I guess my issue with the bell is that that story belongs to the Town Hall a block away, and should be told there and not diluted elsewhere -- it's bad enough that the real bell is in Nepean. The development's reference to the old station is already reaching a bit too far, and the inclusion of the bell, which is unrelated to the train theme kind of puts it over the top. I do think this was a preliminary conceptual embellishment (pardon the pun) much like the compass point pavement on the street (the city avoids puting paving bricks on the road because of snow removal issues)
There is a treasure trove of history in this area that they could use if they wanted to connect to the village's history. I think they should have played more on the streetcar theme as the south side of the property actually includes the old ROW for the Britannia A-line. There are wonderful photos from this location of the streetcar going up and down the hill on Byron. Another is the numerous industires that used to be in the area. It's too bad that the last factory in the area,
Ketchum's which operated up to 2005, is not marked or celebrated in the architecture of the Exchange. It would have been cool to have a piece of public art or building decoration that used livestock tags as a theme to remind people what used to be made in that location.
In this neat
brief history of Westboro you can find tons of other historical tidbits.
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The topsoil is very thin here, about a metre or so and you hit rock, one of the reasons why the Exhchange has covered parking, not completely below grade. You can see the almost complete Amica building in the background.
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