Robert Smythe
Is what’s proposed for the abandoned Greyhound property on the southern boundary of Centretown an example of what King Charles has called “a jostling scrum” of big buildings crowding together?
You can decide now that the Brigil Construction’s other shoe has dropped.
When the company bought the former Greyhound bus terminal on Catherine Street in 2021, it made some mighty big promises. With its recent filing for an up-zoning, the adjacent diminutive residential neighbourhood can start to digest exactly what they had in mind.
This full block of Queensway corridor was to be transformed by Brigil into a multifunctional “hub of luxury rental condos, office space, hotel buildings, neighbourhood restaurants, and specialty stores” (see the March 2021 BUZZ) .
Previously, the city had rushed to complete a theoretical sub-plan of urban design and built form regulations that would more than quadruple existing height limits to 27 floors and encourage an adequate amount of development potential. This was as a result of the 2013 Centretown Community Development Plan for a band of high-rise apartment towers along Centretown’s southern edge, and the property’s imminent sale by Vancouver-based Crerar Holdings.
In its final form, the latest scheme is destined to be the largest single project built in Centretown to date. Brigil has unveiled plans for three towers at 40 storeys, 35 storeys, and 26 storeys to sit atop a continuous six storey podium wall fronting Catherine Street, changing up materials along its length for “visual interest and distinction.” Quadrangle Architects Limited of Toronto are responsible for the design.
When fully built out, this would deliver a staggering 1,032 units, with a breakdown of 55 percent one-bedroom, 40 percent two-bedrooms, and five percent three-bedrooms. At this point the mix of non-residential uses is unspecified.
The design will require amending the Zoning By-law and Official Plan to permit two of these tower heights.
Some nearby residents have suggested that this could result in a bonus noise barrier to Queensway traffic, although they might take a look at the resulting shadow studies’ impacts on their streets to the north.
The minimum 25 percent open space on the northeast corner at Arlington Avenue that was a condition of the last rezoning will be respected, although less of the “park” that was originally contemplated, and more of a hardscaped public plaza.
From the outset, this developer has been unusually active with its public engagement strategy – hosting no less than four extensive “Visioning Workshops” with selected community representatives and assorted experts; three separate site visits and briefings for the former and current Somerset Ward councillors; meetings with City of Ottawa Planning staff; and an initial consultation with Urban Design Review Panel.
Yet for all of this, the Centretown Community Association voiced its objection to the proposed towers in their most recent CCA Report in last month’s BUZZ.
The developer is now entering the statutory phases of their application: formal “heads-up” notifications to the community association, posting the plans on-line, a possible community information session, and public hearings of the Urban Design Review Panel and City Council’s Planning Committee following the legal public notifications.
Of passing interest the company’s agent in this matter is John Moser, the former general manager of the City of Ottawa’s Planning Department. Moser retired from the city, and after a cooling-off period, became the COO and vice-president of planning at the GBA Group, which is headed by Graham Bird, a city councillor of long ago.
This means due diligence in jumping through the city’s many procedural hoops. But at the end of the day City Council will have to determine if it likes the product that has emerged from this more-than-two-year process.
One of this project’s key planning rationales has been the manufacture of a whack of new residential units in one project, fulfilling the city’s and the province’s optimistic but currently lagging targets for building more housing faster.
Will it come at the cost of forsaking genuine livability and human scale, or be a development that’s a little more cozy but sacrifices some units? It seems like a Hobson’s Choice.
…And now for something completely different
A few blocks north on Kent, between James and Gilmour Streets KATASA groupe+développement of Gatineau, Quebec, are proposing a more modestly scaled project for a large tract of land that enjoys three street frontages. In another triple threat, it appears to be Zoning By-law compliant, Official Plan compliant, and Heritage Conservation District compliant.
Unlike their neighbour Taggart Construction, which is seeking a shiny 30-storey attention-grabbing tower across Gilmour Street on property with exactly the same zoning, this development group has chosen not to avail itself of the City of Ottawa’s cockamamie Landmark Buildings Policy (see the August 2022 BUZZ for more on the policy).
This nine-storey residential building will be built on the site of the current Kent Medical Building and its sprawling parking lot. It will contain 218 residential units of various sizes from studios to three-bedrooms, but the bulk of them will be one-bedrooms. The ground floor apartments will have walk-out terraces.
There is to be a total of 1,472 square metres of amenity space (which is a lot), parking for 161 vehicles in two levels of underground parking, and facilities for 110 bicycles. A 171 square metre commercial unit will face Kent Street.
The design of the building, by Neuf architectes, could be described as safe and tastefully conventional with a defined tripartite division of a two-storey base, five-storey mid-section, and two-storey cap in brick and precast. For comparison’s sake, KATASA just completed the JADE apartments at Somerset Street West and LeBreton Streets in Chinatown.
The site plan’s landscaping deserves particular attention. The Z-shaped building footprint cradles a recessed court and wide setbacks from the three public frontages that allow for a generous row of street tree planting. The proposed development also includes the dedication of a small park at the southwest corner of the site at Kent and James.
They’re calling this “Kent Square,” which might end up being the apartment building’s name too. While it is to be a POPS (a Privately Owned Public Space, which the City of Ottawa is notoriously bad at monitoring), this will at least add desperately needed greenspace to a neighbourhood starved of parks.
A development that doesn’t break things
For some time, our city planners have been encouraging us to trust them as they break the rules by making startling “Big Moves,” a term stolen from the City of Toronto. They say that for a great city we need to break the china.
To date, that breakage has left nothing more than jagged shards. It’s reassuring that some developers are willing to just sit down and pour a nice cup of tea.