Zibi Ottawa Ontario | U/C

[UrbOttawa]

A few updates from what I noticed this weekend:

Block 211 - Concrete structure has now reached grade

Block 208 - Structure looks to be complete, facade cladding in progress. Caught a glimpse of the heritage structure brick through the scaffolding mesh and it seems to be stripped of the paint and refurbished

Block 10 - Concrete structure at ~1-2nd floor. I was curious about what this one was going to be, so I got in touch with zibi. They said all they could disclose is that it will be a rental building

[J.OT13]

Globe and Mail article from March 10, 2020.

Ottawa-Gatineau waterfront development spans two provinces

ADAM STANLEY
SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL
PUBLISHED MARCH 10, 2020


Rendition of Zibi waterfront community that will sit on the islands around the Chaudière Falls on the Ottawa River.

COURTESY OF ZIBI/HANDOUT

When thinking of Canada’s top waterfront cities, the usual suspects like Vancouver, Halifax and Toronto come to mind.

Ottawa? It doesn’t register.

But the developers behind the Zibi waterfront community, a first-of-its-kind cross-provincial development, is looking to change that.

Zibi, which means “river” in Algonquin, is situated on a 34-acre spread across Quebec and Ontario (22 and 12 acres, respectively). The plan for the mixed-use development is to house 5,000 people with room for 6,000 jobs and eight acres of riverfront green space.

The development will sit on the islands around the Chaudière Falls on the Ottawa River. A powerful waterfall in the centre of the Ottawa-Gatineau metropolitan, it was so named by explorer Samuel de Champlain in 1613.


The aim of Zibi mixed-use development, rendition of plaza space seen here, is to house 5,000 people with room for 6,000 jobs and eight acres of riverfront green space.

COURTESY OF ZIBI/HANDOUT

Condos have already been constructed, with more to come. Shovels are in the ground for offices and restaurant space. There will be seven distinct districts in the development with focuses on entertainment, art, business, history, and culture. And this summer there is going to be a 1,400-foot zip line attraction that will take riders across the Ottawa River between Ontario and Quebec.

Shawn Hamilton, senior vice-president and managing director of CBRE Group Inc. in Ottawa says it’s “odd” that Ottawa has never been classified as a waterfront city, but when Parliament Hill was built, the rear of the building faces the Ottawa River. It literally turned its back on the water.

“[The project] is bringing the waterfront into play and making it accessible not just on the weekends, but through a business environment,” says Mr. Hamilton. “For the first time you can have waterfront office space – which is bold.”

Zibi is a partnership between Theia Partners and majority owner Dream Unlimited. President and Theia partner Jeff Westeinde says the four-million-square-foot, $1.8-billion mixed-use development is all-systems-go – this, after years of wading through political, environmental and historical red tape, including issues around perpetual leases, unpatented land and 100-year-old easements.


The development will house seven distinct districts with focuses on entertainment, art, business, history and culture. A rendition of an atrium is seen here.

COURTESY OF ZIBI/HANDOUT

Among other things, the team was faced with cleaning up land titles and figuring out how to build a singular development across two provinces.

The City of Ottawa and the City of Gatineau had input with respect to land development, as did the National Capital Commission and the Algonquin Anishinaabe, who have ties to the site’s land.

Mr. Westeinde notes wryly that there were indeed “more than many” regulatory bodies or government organizations involved in some capacity – a previous report pegged it at 14. Before the project could get underway, a physical undoing of 200 years of industrial history on the site, including remediation and demolition, had to occur.

“It’s not like buying a farmer’s field in West Ottawa, running sewers and putting up [single-family homes],” he explains. “We really were working through the history of our region to get where we are today.”

While the unraveling of history took nearly five years, Mr. Westeinde says the high-level of attention the project received politically was actually a good thing. He describes the vision of the development – which will take a decade to complete – as world class.


A development like Zibi is a rare opportunity as there isn't a similar cross-border cooperation in any other large metropolitan area across the country.

COURTESY OF ZIBI/HANDOUT

Mr. Westiende says his team took cues from developments such as Hammarby Sjostad (a suburb of Stockholm), the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, HafenCity in Hamburg, Germany and Riverwalk in Austin, Texas. In Canada, the team was impressed with the work of CityScapes at the Distillery District in Toronto and Granville Island in Vancouver.

Representatives from the City of Ottawa are particularly excited about the plans. Since there isn’t a similar cross-border cooperation in any other large metropolitan area across the country, a development like Zibi is a rare opportunity.

