Posted Apr 24, 2008, 5:47 PM
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Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Ottawa, Canada
Posts: 4,612
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jamaican-Phoenix
I heard a rumour that they're eventually going to be doing the same kind of streetscape from Laurier to Somerset. It'd be cool to have wider sidewalks and a more pleasing atmosphere all along Bank St. up to the Glebe...
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I heard that too back in the day....probably from someone here on the forum. That stretch has a lot of potential and it would be great to have those great sidewalks on Somerset connect with equally nice ones on Bank all the way to Wellington. While the construction is going on, it might be time for some of the business owners to spruce up the facades of their buildings a little bit as some are looking downright decrepit.
An interesting article from the Centretown News:
Quote:
City and BIA envision a brighter Bank Street
By Geoff Dembicki
Bank Street is set to get a makeover and it’s long overdue according to those involved in the new projects.
“Bank Street is obviously no Sussex Drive,” says Gerry LePage, executive director of the Bank Street Business Improvement Area. “There’s no question that we have to improve the esthetics of the street.”
The Bank Street BIA is figuring out details for a new program that will allow businesses to receive grants to renovate their storefronts.
LePage says the BIA will hire an architectural firm to develop three or four storefront designs that would complement the street’s existing layout. After that, it will look for a small construction company to implement the plans.
Businesses interested in rejuvenating their exteriors will have to submit a formal application with their choice of design by a deadline to be set at a later date. LePage says commercial viability and a clear commitment to Bank Street will decide which businesses are eligable.
Grants ranging from $1,000 to $10,000 will be awarded, estimates LePage. The funds will come out of BIA’s normal operating budget. Though there is not enough money for everyone, he says he hopes the program will cause a domino effect among Bank Street businesses.
“If you change 40 or 50 per cent of the facades on the street then you are going to have critical momentum and you’ll see other businesses changing their facades too,” he says.
Sonia Poliguin, co-owner of the Ink Spot, a tattoo parlour and piercing shop near Bank and Gladstone, welcomes any attempt to improve the area’s esthetics.
“There’s too much cement and not much more,” she says.
Uninviting storefronts, too few benches and little greenery deter would be shoppers from coming to Bank Street, Poliguin says. But improving the facades of some of the buildings might change that.
“I think it would attract a lot more people,” she says. “Absolutely we would benefit.”
Somerset Ward Councillor Diane Holmes says the City of Ottawa has been working for two years on a plan to make Bank Street more inviting for shoppers and tourists. Widened sidewalks, newly planted trees and more benches and bike-racks – all expected to cost the city millions of dollars – will accomplish this, she says.
The facelift comes on the heels of a major renovation project to fix the street’s sewer and water lines.
The city is almost done work on the Laurier to Wellington section of Bank Street, and finishing touches such as the final asphalting of sidewalks and the planting of trees will finish this spring.
“The more inviting it looks the better,” says Holmes “Bank Street could definitely do with some more colour and more life.”
But she adds that the esthetics of the street alone will not determine how many people go there.
“The stores also have to be interesting,” says Holmes.
Darien Duck, an employee at After Stonewall, a gay and lesbian bookstore near Bank and Gilmour, has a similar opinion. She says shoppers are drawn to the area by an array of specialty stores selling products they cannot buy anywhere else.
“It’s a destination area,” says Duck. “People who want what we sell come because they know it’s here, not because of the beauty or not of the place.” Although the Bank Street BIA has not set a strict timeline for its façade program, it will probably start contacting architectural firms in July, and construction should be underway by 2008, says LePage.
Holmes says the city will be working out the design details for the Laurier to Gladstone section of Bank Street this year. It will continue renovation efforts all the way down to the canal over the next few years.
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