this year according to the original schedule.

The schedule now says Summer 2019 completion. So that timeline may be even further pushed back. Last time I looked into the pit a few weeks ago they were no where near ground level.

[Stevenson]

There's a fire there today: https://twitter.com/OFSFirePhoto/status/763420586550956032

[teej1984]

This building will be iconic for bad luck!