359 Kent St, 436-444 MacLaren St | ?m | 27f | Approved

[rakerman]

June 22, 2022 from 6:30pm to 8:30pm online.
Pre-registration required.

https://www.catherinemckenney.ca/359_kent_mtg

One expects the usual community concerns will be expressed with their typical degree of intensity.

[DTcrawler]

I will attend the meeting. Hopefully others from this forum attend too, to provide some pushback against the community members who will inevitably pushback against the project.

[originalmuffins]

Anyone know what happened during the meeting?

[Ottawacurious]

I had to leave early.....but not a ton of people were there. When I went back to see where the meeting was at, it was already done.

[originalmuffins]

Originally Posted by Ottawacurious

I had to leave early.....but not a ton of people were there. When I went back to see where the meeting was at, it was already done.

Did it seem like there was much objection? Feel like it may just be pushed through considering they have a website all good to go already lol

[SL123]

New documents on DevApp with new renders with a different design.

https://devapps.ottawa.ca/en/applica...1-0095/details

The new Design isnt better but its not worse either

[Harley613]

Reduced to 30 floors, 99 metres. Of course. A real 'landmark building'.

[RideauRat]

They moved the Ottawa 28 story impenetrable firmament to 30. it's like giving the table top a booster seat atp.

[SL123]

Originally Posted by Harley613

Reduced to 30 floors, 99 metres. Of course. A real 'landmark building'.

Its still 34. a 30 floors tower on a 4 floors podium

[Harley613]

Originally Posted by SL123

Its still 34. a 30 floors tower on a 4 floors podium

Except....it's not...

Edit: from the new planning rationale:

The architecture of the proposed development has been significantly revised, informed largely by the retention of the
Legion House facade and the sustainability goals of the project, to become a landmark in Centretown. The design of the
tower contrasts the retained facade and while still featuring an interesting and varied architecture. The overall height of the
tower has been reduced from 34 storeys to 30 storeys, and the podium has been reduced from 8 storeys to 5 storeys.

[J.OT13]

I'm seeing a lot of inconsistencies between the docs. The DevApp description says 34, this doc shows 34 (35 with mechanical), I'm counting 30 here and a few other docs show 30.

Another showing 34.

I hope that it does end up as 34, but it's unclear at this point. Overall though, I like it. Different than anything else in Ottawa. Love the red brick podium contrasting with the limestone medical building façade. Full heritage preservation of two classic Centretown homes (one of which was Charles Ogilvy's, designed by W.E. Noffke).

[rocketphish]

The following outlines the key design changes arising since the original September 2021 submission. These are provided in response to the extensive consultation and review that has been undertaken since the original submission. Consultation has included meetings and events with the Centretown Citizens’ Community Association, Heritage Ottawa, the City of Ottawa’s Built Heritage Sub-Committee, City of Ottawa Planning, Urban Design and Heritage staff, and a Special Design Review Panel established specifically to review and provide input on the proposed development of a landmark building on the subject property. Engagement and consultation is ongoing with these groups as the design of the building is refined.

The biggest change to the design has been the retention and integration of the Legion House facade into the revised development. The Legion House was identified by the City as an important building within the Centretown Heritage Conservation District and through investigation and research, the intention is to document and store the limestone cladding from the existing south and west facades to be used in cladding the podium of the new building. The facade will be reconstructed in the same place as it sits today, and will form the five (5) storey podium of the new building.

Previously, the civic space required as a part of a Landmark Building was proposed for one of the retained heritage homes at 436 MacLaren Street. Through the design revisions, the home at 436 MacLaren will remain as office space and a more prominent, 2,000 square foot space is proposed at the southwest corner of the development, along Kent Street, for the civic use. The user of the civic space will be confirmed at the time of Site Plan approval and will be required to meet the criteria of a community or cultural facility. Given the unknown operating requirements of the user, two alternate spaces are proposed: one in the amenity space along Gilmour Street, and the other in the originally proposed 436 MacLaren house.

The architecture of the proposed development has been significantly revised, informed largely by the retention of the Legion House facade and the sustainability goals of the project, to become a landmark in Centretown. The design of the tower contrasts the retained facade and while still featuring an interesting and varied architecture. The overall height of the tower has been reduced from 34 storeys to 30 storeys, and the podium has been reduced from 8 storeys to 5 storeys.

Siteplan:








Renderings:

[Harley613]

I love the new look, especially the podium, but the height reduction is extremely disappointing. At 99m, this building will be absorbed by the clump in a few years. This building had the opportunity to anchor the entire central skyline from three directions by the simple virtue of being slightly taller than the clump.

[YukonLlama]

This one reminds me a bit of the Charlotte. Love the tower and mixed design of the podium. It incorporates mid-century, turn of the century, and modern design nicely. It's unfortunate, but not surprised about the high reduction on this one. It's one street off of Bank, but still surrounded by mostly low-rise buildings. Still, will be quite the sight to see once completed.

[Harley613]

It will still be prominent as you arrive into the city centre from the East heading West, at least. That is easily the ugliest view of the city currently, in my opinion.

[J.OT13]

The more I look at it, the more I love how the podium is broken down into two distinct masses, with the limestone Legion House and the red brick portion. Too often we get blockbusters with a uniform podium design (or a midrise with no podium), things like the Central II (at least Central 1 has the poorly integrated Bible Church to break things up), Tamarack Flora, the Westboro Canyon (RLA and Ashcroft) and soon 979 Wellington.

[Harley613]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

The more I look at it, the more I love how the podium is broken down into two distinct masses, with the limestone Legion House and the red brick portion. Too often we get blockbusters with a uniform podium design (or a midrise with no podium), things like the Central II (at least Central 1 has the poorly integrated Bible Church to break things up), Tamarack Flora, the Westboro Canyon (RLA and Ashcroft) and soon 979 Wellington.

Don't forget Westboro Canyon 2.0 on McRae.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by Harley613

Don't forget Westboro Canyon 2.0 on McRae.

[OTSkyline]

I like it. I like the amount of glass, the white, that cool overhang/roof element and the lighting in the render. Now will all or most of this make it to the final design? That's a different question. But the proposal as-is looks pretty nice.

Too bad for the height reduction.

[JHikka]

Can't say I like the podium but I am a fan of pushing more height and more density further south in Centretown.