Robert Smythe
The heart of Centretown’s largest heritage district is being challenged by yet another development proposal that’s being submitted under the City of Ottawa’s open-ended “Landmark Building” policy. This process involves an architectural beauty pageant with few objective or truly measurable criteria.
The landmark building policy is a hangover from the 2013 Centretown Community Design Plan which first recommended it. This was appealed by the Community Association and, in a murky decision, the former Ontario Municipal Board neither approved nor refused the policy, and instead ordered the city and the developers to work it out among themselves.
In a nutshell, a landmark development can “break the rules” provided that the architecture is “iconic”; the site design is “extraordinary”; the landscape design is “outstanding”; and the land use and building programme serve a “civic and national function.” It’s left to fellow architects and design consultants to score the development according to their particular tastes.
Of course, the 359 Kent Street development is further complicated by the fact that, under the Ontario Heritage Act, it sits within a designated Heritage Conservation District and requires approval from the city’s Built Heritage Advisory Committee, whose statutory authority actually exceeds the city’s design review process.
As the land is currently designated for low-to-medium development it will also require both Official Plan and Zoning Bylaw Amendments. The Centretown Community Association has submitted comments objecting to the project’s extreme height and lack of affordable housing in the unit mix.
For context, once the site is cleared of the 1950s office building that now stands at the southwest corner, and apart from two mid-rise apartment buildings on Bank Street, the rest of this block comprises 10 two-and-a-half storey 110-to-130 year old houses along Gilmour and MacLaren.
In raw numbers, the proposal encompasses 405 residential units and 322 parking spaces. While the applicant’s summary states that the building is to be “111,000 metres” in height, the actual figure is likely closer to 100. The two existing houses at the rear of the development site on MacLaren Street are to be restored “to a high standard,” with one of them dedicated to new commercial tenants and the other given to “a deserving community group” such as the Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa.
This is not the first attempt at a landmark building from this team: the Taggart Group, Hobin Architecture, and Commonwealth Historic Resource Management. In January 2021, it suffered what one neighbour described as a “drubbing” from Ottawa’s Urban Design Review Panel, which has rejected the plans for their very large, very tall, two-tower development at 267 O’Connor Street between Gilmour and MacLaren.
The proponent’s design statement for 359 Kent is too rich not to quote at some length: “Because of the landmark nature of the site – the vision is to create a development that is truly iconic in the neighbourhood and the City. …A pedestrian-oriented corner plaza emphasized by a dramatic four-storey cantilever at the entrance at the corner of Kent Street and Gilmour. …Above the podium a 34-storey tower acts as a beacon for this site. Its dramatic shape not only acts as a guide to the downtown core and the Parliament Buildings from the highway, but as a new iconic piece in the Ottawa skyline.”
“The tower itself is to act as the visual landmark. Its slender, dynamic shape creating visual interest from far and near, to the west, is comprised of a central solid element with punches [sic] windows which connects to the ground floor.”
“In conclusion, our team is presented with a great opportunity with this designated landmark site to create iconic architecture that will celebrate the importance of Centertown [sic] and its community as well as it’s [sic] role as a future wayfinder to the Parliament district. While enjoyed locally, this tower will be an incredible icon to visitors entering the Parliament Buildings and downtown core via the Kent Street corridor.”
It should be noted that any super-tall building (be it iconically beautiful or not) in this location would serve that signpost function, provided that the most important perspective on this Centretown neighbourhood and its significant heritage character is that of drivers exiting the Queensway.
Of course, developers can’t be blamed for availing themselves of a wacky process that was concocted by the City of Ottawa. If wildly out of scale landmarks are to exist, the guidelines must be broadened to include important planning issues like community context and compatibility.