Ottawa's Byward Market

[UrbOttawa]

New four-season stalls coming to the market:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BX6H8q-FQrT/?taken-by=cityofottawa

[kwoldtimer]

So, you'll be able to step inside, or are they open-air but built to stand up to winter weather?

[rocketphish]

Originally Posted by UrbOttawa

New four-season stalls coming to the market:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BX6H8q-FQrT/?taken-by=cityofottawa

[rocketphish]

And a couple more shots:





https://twitter.com/MathieuFleury

[SkeggsEggs]

Woohoo! I've been going to the market more often this summer and every time I think the vendor stalls need an upgrade. Glad to see it is happening.

[zzptichka]

Wait they are setting them up on sidewalks that are already narrow and overcrowded while leaving all the parking intact? Ugh. Useless narrow-minded morons.

[rocketphish]

Two fancy 'bookend' stands open in ByWard Market

Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: August 29, 2017 | Last Updated: August 29, 2017 3:52 PM EDT



Two fancy stands opened in the ByWard Market on Tuesday with hopes they will help dress-up the tourist area.

BeaverTails put up $100,000 to build the enclosed stands and chose the first vendors — Maple Country Sugar Bush and Maker House Company — to occupy the year-round mini stores.

“We wanted to see vending as part of the new plaza, as part of the gateway to the market,” BeaverTails founder Grant 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 said during the official opening of the stands.

“I just thought, if there were some really nice stands on either side of the market building at the back of the plaza, like bookends, it would be beautiful.”

According to 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵, the city was cool to the idea at first because of the cost. He offered to loan the money to the city.

🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 said an exchange with Coun. Stephen Blais changed his thinking about financing the project.

“(Blais) said, ‘Are you going to ask for the loan to be paid back?’ And then I realized, we’ve been here 37 years. The market has been so good to us,” 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 said.

“We built a franchise company that has 135 stores around the world, starting from that booth. We’re a corporation. We can be a corporate sponsor.”

So BeaverTails, which already has a landmark red building in the market, ponied up the cash.

“I figure they couldn’t refuse it if we were going to pay for them,” 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 said.

He believes the stands, along with the city’s $1-million revamp of the George Street plaza, will help revitalize the district.

“We joined by putting a little money where our mouth is,” 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 said. “This will hopefully be a trend.”

The city left it up to BeaverTails to suggest which vendors should occupy the new stands.

🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 said they chose Maple Country Sugar Bush for one stand because the vendor represents the agri-foods that are sold on the west side of the market building. Maker House Company, the retailer that has moved into the other stand, showcases handmade goods traditionally sold by vendors on the east side of the building.

The leases for those stands compel the tenants to have a higher standard because they’ll be seen as the faces of vending in the market, 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 said.

A portion of each stand will be heated in the winter.

Robert Hupe of Maple Country Sugar Bush said it will be easier to run his business during the cold winter months, rather than setting up on the sidewalk.

“It’s nice to have a permanent roof over our heads,” Hupe said. “It’s a nice change.”

On the other hand, Hupe said there’s a bigger commitment since he’s required to keep the stand open until at least 9 p.m.

Gareth Davies of Maker House said expanding the young business beyond the flagship store in Hintonburg came earlier than he expected.

“We couldn’t pass it up,” Davies said. “We ramped up. We’re double the staff we were before and obviously we ordered more and more of this local handmade stuff, so our makers are also trying to keep up. We hope we’ll just get busier and busier down here with all the traffic and tourists who will now get introduced to these artists.”

[email protected]
twitter.com/JonathanWilling

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/two-fancy-bookend-stands-open-in-byward-market

[kevinbottawa]

Nice addition to the market. Reminds me of the red telephone booths in England. This could become Ottawa's "thing". Maybe put a few in other parts of the market, in Confederation Park and Major's Hill Park, and along the canal.

[FutureWickedCity]

Much better than the Ikea-looking benches and planters they installed which totally clash with the surrounding architecture.

[OTSkyline]

Are you talking about the planters and stacked wooden platforms right in front of this?