“[It’s] is a unicorn site,” says city planner Simon Deiaco. “You’re not going to see a community pop up on an island ever again. The principles that have been implemented are very much what the City is encouraging.”

City councilor Catherine McKenney sees the development as a catalyst for intensification in the downtown area and an opportunity to give the public access to a previously under-used part of Ottawa.

“By developing the area as a mixed-used neighbourhood that is well served by public transit and active transportation links, reliance on private vehicles decreases and more [people] are able to live and work downtown,” she says.

The City continues to review other elements of the project such as roadway modifications, a zero-carbon energy system and the overall master plan.


Zibi will be a cultural pivot point between the Ottawa-Gatineau downtowns.

COURTESY OF ZIBI/HANDOUT

The roads, which are being built now will not be traditionally auto-centric, says Mr. Deiaco, but rather will be “complete streets,” with bike lanes and sidewalks.

Despite the initial delays particular to a multi-province development, Mr. Deiaco says if a business wants to call Zibi home, the process will be straightforward: If you’re on the Ontario side, you pay taxes and fees in Ontario, and vice versa on the Quebec side.

Businesses will still operate in separate jurisdictions, but Zibi will be a cultural pivot point between the two downtowns, notes Mr. Hamilton, adding that Ottawa has been “lacklustre” in its development because the City mostly caters to its largest tenant, the federal government.

Zibi is disregarding the previous rules, Mr. Hamilton says, starting with recognizing that the city is indeed on the water. “Everyone is going to be sitting back and watching and when Zibi is successful, others will go, ‘Okay, we’re throwing the rulebook out the window and we’re going to charge forward with things that are new, exciting, and dynamic,’” he predicts. “They’re the start of redefining our downtown cores.”

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business...erfront-development-spans-two-provinces/

[lrt's friend]

It is still a pity that we didn't take this a step further and build a tramway through Zibi and on to downtown. Hopefully, Gatineau's LRT plan will come close to doing this.

[J.OT13]

Still crossing my figures for a Aylmer Tramway/Trillium transfer station at the old E.B. Eddy building across from Terrasses.

[waterloowarrior]

Block 206 25 FL 75.5m co-living space in partnership with Common https://www.common.com/

https://app01.ottawa.ca/postingplans/appDetails.jsf?lang=en&appId=__B9P780

[rocketphish]

Zibi has partnered with Common, a co-living expert with sites around the world, to accommodate a new housing type and tenure, co-living suites, which consist of individually rented rooms that share facilities.

The proposed development is a 25-storey mixed-use building with retail uses at-grade and residential uses above. The Block 206 parcel has a total area of approximately 2,189 square metres with frontage on Mìwàte Private to the west and Chaudière Private to the north. Block 206 abuts Head Street Square to the south and the future Block 207 to the east.

The proposed building is oriented towards Head Street Square, activating Zibi’s major public space with two (2) storey ground floor retail units that open out onto the Square and wrap around onto Mìwàte Private. The residential entry to the building is located at the northeast corner, onto Chaudière Private and the main entrance to the Chaudière West District. The north façade of the building integrates the necessary building services, and parking garage access.

Along the east side of Block 206 is a pedestrian alley being developed as part of both the current Block 206 applications and the ongoing Block 207 applications. The pedestrian alley provides a connection from Chaudière Private in the north to Head Street Square in the south. The east edge of the alley is animated with retail space while the west side accommodates accessible ramps to account for the change in grades and landscaped space.

The upper floors of the proposed building feature a mix of housing types and tenures, including a new housing type for the Ottawa market. Levels 2 through 8 within the podium feature co-living spaces. These units provide private room rentals within a shared housing unit that features amenity space and kitchen and bathroom facilities. On the partial Level 2, is an “XL Suite” - a single large unit featuring 14 bedrooms within 4 “pods” (3 with 4 bedrooms, and 1 with 2 bedrooms). These rooms share one shared living space that features a large kitchen and living space, laundry facilities and storage.

Level 3 features “Co-living apartments” which range from three (3) to five (5) bedrooms and are set up as a typical residential unit, including kitchen and living facilities. Level 3 also features a major amenity area accessible to the entire building totalling 412 square metres and including common space and a gym with access to a 317 square metre outdoor roof terrace on the south side, overlooking Head Street Square. Levels 4 through 8 continue the co-living apartments, while also integrating studio units with the larger units.

Above the eighth floor, the building steps back from the west and transitions into the tower portion of the building. Floors 9 through 24 feature standard residential dwelling units with a mix of 1 bedroom, 2 bedroom, and 2 bedroom + den units. These include two (2) planned floor of affordable housing units.

