Place de Ville III | 76.7m | 18 fl | Proposed

[Radster]

I am at PSPC (ex PWGSC) in Portage III, and we have most of employees from Tower C moving into swing space at Esplanade Laurier (with some exceptions such as my team) while they retrofit Tower C at PDPIII. Not sure how much space Esplanade has remaining as a result.

[J.OT13]

I'm a little confused with what going on with L'Esplanade. They built the Flaherty Building on Elgin to move the Finance department out of L'Esplanade in order to rehabilitate the old complex. Five years later, nothing has been done.

There are no food vendors in the food court, the public washrooms close at 2 pm, the plaza look like crap. Oh wait; they did fixed the sign at the corner of Bank and Laurier two weeks ago. It rotates again! We can now see all 6 retailers (out of like 40 spots). Oh, and they removed the benches around that sign.

Seems to me they missed an opportunity to completely rehabilitate the building in order to permanently consolidate Transport Canada in L'Esplanade. Instead, we're just playing musical office towers with thousands of public servants.

[sseguin]

So I asked at Place de Ville the security, and they told me the blocked off area by the escalators near Harry's Deli is due to the fact that they are replacing both escalators.

They couldn't say how it was going to be done but I would assume they will either add some temporary stairs or build new escalators to the side of the existing ones then remove the old ones. Either way they need access maintained, or everyone will be using the one elevator which can't handle that usage.

We will see, should be interesting.

[Davis137]

Perhaps 101 Col By Drive will be pretty empty in a few years...IIRC, it was originally supposed to be the Transport Canada HQ, but was re-purposed for DND. I have worked at the "puzzle palace", and it's got no shortage of floor space.

[613Steve]

A lot of PSPC employees are being temporarily moved to L'Esplanade Laurier due to renovations at Place du Portage III.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by sseguin

So I asked at Place de Ville the security, and they told me the blocked off area by the escalators near Harry's Deli is due to the fact that they are replacing both escalators.

They couldn't say how it was going to be done but I would assume they will either add some temporary stairs or build new escalators to the side of the existing ones then remove the old ones. Either way they need access maintained, or everyone will be using the one elevator which can't handle that usage.

We will see, should be interesting.

Thanks for the update! The existing escalators are very narrow and probably couldn't handle the LRT traffic coming out through the PdV concourse.

Originally Posted by Davis137

Perhaps 101 Col By Drive will be pretty empty in a few years...IIRC, it was originally supposed to be the Transport Canada HQ, but was re-purposed for DND. I have worked at the "puzzle palace", and it's got no shortage of floor space.

Yup, was supposed to be Transport Canada's HQ until the DND Lebreton project was cancelled.

But there are currently no plans to vacate 101. While the old Nortel Campus will take on the employees of most satellite DND offices, 101 will continue to serve as the administrative HQ for the foreseeable future.

[JayBuoy]

I work at PDV. we got an email to notify us of the construction. They're building a temporary staircase while the escalators are replaced, then they'll replace the temporary staircase with a permanent one.

[Sean1337]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

I'm a little confused with what going on with L'Esplanade. They built the Flaherty Building on Elgin to move the Finance department out of L'Esplanade in order to rehabilitate the old complex. Five years later, nothing has been done.

There are no food vendors in the food court, the public washrooms close at 2 pm, the plaza look like crap. Oh wait; they did fixed the sign at the corner of Bank and Laurier two weeks ago. It rotates again! We can now see all 6 retailers (out of like 40 spots). Oh, and they removed the benches around that sign.

Seems to me they missed an opportunity to completely rehabilitate the building in order to permanently consolidate Transport Canada in L'Esplanade. Instead, we're just playing musical office towers with thousands of public servants.

The Flaherty Building is a gong show.

It was built to move Finance and a portion of TBS. They wanted to design 90 Elgin so that it would be pretty and modern but without enough space to fully consolidate all TBS employees in one location.

All the second class TBS employees stayed back in the shit show that is LEL. I currently work there. It is a rotting hell hole with mice everywhere and mice droppings on your desk fresh for each new workday.

The air quality at LEL is shit, there’s aspestis, nicotine leaking from the windows, they haven’t vacuumed or steam cleaned the carpets in decades. The parking garage has make shift patchwork because the support beams are falling apart.

Oh did I mention the networking in the building is shit and I can’t get any work done half of the time because the network is down?

It’s a disaster and now they’re using it as swing space for other departments.

FFS

[J.OT13]

Sounds pretty terrible. Considering what the outside and "mall" look like, I'm not surprised.

[roger1818]

Originally Posted by Sean1337

The Flaherty Building is a gong show.

It was built to move Finance and a portion of TBS. They wanted to design 90 Elgin so that it would be pretty and modern but without enough space to fully consolidate all TBS employees in one location.

All the second class TBS employees stayed back in the shit show that is LEL. I currently work there. It is a rotting hell hole with mice everywhere and mice droppings on your desk fresh for each new workday.

The air quality at LEL is shit, there’s aspestis, nicotine leaking from the windows, they haven’t vacuumed or steam cleaned the carpets in decades. The parking garage has make shift patchwork because the support beams are falling apart.