If so, I would disagree. I live in the Byward market and love this little open plaza now (agree it can improve going forward) but the what they did now is a pretty good start. It's an inviting place right in the middle of the market and every time I pass by there are many people sitting around, having a coffee or Beavertail, chatting up a storm etc... Strange to think before this, unless you were sitting in a restaurant patio, there was no public place to stop and sit and enjoy the surroundings! But this new arrangements made the market more lively and reminded me of some of the little plazas they have all around Montreal.

P.S. Sorry people.. couldn't find any pictures of it online to post with this thread.

[kevinbottawa]

Doesn't seem like the best location for the Ottawa sign. I thought Jim Watson wanted it at City Hall. As someone mentioned here on the forum, Major's Hill Park would be a great spot with Parliament in the background. But I guess they want to keep tourists coming to the market.

'OTTAWA' sign will remain in ByWard Market, but move to end of York Street

The “OTTAWA” sign in Inspiration Village will have a new home at the end of York Street near Sussex Drive, the ByWard Market BIA announced to business owners Wednesday.

Jasna Jennings, the BIA’s executive director, said the sign’s new home is “a pilot project that the city is running.”

She said the city still needs to make sure the new space for the sign is safe for people interacting with it, Jennings said.

The sign, currently on the northeast end of York Street near the ByWard Market Square intersection, has been one of the most photographed things in Ottawa this summer, but its location had sparked debate. Some commented on social media that the sign’s placement was not ideal for photos because of the fact the background was a parking garage.

Inspiration Village’s last day is Sept. 4 and cleanup will begin the next day. Jennings said the sign will be removed and cleaned before being moved to its new spot about the first week of October.

The new home for the OTTAWA sign is not the only change being made to the area. Ten parking spots will be removed from the Inspiration Village location once it’s taken down, Jennings said.

“Eighty per cent of parking inventory on that block is still available,” Jennings said.

[email protected]

http://www.ottawasun.com/2017/08/30/otta...rd-market-but-move-to-end-of-york-street

[Harley613]

This is really aspirational... They are upgrading from a historic and scenic backdrop of a parking garage to the motivational and beautiful backdrop of a set of stairs.

[J.OT13]

Major Hill's with Parliament in the background sounds good, but the building will be under wraps for 10 year starting in 2018.

But yeah, York is not the place for it.

[kwoldtimer]

Does the City have any say as to what goes up in Major's Hill Park?

[Harley613]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Major Hill's with Parliament in the background sounds good, but the building will be under wraps for 10 year starting in 2018.

But yeah, York is not the place for it.

If it's going at the end of York you'll barely see the Peace Tower popping up behind the stairs, especially with the wide angle lenses on smartphones.

https://www.google.ca/maps/@45.4275197,-...NVXYtUZKwFKFlhnDPeZ5g!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

[rocketphish]

Ottawa's Inspiration Village ends its run in market
The installation will be removed after the Labour Day weekend, but the Ottawa sign will remain.

By: Kieran Delamont, Metro
Published on Mon Sep 04 2017



Inspiration Village, perhaps the most tepidly received of the Ottawa 2017 installations, wrapped up on Monday after 110 days occupying York Street between Sussex Avenue and ByWard Market Square.

The installation, comprising of 41 repurposed shipping containers, was not universally popular with residents and nearby merchants.

Businesses had complained early on about the loss of 92 parking spaces, and the village never drew the sort of acclaim and praise that other Ottawa 2017 events, like La Machine, did.

Some people complained that the whole thing felt like a sales pitch, with each of the provincially themed shipping containers housing what was, in effect, a tourist kiosk. “It looks and feels like a boring tradeshow featuring provincial and territorial tourism organizations,” wrote blogger Juliette Giannesini, in a June review of the installation. “There are no artistic elements, no passion, nothing original.”

Still, Ottawa 2017 is calling Inspiration Village a success. In a press release Monday, the group pointed out that over 340,000 people visited the site between May 20 and Sept. 4 (49 per cent of whom were from out of town), and that the site boasted an 87 per cent satisfaction rate.

(Much like everything else in Ottawa this summer, the Inspiration Village was water-logged: Ottawa 2017 said that it rained for 93 hours while the installation was open to visitors.)