The top level of the building (level 25) is an amenity floor which includes 496 square metres of interior amenity area and east and west facing outdoor terraces. The amenity floor will be accessible to all residents of the building and will also incorporate a portion of the mechanical penthouse.

A total of 204 residential units are proposed, including 45 co-living suites, and 159 traditional dwelling units. The units are served by 1,328 square metres of common amenity area distributed throughout the building and combining interior and exterior spaces, as well as private balconies for the units within the tower.

Architect: Kohn Partnership Architects, Teeple Architects


Development application:
https://app01.ottawa.ca/postingplans/appDetails.jsf?lang=en&appId=__B9P780

Location:




Siteplan:




Renderings:

[J.OT13]

Gotta say I preferred the previous design. Still good for Ottawa, but below my expectations for Zibi.

Originally Posted by rocketphish

Renderings:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/zibi-co-living-ottawa-gatineau-1.5190469

[J.OT13]

Co-living sounded like a great idea a year ago, but I'm not so sure now. Shared kitchens and bathrooms sounds a lot like long-term care homes: high-risk of outbreaks.

[OTSkyline]

Agreed the old design was better than the new one, but the new one is still pretty good and different by Ottawa standard.

Will be interesting to see this one go up, arguably the first building to add "height" to Zibi.

[SidetrackedSue]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Co-living sounded like a great idea a year ago, but I'm not so sure now. Shared kitchens and bathrooms sounds a lot like long-term care homes: high-risk of outbreaks.

As a parent of an adult child with roommates, what hit me was him not being able to be in my social circle because there wasn't room for the roommates and all their contact too.

By the time this opens, hopefully self isolating, and social circles will be history.

But with the shift to WFH for many employers, will Commons have a market? As I recall, they are marketed to young professionals. Not service sector workers who won't be working from home.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by SidetrackedSue

As a parent of an adult child with roommates, what hit me was him not being able to be in my social circle because there wasn't room for the roommates and all their contact too.

By the time this opens, hopefully self isolating, and social circles will be history.

But with the shift to WFH for many employers, will Commons have a market? As I recall, they are marketed to young professionals. Not service sector workers who won't be working from home.

Another good point. In general, I don't think "WFH by default" is as realistic as many seem to make it out to be. Few people have the space, especially now that compact urban living is gaining favour.

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Another good point. In general, I don't think "WFH by default" is as realistic as many seem to make it out to be. Few people have the space, especially now that compact urban living is gaining favour.

I think what we are seeing and it has been talked about is that in the long-term WFH downloads workplace costs to the employee. Not everybody has suitable space for a home office. I hear about household renovations to create a home office. That is fine for those with the money, but that is generally limited to the upper middle class.

[zzptichka]

2016 => 2020

[OTSkyline]

Wow, how disappointing. Talk about pulling a Claridge and massively downgrading from original proposal/renders.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by OTSkyline

Wow, how disappointing. Talk about pulling a Claridge and massively downgrading from original proposal/renders.

I agree. Why do developers start with these amazing renderings just to downgrade bit by bit until we end up with something that's bland and disappointing. The project will get approval either way.

That said, if they would have started with the current iterations, we'd probably think they look decent. Yet another reason why it's better to start on your worst foot.

[Aylmer]

If we discount the artistic flairs and better production value of the original renders (soft lighting, lower angle, rendersims), I don't find the buildings themselves to be that divergent in quality of design. Some of the more out-there design elements have been reigned in. But the most recent buildings still seem to me like well-designed structures with good street presence and high-quality materials.

[zzptichka]

Screenshots are from the recently posted Urban Design Review Panel presentation. I don't think I've seen it there before.

[OTownandDown]

...proving once and for all that if you present your rendering correctly, anybody will buy it!

[RogueNacho]

Unpopular Opinion: I actually like the current 2020 proposal the most. I think it looks really nice and sleek. While I suppose the older designs at least had some architectural flair, they reminded me too much of a child stacking wooden blocks on top of each other. The only thing I am disappointed in is the street level podium and interaction. That looked better in the older designs.

[Harley613]

Originally Posted by RogueNacho

Unpopular Opinion: I actually like the current 2020 proposal the most. I think it looks really nice and sleek. While I suppose the older designs at least had some architectural flair, they reminded me too much of a child stacking wooden blocks on top of each other. The only thing I am disappointed in is the street level podium and interaction. That looked better in the older designs.

I love the new design for the tower. I get serious Bauhuas vibes from it. I love the way the height is broken down by two floor segments. I think it's one of the best looking buildings going up. The second smaller building is a little ugly in both the old and the new renders.