Terminal Ave & Riverside Dr ??

alphachap · #1 Posted **Oct 13, 2011, 4:34 PM**

?? What is the building (about 10 storeys high) under construction on Terminal Avenue near Riverside Drive ??

rocketphish · #2 Posted **Oct 13, 2011, 5:21 PM**

It's 395 Terminal Avenue, part of Ottawa Train Yards:

You can find project details and construction photos here:
http://www.roneng.com/project_detail...0&t=1&f=1&pg=1

I don't believe that we have a dedicated thread going for this project yet.

Acajack · #3 Posted **Oct 13, 2011, 5:56 PM**

Thanks for the info. I had noticed this a few times but was thinking I was the only one who didn't know what it was!

alphachap · #4 Posted **Oct 13, 2011, 6:01 PM**

Thanks for the info.
The project's site say it's an eight storey 20,753 m2 office building that will include 500 m2 of storage space and 365 parking spaces.
The 8 storey rectangular building form is oriented east-west to accentuate north and south views and to best access natural light.
The building envelope is to be finished in a high quality curtainwall system to reduce thermal loss and solar gain while providing generous quantities of natural light.
All areas of the leased premises are within 12m of an exterior window.
The parking lot and outdoor amenity areas will incorporate soft and hard landscaping.

amanfromnowhere · #5 Posted **Oct 13, 2011, 6:27 PM**

here are other views from Mr. southfacing:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2357560...n/photostream/

Lakche · #6 Posted **Oct 13, 2011, 9:55 PM**

That building has certainly changed from the original Trainyards master plan, still found on the Trainyards website:

http://www.ottawatrainyards.com/imag...siteplan_b.jpg

McC · #7 Posted **Oct 14, 2011, 1:55 AM**

avert your eyes, it's HIDEOUS!

MountainView · #8 Posted **Oct 14, 2011, 2:14 AM**

What's with the government and it's rectangular buildings... Baseline Avenue comes to mind (even though it was Nortel first). Will the parking spots eventually have to be moved underground or none at all once the other phases in the trainyards master plan are built? Also... How will the users of this building access tranist? They can see the "Train" transitway station through their windows but unless I'm unaware of a direct path, they can't just walk across the VIA station to the transitway. Can someone fill me in here, thanks!

Uhuniau · #9 Posted **Oct 14, 2011, 4:27 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by MountainView

What's with the government and it's rectangular buildings... Baseline Avenue comes to mind (even though it was Nortel first). Will the parking spots eventually have to be moved underground or none at all once the other phases in the trainyards master plan are built? Also... How will the users of this building access tranist? They can see the "Train" transitway station through their windows but unless I'm unaware of a direct path, they can't just walk across the VIA station to the transitway. Can someone fill me in here, thanks!

But MountainView, it's NEAR a transit station! That counts as "transit-oriented" in Ottawa.

S-Man · #10 Posted **Oct 14, 2011, 5:28 AM**

This past summer a bunch of colleagues and myself took the transitway from downtown to the 'Train' OC station to see a game at the baseball stadium.

I know - you've never heard that said before.....

Anyway, the evening turned into a head-scratcher over the unbelievably hard time we had getting from the bus station to the adjacent stadium (by trying to find a path of least resistance). At one point we were walking on a grassy median by a Queensway off-ramp to get to the only overpass; then we found ourselves confronted with a jagged and oxidized chain-link fence that blocked any access to the stadium parking lot, thus requiring us to walk the rest of the way down Vanier Parkway and up Coventry to make it to the car (and people) entrance.

Fun times, but it showed that the area wasn't well thought out for pedestrians or transit users.

Oddly enough, that was the same day Earl McRae of The Sun published a rant about how a pedestrian overpass from the future LRT station at Train to the stadium area was a waste of money that would only serve 'lazy' transit users. Sigh.

waterloowarrior · #11 Posted **Jan 25, 2012, 11:33 PM**

southfacing @ flickr jan 2012
http://www.flickr.com/photos/2357560...n/photostream/

kevinbottawa · #12 Posted **Jan 26, 2012, 12:58 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by waterloowarrior

southfacing @ flickr jan 2012
http://www.flickr.com/photos/2357560...n/photostream/

Soooooo much potential in this picture, like an open canvas.

Uhuniau · #13 Posted **Jan 26, 2012, 5:54 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by kevinbottawa

Soooooo much potential in this picture, like an open canvas.

Too bad it's being wasted at every opportunity.