Not all of Inspiration Village is being packed up and shipped out, however. The OTTAWA sign, which proved immensely popular with photo-taking tourists and residents alike, will be sticking around.

Ottawa 2017 will be donating the sign to the City of Ottawa, but the city has not announced any concrete plans about where they will be locating the letters. Ottawa 2017 director Guy Laflamme told CBC that he expects the letters to need repairs before they are sent back on to the streets.

http://www.metronews.ca/news/ottawa/2017/09/04/inspiration-village-ends-its-run-in-the-market.html

[kevinbottawa]

Originally Posted by rocketphish

Ottawa 2017 will be donating the sign to the City of Ottawa, but the city has not announced any concrete plans about where they will be locating the letters. Ottawa 2017 director Guy Laflamme told CBC that he expects the letters to need repairs before they are sent back on to the streets.

They've already announced that the sign will be going at the west end of York Street. Stupid location in my opinion. They probably want to use the sign to attract tourists to the market. Really, it should be located where there's an iconic view that'll make people want to visit the city when captured in a photo or on social media.

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by kevinbottawa

They've already announced that the sign will be going at the west end of York Street. Stupid location in my opinion. They probably want to use the sign to attract tourists to the market. Really, it should be located where there's an iconic view that'll make people want to visit the city when captured in a photo or on social media.

Adjacent to the stairs going up towards Major's Hill Park sounds like a great location.

[kevinbottawa]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

Adjacent to the stairs going up towards Major's Hill Park sounds like a great location.

If you mean where they're proposing to put it, it's not the best location. It seems more about attracting tourists to the market than about providing people with the best possible photo of Ottawa. When you think about Toronto putting their sign at Nathan Phillips Square, there's nothing more Toronto than that. That's the shot you want people all over the world to know the city for. Is this location really the photo that we want the city to be known for? During the Trump protest at the American embassy there were some Instagram photos from the west end of York Street and the view of Parliament was sad.

[rocketphish]

Not all market merchants inspired by village
Some 340,000 people visited the area near the “OTTAWA” sign

By: Jesse Cnockaert, Metro
Published on Mon Sep 18 2017

Cleanup of Inspiration Village, which has been up in the ByWard Market for about four months, is nearly complete, and not every businesses owner in the area agrees this attraction really was a benefit.

Officials reported more than 340,000 people visited the village, with the giant “OTTAWA” sign on York becoming a popular photo spot.

However, some merchants complained about the loss of parking spots on York Street, which were sacrificed to make space for the village.

"My clients who came said they felt it was impossible to find parking," said Phil Emond, owner of the Gordon Harrison Canadian Landscape Gallery on Sussex Drive. "My revenues were definitely affected."

Emond’s frustration was echoed by Emma Inns, owner of the Adorit Boutique on York, who estimated about a 20 per cent drop in business.

"I've been here for 10 years and this may be one of the worst summers we've ever had," she said. "The concept of the Inspiration Village was great. The reality was pretty disappointing."

Guy LaFlamme, executive director of Ottawa 2017, the independent not-for-profit financed by the city to organize the village, said the parking situation needed to be “kept in perspective.”

"It's 70 out of 4,000 parking spots in walking distance. It was a fairly small percentage," he said. “It’s unfortunate if, by bringing hundreds of thousands of new patrons, that some didn’t see impact on their business, but I think it’s also to do with their own business model and marketing strategy.”

The owners of Chateau Lafayette on York reported a definite spike in business over the summer. Chateau Lafayette is a tourism favourite as “Ottawa’s oldest tavern,” which originally opened in 1849.

"I would say it did benefit. Any of the tourist destinations in the city were positively affected. I would say tourists in general were hitting the ByWard market; it's their No. 1 stop on their itinerary. Inspiration village provided a destination for it," said Jill Scott, co-owner of Chateau Lafayette.

The village, up from May 20 to Sept. 4. included a succession of special exhibits and performing arts events meant to showcase each of Canada’s provinces and territories.

http://www.metronews.ca/news/ottawa/2017/09/18/not-all-market-merchants-inspired-by-village.html