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Urban designer lauds Lansdowne plan
Urban designer lauds Lansdowne plan
Soon to be ‘one of the finest parks in Canada’
By Jennifer Green, The Ottawa Citizen October 28, 2010
Urban designer George Dark, who sat on the jury that picked the final Lansdowne redevelopment plan, lauded the project Thursday as a ‘remarkable restoration.’ Dark is seen here at a public meeting in June. Despite the controversy surrounding the rejuvenation of Lansdowne Park, it will likely be “one of the finest parks in Canada,” says George Dark, an urban designer who chairs the design review panel overseeing the project.
While many have worried that the project will ruin the heritage aspect of the historical park, or have too many apartments and chain stores, Dark told about 100 people at a lecture Thursday that it will be a “remarkable restoration.”
The new stadium will be worked into a park setting, incorporating a berm or “poor man’s hill,” where people can sit and listen to — maybe even watch — concerts and games without paying admission.
Dark said he heard Ottawans speak fondly of listening to concerts outside the stadium, so designers tried to work that aspect into the new plans. “We brought a lot of that back. It’s an imaginative piece of work.”
The Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group has asked for a zoning change to allow up to 300,000 square feet of commercial space and 220 homes on the Lansdowne site, including a 14-storey building on the corner of Bank Street and Holmwood Avenue and a 16-storey tower at the base of the Bank Street Bridge.
But many issues remain to be worked out. City staff expect any zoning changes will be appealed to the Ontario Municipal Board; a group opposed to the entire plan has gone to the Superior Court of Ontario to quash the entire redevelopment; and several heritage-preservation issues must also be settled, including plans to renovate the historic Aberdeen Pavilion and relocate the Horticulture Building.
Dark agreed that heritage is extremely important. Tearing it down causes the city to lose much more than a building. “You wreck where you come from.”
He also reminded the audience that tourism is an important industry here, and every new project should be viewed through that lens: “Will it attract tourists?”
He said Prince Edward Island has been pushing its antique idyll for decades, yet everything built there in the last 25 years is awful. They are systematically wrecking their heritage by not paying attention to the longevity and grace of modern buildings, he said.
In general, he said, cities are now atrocious. “There is no joy in vast fields of asphalt.”
Roads cater only to the car, no longer becoming places to stroll, or shop, or live along. It doesn’t have to be like that, he said, holding up the example of Calgary and its light rail system, called Ride the Wind — a transit system that runs entirely on wind-generated power.
“It’s a huge source of civic pride.”
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