Relevé Ottawa [400 Albert St] | 78/98m | 23/29f | U/C

[OTSkyline]

Wow, I really like the height and design for this! I really hope it gets approved and it built as-is asap! Agreed it's nothing like we've really seen in Ottawa.

ESPECIALLY compared to the rest of the crap that is being approved/built lately; like Claridge Royale and Claridge Moon beside..

But wow, with this project and Claridge Moon right beside it, that would bring a lot more units and people to the west of side Downtown (which let's face it, is much older and sleepier than the east side).
That's 6 towers, wonder how many units in total for both projects...

[Kitchissippi]

Nice! Great to see variety away from the usual in this city. Looks like it's from the lead architects of the underground LRT stations.

[Multi-modal]

Originally Posted by k.evans

They must have mixed up a Toronto design and copy and pasted it by accident into their Ottawa brief....

This development looks fantastic. As others have said - approve and hold them accountable to maintain their design.

Also don't let the urban design review panel get a hold of it and suggest "more use of traditional design elements to blend into the existing neighborhood, such as the integration of a brick facade"

*Edit. I also noticed the renders show square balcony glass used on the curved balconies... so at least they aren't "baiting" like the Claridge Icon.

[passwordisnt123]

Originally Posted by Multi-modal

This development looks fantastic. As others have said - approve and hold them accountable to maintain their design.

Also don't let the urban design review panel get a hold of it and suggest "more use of traditional design elements to blend into the existing neighborhood, such as the integration of a brick facade"

Can we agree that we riot if anybody on the urban design review committee proposes that or anything like it?

Anybody who messes with this design to make it more like the rest of the underwhelming shit that's been approved deserves to be forced to wear the scarlet letter "A" for asshole for the rest of their lives.

[AuxTown]

Tar and feathers for any council detractors!

Anything that can distract from Queen Elizabeth Towers' domination of our West end skyline is a good thing. But this overall looks like a very nice design by Ottawa standards. Queue the bait and switch....

[11a2b3]

Slick design for downtown's new tallest.

[Arcologist]

Holy cr@p, someone is proposing this for Ottawa?!? This is absurd -- it exceeds our standards by a long shot!

[OTSkyline]

I also like how the Planning Rationale is half devoted to showing that this site is technically not in the View Cones of Parliament Hill. I guess they need to go that extra mile if they are to get that extra height.

Fingers crossed

[Harley613]

This is actually just ahead of Trinity Station at the top of my wish list for this city. There is nothing I would like more than for the 'Claridge Cap' to be broken in Centretown.

[rocketphish]

The proposed development consists of three high-rise residential buildings; one 18 storey building fronting Albert Street (Tower A) and two buildings fronting Slater Street of 33 storeys (Tower B) and 38 storeys (Tower C) on a 3 storey podium with retail and residential uses. An underground parking garage for both residents and visitors will have access from Bay Street.

In parallel with the City of Ottawa’s beautification plan for Slater Street and Albert Street respectively, the design enhances the urban realm by having the North East Corner of the Site dedicated as a 400 square meter public Urban Park, extensive retail frontages along Slater, Lyon and Albert Streets to animate the streetscape, and a multi-functional Mid-Block connection designed to encourage walkability to and from the OLRT Station.

Proponent: Albert & Main Developments Inc.
Architect: IBI Group


Siteplan:




Renderings:

[Jayday23]

this is the coolest thing to come across in a decade!!!! i SO hope it happens!!

[Kitchissippi]

Those moose sculptures need to happen!

[J.OT13]

I am SHOCKED!!! This is an incredible proposal that could truly change downtown, almost at the level of the Confederation Line!

I can see our developer friendly City approve this project, though they seem to favour local developers who contribute to their campaigns more than innovative out-of-towners (see Mizrahi and his Wellington West project).


The NCC is a wild card however, considering they did not interfere in the Château Laurier expansion debate, which will impact the traditional skyline much more than this proposal, I expect major public scrutiny if they were to interfere now. So they might back-down.

The other possible road block of course are NIMBYs, the vocal minority, who seem to oppose anything and everything, even Moon which meets nearly all current zoning for the area.

I'm curious to hear what Leiper and McKenney have to say about it.

[danishh]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

I am SHOCKED!!! This is an incredible proposal that could truly change downtown, almost at the level of the Confederation Line!

I can see our developer friendly City approve this project, though they seem to favour local developers who contribute to their campaigns more than innovative out-of-towners (see Mizrahi and his Wellington West project).


The NCC is a wild card however, considering they did not interfere in the Château Laurier expansion debate, which will impact the traditional skyline much more than this proposal, I expect major public scrutiny if they were to interfere now. So they might back-down.

The other possible road block of course are NIMBYs, the vocal minority, who seem to oppose anything and everything, even Moon which meets nearly all current zoning for the area.

I'm curious to hear what Leiper and McKenney have to say about it.

i see no real reason this (or the claridge site a block north) would face any roadblocks.

Heights are fine with the NCC sightlines, biggest impact to the community is loss of parking for suburban commuters.

I'm a YIMBY in the area and will let mckenney know.

[Harley613]

Nimbys will be out in force for sure. How dare a developer propose something outside of 17-27 stories in Centretown?! Sacrilege! Pitchforks!

This proposal could be a HUGE catalyst for change in Centretown, especially due the juxtaposition between it and the Crapridge development across the street. People will have an easy side by side comparison of quality vs. lowest bidder.

[Jayday23]

The community consultation will be taking place this thursday. If you're around, please show up to support this beautiful project in the heart of our downtown core!

[danishh]

Originally Posted by Jayday23

The community consultation will be taking place this thursday. If you're around, please show up to support this beautiful project in the heart of our downtown core!

will-do, since christchurch is across the street from me.

[Soi-Fon]

Seems interesting, is it open to everyone ?

[Arcologist]

Here is a copy of my email to the City of Ottawa lead planner on this file. I also cc'd all the downtown councillors and will be sending a copy to the Main+Main contact.


----

Good day,

These comments pertain to the mixed-use high-rise development proposal at 400 Albert Street in downtown Ottawa.

I'd like to offer my support for the development for several reasons:

1 - the design quality exceeds anything that has been built in Ottawa in the last 20 years. This is exactly the kind of quality development that Ottawa -- the national capital -- needs more of.

2 - 38 and 33 storeys will FINALLY break-up the monotonous and pathetic 27-storey downtown skyline that we currently have. There will be the added effect of diminishing the dominance of the ugly concrete Queen Elizabeth towers in this part of downtown.

3 - Main+Main is relatively new to the high-rise scene in Ottawa. We can finally get some development approaches that differ from Claridge, Minto and Ashcroft.

I sincerely hope you do not ask the developer to lower the heights as this would force the developer to reduce the quality of the materials to compensate for lower revenues. I also hope the City does not ask for design modifications -- this is FAR BETTER than anything we've seen in a long time!

And finally, to prevent the typical Claridge bait-and-switch (whereby their renderings give us great looking buildings, but the final product is cheap and looks nothing like what was proposed), I would recommend that the City ensures that any approvals for the project come with the caveat that the design and high-quality materials being proposed cannot be switched out for cheaper options.

I hope the City does the right thing and supports this great development proposal.

[kwoldtimer]

Good luck with the design not being switched out.