Jamaican-Phoenix · #14 Posted **Jan 26, 2012, 7:48 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

Too bad it's being wasted at every opportunity.

Like just about everything in this city.

Badlands · #15 Posted **Jan 26, 2012, 11:28 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

Too bad it's being wasted at every opportunity.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jamaican-Phoenix

Like just about everything in this city.

Yeah, the predictable Everything Ottawa Sucks crowd is here again.

Ottawan · #16 Posted **Jan 27, 2012, 12:03 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Badlands

Yeah, the predictable Everything Ottawa Sucks crowd is here again.

Exactly. Just like in this article from Open File Ottawa:

http://ottawa.openfile.ca/blog/2012/...cal-columnists

My favourite bit is the last paragraph:

Quote:

A final thought from the audience: an attendee named Liam from Toronto said he came to Ottawa for a party, and hasn’t left two years later. His assessment? Cohen and McKenna were demonstrating a self-loathing that is part of Ottawa’s problem.

Liam is right on the money - Ottawans' self-loathing certainly exacerbates what problems we do have, and hampers our very real potential.

Aside: this article makes me sad that work kept me away from attending the screening of "Urbanized" at SAW Gallery. Anyone go - and how was it?

reidjr · #17 Posted **Jan 27, 2012, 12:40 AM**

Ottawa is a good city i am not one that will say this is bad or this etc its a good city there are few that i would say are great if you look at most citys you can find good things and things that are so so.

Uhuniau · #18 Posted **Jan 27, 2012, 5:06 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Badlands

Yeah, the predictable Everything Ottawa Sucks crowd is here again.

Glad to be of service.

S-Man · #19 Posted **Jan 27, 2012, 6:30 AM**

After reading that article, I agree mostly with McKenna's ideas, which are not foreign to anyone who's lived here a while and address the largest planning complaints, while Cohen's are glorified art projects that I can't get behind. If you ask me, he's a dour elitist.

I agree there should have been MUCH more protest and outrage over the bus strike, but outrage being a foreign emotion is an unfortunate trait of almost all of modern,urban Canada, not just Ottawa. The lack of emotion (the semi-drugged OK-I'll-bend-over-and-take-it attitude) is commonplace and all too prevalent in most major western and Canadian cities. It's a cultural/generational thing, not so much a geographical thing.

People should have been fighting mad over being denied transportation for so long during the middle of the winter (and a deep recession), but what does anyone do these days? Show me a massive outpouring of outrage in any Canadian city over a similar issue. All I can think of is the Vancouver Stanley Cup riots, but that isn't the same thing.

Sad that that kind of thing can happen over a game loss, while real day-to-day life issues like taxes and services are not worth mussing one's hair over.

S-Man · #20 Posted **Jan 27, 2012, 6:48 AM**

Self-loathing, on the other hand, is pretty common here, and is often used as an excuse why nobody should ever think big or think ahead at all.

Read any Ottawa Sun comment page regarding LRT and it will be full of endless refrains of "Get real, we're Ottawa", where as Edmonton has less people and already has a functional LRT. Edmonton!

On the same page (and that of the Citizen, et al) you'll also get the people who feel Ottawa should just do the exact opposite of what Toronto is doing (like building transit) for no particular reason, arguing (stupidly and pointlessly) "We're not Toronto", as if planning for the transit needs of a densifying city of a million people in a world where oil prices are anything but certain is somehow stupid and reckless. A 'useless vanity project of no worth' is how they portray LRT, as if the concept of passenger-carrying rail would cease to function if tracks were laid on Ottawa soil. Nope, they say - just pile on more and more buses - super buses, buses in the sky and underground, buses that apparently don't take up physical space - anything but what other, normal cities do, they cried.

The same goes for building heights, density, the need not to sprawl.

"We're not Toronto" they say, "what are we trying to prove?". It's not about proving anything and most sane people know that - it's simply trying to remain sustainable by following the urban housing and transit practices that have become standard practice for good reason. It's the only thing that works! Yet the hysteria (and obvious inferiority complex) that some people exhibit follows every transit and planning debate.

To these people I say: Get over yourselves and realize that a city is a city is a city. People use transit in cities. Even Ottawa. We don't teleport ourselves to work. If LRT works in Edmonton,it can work here. People who take a bumpy, diesel bus won't rush out and buy a car because theyre afraid of the quiet, out-of-place-in-Ottawa electric train, like it's Kryptonite.
Sprawl costs cities money and makes the car the king - the fact that "we're Ottawa" doesn't exempt it from the economic reality of the world in 2012.

And that's my response.