Public Realm in Canadian Cities - Developments

[Martin Mtl]

Place Ville-Marie (also, the McGill REM station on McGill College on the construction pic).





Picture by Étienne MC on MtlUrb.com


https://mtlurb.com/topic/13047-place...e/60/#comments

[someone123]

Here's a slightly strange video of the stretch of Spring Garden Road where they are about to build streetscaping improvements in Halifax. You can watch the camera pan silently back and forth for over 8 minutes:

• Video Link

These improvements are sorely needed. The sidewalks are too small and have a hardscrabble appearance; the finishes and street furniture consist of whatever has survived from 1950 plus some minimalist additions. Spring Garden Road still has the poles for overhead streetcar wiring, although I think they may keep some of those even after the streetscaping for decorative purposes.

Some of the streetscaping outside of the area in this video has already been completed. For example, when the new library was built and the Doyle went up across the street that area was overhauled with a similar style of paving and improvements.

Argyle got a similar treatment too: https://www.google.com/maps/@44.6469...7i16384!8i8192
This one captures some of the earlier work along SGR: https://www.google.com/maps/@44.6432...7i16384!8i8192
A part that hasn't been redone yet: https://www.google.com/maps/@44.6424...7i16384!8i8192

[Martin Mtl]

Court upholds Montreal borough bylaw banning billboards

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/busi...sing/#comments

Quebec’s Court of Appeal has ordered three of Canada’s biggest outdoor media companies to demolish dozens of billboards in Montreal’s Plateau Mont-Royal borough in a ruling that upholds the local government’s power to ban what it considers blights on the urban landscape.

Astral Media, Jim Pattison Industries Ltd. and Outfront Media’s CBS Canada Holdings have six months to comply with the decree and take down about 40 outdoor advertising structures, the court ruled in a split decision released Wednesday. The ruling overturns a lower court’s decision and affirms the legitimacy of a Plateau bylaw stating existing billboards need to be removed.

“Even if the regulation infringes on freedom of expression, it is justified,” Justice Simon Ruel wrote in outlining the reasoning of two of the three judges. “The regulation has an urgent and real objective, that of preventing visual pollution.”

The ruling is the latest development in a long-running war between municipalities and businesses testing the limits on outdoor advertising. In Montreal, the nearly decade-long feud pits the desire of local political leaders to improve the quality of the streetscape for residents against companies who say they have the right to sell advertising space.

This ruling could have broader ramifications for other boroughs in Montreal and jurisdictions across the country, said Sylvain Lanoix, a lawyer for Dunton Rainville who is representing the companies.

[SpongeG]

New Richmond park opens on top of parking lot
Kirsten Clarke / Richmond News
SEPTEMBER 27, 2019


Submitted photo

Richmond is about to get a new park — on top of a parking lot.

Ketcheson Park, which officially opens Saturday, is situated on top of the two-storey parking lot at the new Concord Gardens development at the corner of Ketcheson Road and Hazelbridge Way, and was created by Concord.

...

https://www.richmond-news.com/commun...lot-1.23960108

[Tone]

La Place des Anciens Combattants redevelopement in Rimouski. It's part of a broader multi-year downtown revitalisation plan.

Current


Projected

[Chadillaccc]

A really shitty little park is about to become less shitty, though I mean anything would be a step up from this shithole.

[Chadillaccc]

This is a 20ish x 50ish meter parkette on the west side of the block of our new Urban Fare, Canadian Tire with the Royal Tower lobby fronting onto the space at the right.






This is the east face of the block...


https://troymedia.com/breaking-news/...-village-area/

[Hali87]

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

A really shitty little park is about to become less shitty, though I mean anything would be a step up from this shithole.

Is it already called "Humpy Hollow" or is that an improvement on the current name as well?

[Chadillaccc]

It's on 17th Avenue SW, only like three blocks from my apartment, I've definitely seen the park before though it is very forgettable... I've never heard of the name before posting that. But yes, that's the name according to Google Maps

It's in the blighted east Beltline, and I imagine it's part of the city's efforts to encourage families to move into the area.

[J.OT13]

I can't find a better thread for this, so I'll post it here. The World Exchange Plaza, an office complex built between 1992 (Tower 1) and 2001 (Tower 2) includes an impressive urban outdoor space built in 1995. The park, I find, has aged very well over the last 15 years. It is one of he very few green spaces/parks within the Central Business District (Wellington, Lyon, Gloucester and Elgin). I wish more such public spaces were built however, developers in Ottawa are keen on building lot-line-to-lot-line due to height restrictions.