Oh did I mention the networking in the building is shit and I can’t get any work done half of the time because the network is down?

It’s a disaster and now they’re using it as swing space for other departments.

FFS

Can we please define acronyms when using them? Not everyone works for the Government.

I used google to figure out the TBS is Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (I think) but the only definition of LEL I could find is Lower Explosive Limit (which I don't think is correct).

[JayBuoy]

LEL is L'Esplanade Laurier, I believe.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by roger1818

I used google to figure out the TBS is Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (I think).

You googled correctly. They do back office type functions and are not often in the public spotlight.

[Requin]

Not related to redevelopment, but just noticed that the disused fountain on Albert has been filled and now is covered with sod.

[sseguin]

Little update on the escalator replacement at Place de Ville.... no update. Hoardings are up, the neon lights are gone and the glass railing is removed for about 2-3 weeks now. Beyond that, nothing.

There is a section that was originally closed off just to the left of the underground entrance to the Delta hotel that is now opened up and orange construction tarps are covering the entrance.

I read that in the past there was an additional entrance to the underground concourse located at street level between the parking ramps and the fountain. Is it possible that they are working to rebuild or reopen this entrance? It would give another route in towards the LRT station entrance located next to Subway resto.

Any ideas what this new work is all about?

Definitely see a lot of potential for this whole place to be revitalized with the arrival of the train but so far development is slow to nothing...

[OTownandDown]

Originally Posted by sseguin

Little update on the escalator replacement at Place de Ville.... no update. Hoardings are up, the neon lights are gone and the glass railing is removed for about 2-3 weeks now. Beyond that, nothing.

There is a section that was originally closed off just to the left of the underground entrance to the Delta hotel that is now opened up and orange construction tarps are covering the entrance.

I read that in the past there was an additional entrance to the underground concourse located at street level between the parking ramps and the fountain. Is it possible that they are working to rebuild or reopen this entrance? It would give another route in towards the LRT station entrance located next to Subway resto.

Any ideas what this new work is all about?

Definitely see a lot of potential for this whole place to be revitalized with the arrival of the train but so far development is slow to nothing...

Replacing an escalator is not an easy job. I would assume that the removals allowed for site measurements so that new finishes and equipment could be accurately ordered to suit. The lead time for these things can be long, therefore don't get too excited for quick changes.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by sseguin

Little update on the escalator replacement at Place de Ville.... no update. Hoardings are up, the neon lights are gone and the glass railing is removed for about 2-3 weeks now. Beyond that, nothing.

There is a section that was originally closed off just to the left of the underground entrance to the Delta hotel that is now opened up and orange construction tarps are covering the entrance.

I read that in the past there was an additional entrance to the underground concourse located at street level between the parking ramps and the fountain. Is it possible that they are working to rebuild or reopen this entrance? It would give another route in towards the LRT station entrance located next to Subway resto.

Any ideas what this new work is all about?

Definitely see a lot of potential for this whole place to be revitalized with the arrival of the train but so far development is slow to nothing...

I noticed the new (I guess old) corridor towards Albert. I checked out GeoOttawa, and it seems they had something different than the big octoganal skylight in 1976 between the fountain and car ramp, but it's too blurry to tell for sure what it was.

[sseguin]

It's been a while since I've been to Place de Ville. Has anyone noticed any recent changes, such as the escalators being completed or that 'opening' towards Albert?

[orleans_man]

Originally Posted by sseguin

It's been a while since I've been to Place de Ville. Has anyone noticed any recent changes, such as the escalators being completed or that 'opening' towards Albert?

The escalators on the south/east side near Kent/Albert are still under construction. They are in place, but not finished.

As for the opening, nothing has happened there yet and ceiling tiles are still absent from most of the underground mall.

Nothing too exciting happening

[J.OT13]

Couple updates. At the concourse level, the new escalators up to PdV I have been open for a few months. Temporary stairs are still active. The old hallway that was opened up for renovations next to the Delta entrance, towards Albert, has been sealed once again. More roof tiles have been removed, I'm pretty sure.

At the surface level, they changed a door to the abandoned cinema near the Podium elevator entrance (Lyon station entrance side). Nothing too exciting.

Something a little more interesting: we've seen suits walking around the concourse over the last few weeks seemingly talking about renovations and attracting new tenants to the underground concourse. This was overheard by my girlfriend while walking by. No specific info to offer, but it seems they may be up to something.

Quick questions for those who might remember: where were the entrances to the cinema when it was opened? All the doors around the Podium ground level seem to be emergency exits. Were the former retail spaces (print shop where subway entrance is today and the now closed restaurant on the Sparks side) entrances to the cinema? Was there an entrance at concourse level?

[FutureWickedCity]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

where were the entrances to the cinema when it was opened? All the doors around the Podium ground level seem to be emergency exits. Were the former retail spaces (print shop where subway entrance is today and the now closed restaurant on the Sparks side) entrances to the cinema? Was there an entrance at concourse level?

I seem to recall entering the podium building through the courtyard.