The architecture of the office complex itself is reminiscent of the Vancouver Central Library. PoMo style with the pink granite, including a Roman Coliseum type structure. Safdie did not design this one, however.



More images on the link. When I attempted to post them on SSP, they were humongous.

http://obj.ca/article/sponsored-ruhl...fice-extension

[Calgarian]

Calgary has to be going for the record with the number of small parks in the Beltline lol.

[Chadillaccc]

The new “Flyover Park” under the Fourth Avenue Flyover. It’s one of those “urban renewal” blights from the 70s that every city has, but this is a pretty awesome solution to it. They have had a pilot project in the area for a couple years and it has been received pretty well. So I guess now they are finally going ahead with it!

Starting construction imminently apparently, as a city official said “coming fall 2020”.

Originally Posted by Calgarian

Calgary has to be going for the record with the number of small parks in the Beltline lol.

It’s true. A big part of my love for this city is the insane amount and wide distribution of green spaces.

[MonctonRad]

Work is beginning for the new Parc Gérald-Leblanc Park at Moncton city hall.



Artists conception:





Some context:

The majority of the plaza in front of Moncton City Hall has been complete for well over a decade. The area in question was a grassy area to the side that had served as a seasonal public skating rink in the wintertime. Since the city installed a new refrigerated outdoor skating oval on the plaza in front of the new Avenir Centre last year, an outdoor rink at city hall was no longer felt necessary. A new plan for a seating area and plaza extension to honour Acadian poet Arthur LeBlanc was formulated.

The grass area in front of City Hall, which has been used as a small outdoor skating rink, will be removed and replaced with paving stones and 25 metres of granite and concrete seating.

"We (will) have a large plaza space that has informal, make your own seating so tables and chairs that you will be able to move and adapt — do it any way you want."

A piece of public art, at a cost of between $2,500 and $3,000, is also planned for the park

[Chadillaccc]

Calgary just reached another notable milestone, with the longest network of non-vehicular paved pathways in the country, North America, and one of the longest in the world.


Calgary reaches 1,000th kilometre of paved pathway
Chandler Walker | July 15, 2020 | Daily Hive

The City of Calgary just reached quite the milestone.

According to a release from the city, Calgary just saw its 1,000th kilometre of pathway paved, adding to the most extensive urban pathway and bikeway network in North America.

A video on the City of Calgary’s Twitter page shows that monumental stretch of pathway being paved.



“Our pathways are a great place to get some exercise and enjoy nature,” said Todd Reichardt, manager of parks, north and west region with the city, in the release.

“We are very fortunate to have one of the most extensive urban pathway networks in North America.”

Included in the network is the Rotary Mattamy Greenway, an iconic portion of the network that loops around the city in a 138 km circle.

The release also notes that every kilometre of the city’s pathway network is visually inspected each year, and repaired if necessary.

Source: https://dailyhive.com/calgary/calgary-paved-pathway

[SpongeG]

nice ^^

the new public plaza area under the north end of the granville street bridge is still coming together, once the retail and restaurants etc open it should be quite lively.

2020-07-17_08-41-38 by snub_you, on Flickr

2020-07-17_08-41-23 by snub_you, on Flickr

[someone123]

Some pictures of the Prince and Bedford Row area of downtown Halifax which has been overhauled in recent months.

Bedford Row is a short street that doesn't carry significant traffic so it was turned into an outdoor pub/dining area:


Nearby interface between a heritage building on the left that is part of the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic and a new development on the right.


Lower Water Street has been changing from basically a tiny traffic sewer into a mixed street with nicer pedestrian paving, plantings, and a bike lane.


Source for this is a Twitter post

[kwoldtimer]

Kitchener has opened a new 42 acre park in its south-west suburbs.

https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/huge-pl...park-1.5097895

[J.OT13]

Pangishimo Park, at the western tip of Chaudière Island. It's NCC owned land within the Zibi project.




https://twitter.com/NCC_CCN/status/1253358765275000832

Related docs showing location, site plans, sections, renderings and current condition.

https://ncc-website-2.s3.amazonaws.c...20200423100936

[J.OT13]

Rideau Street renewal, Ottawa.

From local Councillor Fleury's Twitter:



https://twitter.com/MathieuFleury/st...54327551029249

Streetview before the renewal. Worth going back in time to see the abandoned department store and parking, followed by the Rideau Centre expansion and subway contraction:

https://www.google.com/maps/@45.4267...4!8i8192?hl=en

[SpongeG]

at the proposal stage but it includes a large public plaza that would fit in between the skytrain and the development.




pics: vancouvermarket.ca